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International ConferenceIn Cooperation with the FP7 EUROBORDERSCAPES Consortium DECEMBER  7 – 11Be’er Sheva and Jerusalem, Israel Please see: www.bgu.ac.il\fp7  On behalf on the EUROBORDERSCAPES project coordinators, we would like to warmly welcome you to the International conference “BORDERS AT THE INTERFACE: BORDERING EUROPE, AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST” to be organized in Be’er Sheva and Jerusalem, Israel, on 7-11 December 2014.The local team at the Ben-GurionUniversity of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, has done an excellent job in organising the venues in Be’er Sheva as well as weathering the present difficulties relating to the overall political climate. We hope that many of you will be able to participate in this stimulating event.Our Tentative Itinerary is as follows:Dec 7-8: FP7      Workshop and Meetings                     Dec 8-9:      Conference Sessions, Ben-Gurion       UniversityDec 10: Field      Trip - Borders and Geopolitics in Israel      / PalestineDec 11: AM -      Field Trip - Borders, Territory and Conflict in JerusalemDec 11: PM -      Conference Sessions, Jerusalem. At present there are approximately 45 confirmed speakers in addition to a number of invited guest speakers around the conference topic.We still welcome few additional abstracts! If you are interested in submitting a paper, please send it to Renen Yeziersky at reneny@post.bgu.ac.il Abstracts must include name of author, title of lecture, institution, and email. They must not exceed 1 page in length, and should be directly related to the lecture topic.A small conference fee of $65 will cover the main organizational costs and conference dinner. The field trips will be covered by the conference organisers. Participants will cover their own travel and accommodation costs. We are grateful for the support of the Africa, the Middle East and the EuropeCenters at BGU, each of whom will sponsor keynote speakers in their relevant areas of expertise, enabling us to integrate thematic and regional perspectives on borders.During the Conference we will be holding the inaugural lecture of the new Professorial Chair in Geopolitics which has recently been established at the University. ThemeIn its geopolitical context, Israel is located at the interface of three major regions – Europe, Asia (the Middle East part of Asia) and Africa. The region itself is the interface of regions, cultures and the worlds great monotheistic religions, partly explaining the fact that it continues to be one of the world's geopolitical shatterbelts and the focus for ethnic, religious and territorial conflict. As well as being an interface, it is also a transition region, where cultures and peoples have mixed as they cross from one area to another. It is as much as cross-border region as it is a border, and this is reflected in culture, language and food.  Hybridity and meeting is reflected in notionsof  Eurasia and Mediteranean as alternative places for cultural mixing along with political conflict. In cooperation with the FP7 consortium on EUROBORDERSCAPES, the newly founded Geopolitics Chair at Ben-Gurion University, along with three dynamic research centers, the Herzog center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for the Study of European Politics and Society (CSEPS) and the Tamar Golan center for African Studies invite scholars with an interest in borders and in any one of the relevant regions to submit papers for an international workshop aimed focusing on the interface between the three regions. This will take place as part of the ever growing community of border scholars worldwide, ranging across the borders of the academic disciplines and examining the changing significances and functions of borders as they cross cultures. For any questions please contact Renen Yeziersky at reneny@post.bgu.ac.il &#160;&#160;&#160;