Liminal ecotones in Eurasian and Afro-Asian geopolitics: spatial inserts between order-maintenance and power-projection

We propose “liminal ecotones” to study endogenous change in the Westphalian sovereign model by coupling liminality’s reversible thresholds with the ecotone’s edge-effects and filtering. We operationalize this through A–V–E–R: Anchor (system-serving conflict de-escalation), Vector (alternative-order projection articulated within host law), Edge-effects (intensified exchanges with selective filtering), and Reversibility (incomplete contracting that splits use- from residual-control rights). The heuristic renders transgression admissible, showing sovereignty as allocative, uneven, and elastic rather than binary. We apply it to three heterogeneous inserts: China’s base in Djibouti tests military-logistical projection; the proposed Zangezur corridor tests infrastructural-connectivity and pan-Turkic de-escalation-through-trade; and Palestinian diplomatic representation tests recognition-seeking under incomplete sovereignty. Each enters through a public-goods anchor while projecting an alternative political order. Together they show that structural change need not be exogenous or macro-level: bounded, selectively-permeable sites accelerate power, trade, and recognition from within while remaining reversible.