| Term | Definition |
| autonomous region | an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or has freedom from an external authority |
| shatter belt | an area of instability between regions with opposing political and cultural values |
| political power | power used to determine who will hold government office and how the government will behave |
| neo-colonialism | control by a powerful country of its former colonies (or other less developed countries) by economic pressures |
| nation | a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory. |
| choke point | a strategic, narrow waterway between two larger bodies of water |
| subsequent boundary | a boundary line that is established after the area in question has been settled and that considers the cultural characteristics of the bounded area |
| self-determination | Concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves |
| antecedent boundary | a boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and stayed in place while people moved in to occupy the surrounding area... |
| relic boundary | a former boundary line that is still discernible and marked by some cultural landscape features |
| multi-state nation | a nation or cultural group that is divided across two or more state borders |
| territoriality | the defense of a bounded physical space against encroachment by other individuals |
| state | An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government with control over its internal and foreign affairs. A country |
| independence movement | a movement that is trying to gain political independence for some area that it thinks should be its own country |
| political boundaries | lines that define the border of a country or state |
| sovereignty | Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states. |
| nation-state | A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality |
| geometric boundary | Political boundaries that are defined and delimited by straight lines. |
| stateless nation | A nationality that is not represented by a state. |
| multi-national state | State that contains two or more ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities. |
| semi-autonomous region | area where a group has some type of political autonomy. Semi-autonomous regions, like Kurdistan, has a degree of power and self-determination, but not fully like the autonomous regions of Russia in the North Caucasus region |
| consequent boundary | a boundary line that coincides with some cultural divide, such as religion or language |
| devolution | The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government. |
| superimposed boundary | a boundary that is imposed on the cultural landscape which ignores pre-existing cultural patterns (typically a colonial boundary)... |
