Reunification of Partitioned Nation-States: Theory Versus Reality in Vietnam and Germany

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Abstract
The absorption of the former German Democratic Republic into the German Federal Republic has drawn attention to the process of reunification of states partitioned as a result of the Cold War. While German reunification has already attracted political geographic study, no comparative analysis of the reunification process has yet been made. This study represents an initial attempt to point the way to a clearer understanding of the reunification process in formerly partitioned states by a comparative analysis in testing generalizations about the process. Three hypotheses are applied to two Cold War cases of partitioned nation-state reunification—Vietnam (1975-76) and Germany (1990). A winners-and-losers hypothesis addresses the fate of societal elites resulting from unification. A persistent-dissimilarities hypothesis contends that political, economic, and social differences and inequities will persist and cause stress between the two segments of the unifying societies. Finally, a borderlands-to-centrality hypothesis suggests that formerly peripheralized borderlands along the former partition line tend to become centers of circulation with the advent of reunification. The conclusion speculates on the applicability of these hypotheses to the possible future case of Korea.

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