Politics, more practically, less philosophically, oratorically and rhetorically

Table 1: Personnel numbers for regular military and gendarmerie‐type forces in Western European countries, 1980–2010 Country Force Type 1980 1990 2000 2010 Austria Armed forces 50,300 42,500 35,500 34,900 Gendarmerie 11,000 11,794 15,751 Disbanded Belgium Armed forces 87,900 92,000 39,250 38,844 Gendarmerie 16,300 16,800 Disbanded Disbanded France Armed forces 494,730 461,250 294,430 238,591...

Lately I have not infrequently come across articles such as this one  ( here the original article), which emphasize, from the tones of the same it would seem almost unidirectionally and more out of pride than for any other reason, the strong affirmation of the borders of one's own nation, and I wanted to make some remarks on this topic with historical-anthropological implications, characterized by its ebbs, flows and reflections. Do borders save peoples and civilizations? Short answer: borders are not a necessary condition for saving peoples and civilizations, and one would have to strike a balance, moreover subjective, between advantages and disadvantages as appropriate. The existence of borders essentially depends upon whom or what, peoples and civilizations would be saved, based on the relations between neighboring countries, assessing whether one is the subject of a realistic threat of some kind to the other, such as war threat, invasive imposition of other's cultures, cus...