15 Countries with the Most Militarized, Heavily Guarded and Secure Borders in the World

In the times of constant political turmoil in the world, let’s see what the current situation in the countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world is.

You probably already have some ideas in your mind about the most heavily militarized border in the world, since conflicted areas and foreign political issues appear on everyday news and social media. But let’s first see some interesting borders and facts. Well, among the most famous borders in the world you would probably find the US-Mexico border, which became a hot topic again lately since the issue of wall building across the border arose, but we will see more on this issue a bit later.

Then there are other borders interesting for their unusual features or locations. If we had to choose, among the top 10 borders in the world, Vatican City – Italy would probably be among the top of them. Since Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, the whole border with Italy which surrounds it is only about 2 miles long. Apart from having one of the most beautiful border entrances (a line painted on the street in front of the St. Peter’s square), it is interesting that all entrances are guarded by Swiss Guard, who are fairly recognized by their colorful uniforms.

If you are traveling around, your first choice would probably not be some of the countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world, but you might check the list of 15 Countries with the Strictest Customs, Border Control and Airport Security in the World.

Apart from borders themselves, there are certain regions in the world with constant military troop presence. One of the most militarized zones in the world today appears to be Kashmir. Even though being an autonomous state, the question of “ownership” of Jammu and Kashmir area of India has been going on since after the WW2 and it is still a burning issue between China, India, and Pakistan concerning territorial division. Since almost 30 years ago, when the question of ‘azadi,’ or independence of Kashmir arose, the area of Jammu and Kashmir has been under the continual presence of Indian military troops. Apart from being the highest militarized zone nowadays, Kashmir is also the world’s largest militarized zone with the longest pending issue going on in the world right now.

On the question of the most heavily guarded military bases, surely the US is possibly the number one country in the world. We are all familiar with the Area 51. Since it is the top-secret military base, it awakens the imagination, and many popular myths were created about it, along with movies and conspiracy theories about aliens and other mysteries.

Anyway, let’s get back to our question regarding the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world. For our research we have used resources like Quora, Swimming to Knowledge, Foreign Policy, World Atlas, just to note some. For many of the countries on our list, we did not aim to the whole border length, but to a part of those which are adjacent to conflict areas or tense political relations. Borders nowadays are militarized and heavy guarded because of different reasons. Some of them are conflicts (usually long lasting) with neighboring countries, but also some of the most heavily guarded borders are made as such in order to fight terrorist and other rebel and separatist groups. Finally, we ranked countries according to the number of their mentions in our sources, starting with those mentioned least.

Let’s now proceed to the list of the countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world.

15. China

China is one of the world’s largest economies which also leads to the conclusion that they also have one of the most updated weaponry. But lately, there have been armed conflicts with India on the borders as well as sending 150,000 troops to the North Korean Border earlier this year.

14. Colombia

The border between Colombia and Ecuador is very militarized, heavily guided and secure border. That is mostly because of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) separatist rebel group mostly connected with the drug trade.

13. Somalia

Even though being one of the least developed countries in the world, it seems that Somalia, the number 13 on our list of countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world does not give up on investing in securing and guarding their borders towards Kenya, especially on the issues of maritime borders which would clarify the ownership of gas and oil deposits in the Indian Ocean. Anyway, other issues, such as civil wars and anarchism make these borders one of the most militarized borders.

12. Russia

Although Russia borders many (of its former) countries, there are some areas which are more defended and militarized than others, of course.  Those are, for example, borders with North Korea, where troops were sent earlier this year after China did the same. Also small, but important moves on the border politics have been oriented towards Georgia and Ukraine.

11. Iraq

Apart from the borders with Iran, Iraq forces have recently planned to take over Kurdish region borders as the response to the Kurdish independence referendum. Standing on the Iraqi side, Turkish president Erdogan has decided to join forces with Iraq on the borders and close airspace towards Iraq.

10. Palestine

Up next on our list of countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world is Palestine, that is mostly surrounded by Israel, and never-ending conflicts between these two countries make Palestinian border towards Israel one of the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world. Palestine – Israeli borders are equipped with modern lasers and automatic guns, which make crossing it almost impossible.

9. Chad

We are continuing our list of countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world with Chad which has had tense relations on the border with Sudan which is heavily guarded and secure because of the previous conflicts between the two countries. But since recent years, the relations between Sudan and Chad have improved a lot which lead to joining military forces on the borders in order to stop rebels crossing borders, among other threats. On the other side, military troops are patrolling on the border with Niger (and joining forces with Nigerian military as well), since Boko Haram terrorist group is active in the region.

8. Afghanistan

The very dangerous and highly militarized part of Afghanistan borders is the line with Pakistan. It is a 1,600 miles long border, known as Durand Line. Durand Line was established back at the end of 19^th century by British diplomat and foreign secretary of Indian government Sir Mortimer Durand. The conflicts on the Duran Line are active today since neither side agrees about the precise borderline. Earlier this year there were also some clashes where both sides accused the opposite of civil and border soldier killings as well as destroying several border points.

7. Israel

As we have noted earlier, Israel does have nasty neighbors, concerning fights and conflicts around borders. But there is an interesting place on the Israeli border with Syria and Lebanon which is heavily defended. It is a ski resort on Mount Hermon. Israel now has control over the southern part, while Syria claims the northern part of the Mount Hermon, and the borderlines stay tense and heavily guarded.

6. India

India ranks 6th on our list of countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world. It shares borders with several countries, and some of those are being heavily guarded. Namely, apart from Kashmir, the most militarized zone as we have mentioned earlier, there is a tense situation on the borders too. Probably the most secure of those is the border with Pakistan (who also claims the right on Kashmir). From the Indian side, it is under constant presence of Border Security Force (BSF).

5. Sudan

Besides Halayeb Triangle and issues with Egypt, Sudan has well secured and heavily guarded borders on the southern part of the country – with Southern Sudan. After the long civil war in Sudan, the southern part of the country claimed independence in 2011, and conflicts have continued to occur between the countries, one of them being Heglig Crisis in 2012 – a short war conflict over the oil-rich area, where Sudan gained the victory.

4. USA

Of course, the well-known famous US-Mexico border, which is, apart from being probably one of the most famous, also the one of the most militarizes, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world. In order to have the better control over this huge (3,201 miles long) border, US has special patrol – United States Border Patrol (USBP) whose task is to prevent illegal border crossings as well as all other illegal actions (weapon smuggling, human trafficking, etc.).

3. Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia began building security barriers towards Yemen in order to stop al Qaeda, Yemeni rebels, and illegal immigrants crossing. On the other side, Saudi Arabia decided this year to open borders to Iraq, which were closed since 1990.

2. Pakistan

Even though being only bordered with four countries (India, China, Afghanistan, and Iran), there is much tension among great length of those making Pakistan one of the countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world. As we have seen earlier, there are unsolved issues with India and Afghanistan. On the third side, border fence with Iran is being replaced with a concrete wall, the so-called Pakistan – Iran Barrier.

And now, let’s see which is the most secure border in the world.

1. North Korea

Yes, you have probably guessed the country with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure border in the world – North Korea. Actually, the most heavily, most militarized North Korean border is with South Korea, the so-called Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). DMZ is a 2.5 miles wide and 160 miles long zone between the 2 countries established in 1953. Since then, the both South and North Korean, as well as US troops, are constantly present in the DMZ.

That wraps it up for this list of the countries with the most militarized, heavily guarded and secure borders in the world.