Checkpoints are among the most visible features of armed conflict – yet their relationship to the transport networks that give them strategic value has rarely been examined in a systematic way.
This new working paper by Olivier Walther introduces a relational approach that treats checkpoints not as isolated control points, but as nodes embedded in road systems whose structural position shapes both the frequency and the dynamics of violence around them.
This paper forms part of a series of working papers presenting case studies from TRACE (Trade, Rents, and Authority in borderland Checkpoint Economies) project, and was first published on the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) website.