Africa is the continent most affected by desertification, and one of the most obvious natural borders on the landmass is the southern edge of the Sahara desert.
It's most obvious in the northern belt bordering Turkey, seeping south and east toward the Iraqi border, where many towns and villages have been pulverized by regime airstrikes and artillery, and where even colors seem to have died.
The most obvious comparison is across France's eastern border in Germany.
Border guards are the most obvious iteration of that, but the whole legal system is based on the same sort of logic of implied violence.
The signs of this impermanence are most obvious at the ends of the bayous, where the border between land and sea is changing so quickly that no one really bothers to keep track of it anymore.
The most obvious is that Sudan recently made peace with Chad, securing a border that used to be crawling with proxy forces and militiamen toting bazookas.
The most obvious explanation is the lovely back garden, a serene space bordered by beds of lavender and leafy heucheras, shaded by striped umbrellas and brightened at night by strings of amber lights.
Conflict is the most obvious threat, whether in Afghanistan, Jerusalem, Kosovo or around the Preah Vihear temple on the border of Cambodia and Thailand, where there have been three armed clashes since the temple was listed.
The most obvious candidate is Kazakhstan, whose president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, also in power since 1990, this week closed the border with Kirgizstan.
The most obvious fact of Osama's hideaway is that it was in a densely populated area, many miles from the Afghan border region that for years had been the focus of the hunt.
