Maybe I should know this since I am a geographer, but…
I know that the United States Geological Survey (USGS) is responsible for maintaining and updating accurate maps of the United States (the various 1:24,000 scale quadrants and the like). I’m pretty sure it falls under the Department of the Interior (if incorrect, someone please correct me - I’m working from memory only).
But - for example - if I’m a Canadian government official, and I have a complaint regarding the boundaries between the United States and Canada, who do I go to? The State Department? And would the State Department go to the Department of the Interior (and the USGS) to get the data/maps that depict the agreed upon boundaries?
Also, what about the boundaries for other countries? Is there a US and/or international organization that is responsible for keeping/maintaining political boundary agreements between countries and the maps depicting them as such?
Again - for example - I’m a Canadian government official and I want the Canadian government to formally recognize Palestine as a country. However, before Canada agrees to formally recognize Palestine as a country, it asks me to obtain information regarding the political boundaries of Palestine (That is, there’s confusion within the Canadian government regarding “real” boundaries of Palestine - Canada won’t formally recognize Palestine unless the boundaries have been established and agreed upon by the parties in question - principally, the PLO and Israel).
Where would I go to to get information regarding the agreed upon political boundaries for Palestine? The PLO? The Israeli State Department? The United Nations? Some international cartographic organization responsible for keeping such map data/agreements?
Any sources or websites would be greatly appreciated.
I believe that most international boundaries are set by treaty. If there is a dispute, the two countries try to hash it out between themselves or use one of two techniques: 1) binding arbitration or 2) going to war.
The treaties only describe the boundaries in general terms and don’t specify down to what you as a surveyor need to know. Try finding a copy of the Louisiana Purchase agreement or the Treaty of Guadlupe Hidalgo.
As for boundaries of other countries or boundaries of entities like the Palestinian authority, the US State Department maintains its own maps and that’s what the US government uses. These maps, which aren’t as detailed as USGS topo quad, can usually be found at libraries that are US government depositories.
I imagine that the CIA has fairly detailed maps, although they obviously had trouble distinguishing the difference between the Chinese embassy and a factory in Yugoslavia.
I have never heard of any single cartographic organization that describes borders and such. It would be a rather difficult organization to run and would be prone to lots of political bickering. I for one would not like to be the organization that declares the official borders of Yugoslavia or Iraq.