The following central issues should lie in the centre of the commission’s transdisciplinary work relating to the discussion on imperial borderlands:
Innovative view on empire and “borderlands”; critical assessment of traditional perspectives of “first” and “second”; highlighting a history of entanglement of imperial “borderlands”.
Military interventions of empire at its borderlands and its impact
Economic entanglement of borderland and empire
Social and personal entanglement of borderland and empire (military service, intermarriage, migration)
Political entanglement of borderland and empire (status of vassal, military service, taxes, tribute and “gifts”)
Borderlands and ideologies (perspective of borderland on empire; perspective of empire on borderland)
Borderlands and the establishment of transregional political structures (and impact of empire)
Borderland and the establishment of transregional identities (and the impact of empire)
Establishment of imperial identities (and its impact on borderlands)
Imperial engagement in borderlands and its repercussions on empire
Specific situation of borderlands between two competing empires
Specific situation of “open” borderlands
Borderlands and imperial resources (men, animals, commodities) and their relationship/exchange