A boundary permeability model applied to Israel, Egypt, and Gaza strip tri‐border area

This work presents a cross‐boundary interaction model designed to shed light on the wide variation observed in the transborder interaction practices among various countries in the world. To achieve this goal, four broadly defined conceptual factors are suggested. These factors are: (1) potential economic benefits, (2) national‐political considerations, (3) compatibility between leadership and popular desires, and (4) the nature of dispute between the bordering nations.

The first two factors, considered as the main ones, determines the axes of a utility function model. On this model the country's sensitivity to economic benefits are portrayed on the horizontal axis and the national‐political considerations (ranging from stringent to liberal) on the vertical one. As a result, the model generates a coordinate system wherein each country's cross‐boundary interaction policy can be positioned with respect to these two factors. The other two factors are considered as modifiers and they help to determine the country's final positioning. It is of note, that three factors are at the discretion of each country alone and only the one factor considers the reaction of the neighboring country.

The suggested model can be utilized to compare the positioning of any country at different points in time with respect to changing societal and political attitudes towards issues of cross‐boundary interaction. The model may help to understand how countries change their position from sealed boundaries, to dosed boundaries, to partially open, and to wide‐open boundaries. The model encapsulates the attitude of a country toward border policies vis‐a‐vis its neighbors and it may exhibit the attitude of different factions in society toward borderopenness questions. Precise positioning of various countries on the models' axes awaits quantification of the variables involved. Nevertheless, some of the main features of the model are demonstrated by its application to the Israel, Egypt, Gaza Strip tri‐border area.