You get to change five borders in the world. Exactly which borders do you change?

[Futurist]

You get to change five borders in the world. Exactly which borders do you change?

As for me:

1. The Malay-majority parts of Thailand either become independent or become annexed by Malaysia:



2. Israel withdraws from 95+% of the West Bank. Afterwards, an independent Palestinian state is created on all of the Gaza Strip and on 95+% of the West Bank along the lines of the Geneva Initiative:



Mutually acceptable land swaps between Israel and Palestine occur as a part of this peace deal.

3. An independent Kurdistan is created from the Kurdish-majority parts of Iraq, Syria, and maybe Iran and/or Turkey:



4. An independent Sunni Arab state is created from most or all of the Sunni-majority parts of Iraq and Syria:



This state can then either remain independent or choose to federalize with rump Iraq ("Shiitestan") in order to get access to the sea and a share of rump Iraq's large oil reserves.

5. Yemen is partitioned along religious lines but with the new Shiite-majority state having access to the sea:



Anyway, any thoughts on this?

[T. A. Gardner]

Here's my 5:

1. Canada becomes part of the US.
2. Mexico becomes part of the US.
3. North Korea reunites with S. Korea under a new S. Korean government. Kim Jong Un and his minions are tried for crimes against humanity.
4. The West Bank is absorbed by Israel and ceases to exist as a Palestinian area.
5. Gaza is absorbed by Egypt and ceases to be Palestinian.

The first two create a massive unified 75 state US that is the world's dominant economy.
Getting rid of North Korea? Who can argue with that?
Getting rid of the Palestinian areas and eliminating most of the terrorist activity that goes with it means one festering sore in the Middle East has been lanced and can begin to heal.

[Futurist]

Here's my 5:

1. Canada becomes part of the US.

Not a bad idea.

2. Mexico becomes part of the US.

Too many poor people--for the time being, at least.

3. North Korea reunites with S. Korea under a new S. Korean government. Kim Jong Un and his minions are tried for crimes against humanity.

I certainly don't mind putting Kim Jong Un and his minions on trial for crimes against humanity. However, a reunification of Korea at this point in time (2016) might unfortunately be extremely difficult due to the extreme economic and wealth gap between South Korea and North Korea.

4. The West Bank is absorbed by Israel and ceases to exist as a Palestinian area.

And where exactly would all of the Palestinians there go?

5. Gaza is absorbed by Egypt and ceases to be Palestinian.

By doing this, though, you might very well be setting the stage for a Palestinian insurgency against Egypt.

The first two create a massive unified 75 state US that is the world's dominant economy.

Good luck getting both the Canadians and the Mexicans to agree to this, though.

Getting rid of North Korea? Who can argue with that?

I could. After all, South Korea might currently (in 2016) be too poor to outright annex and develop all of North Korea.

Getting rid of the Palestinian areas and eliminating most of the terrorist activity that goes with it means one festering sore in the Middle East has been lanced and can begin to heal.

Where exactly would all of the Palestinians go, though?

[T. A. Gardner]

First, you put no limits on doing this.

As for the Palestinians. To quote Emperor Kuzko in The Emperor's New Groove "Don't know, don't care." The way I see the solution to this problem is Let them fight. Let them fight until they are so tired of fighting neither will ever fight the other again, or one side is exterminated / defeated / whatever. I know, that sounds harsh.
I think it's preferable to an endless war that breeds generation after generation of people who end up deprived of freedom (in the case of the Palestinians both by Israel and their own leaders), indoctrinated then seeped in hate, and who end up casualties of war. Finish it. Get it over with and end that. Future generations will be thankful they didn't suffer like their ancestors did.
Under Arafat's leadership the Palestinians tried a revolution against Jordan resulting in most of them being expelled into the West Bank. Similar problems still exist with them where they are in Lebanon. Gaza is run by terrorists who are more interested in killing a single Jew than trying to improve the life of a single Palestinian.
Sure, the Israelis are complicit in some of this problem too, but it's primarily a Palestinian one.
Egypt would be just as willing to crush the Palestinians as Israel in this scenario. They don't let those living in Gaza into Egypt except under very controlled conditions for the same reason Israel does: The Palestinians are known to be problem children.

Canada might not like being part of the US but it could happen, however remote. Mexico? Given that somewhere around 5 to 8 percent of their population lives in the US now and the whole illegal immigration thing, it'd be easier to take the country and build a wall across the roughly 300 miles of border with Belize and Guatemala.

A reunification of the Koreas, if it occurred, would require less than 50 years for the North to mostly recover. The growth and economic opportunities alone would massively increase North Korean productivity. It would be akin to the fall of the Iron Curtain and freeing of Eastern Europe. It's been about 40 years there and they've bounced back.