Transnational interdependencies are exchange relationships that are organised across borders and that have an impact on local and national contexts. The term transnational encompasses many different forms of connections beyond the sole framework of the nation, such as international, supranational and global relationships. Once the idea of transnational interdependencies had been established in the field of international relations in the 1970s, transnational interdependencies became a preferred subject of social, cultural and historical studies and research from the 1990s. This was an expression of a new attention to processes of crossing political borders in the context of the increasing globalisation of the economy, society and culture. In this sense, interdependencies form not only in situations of contiguity of certain frameworks and contexts, but also as interdependencies between distant territories or units. From a certain density, interdependencies can form the basis for structures such as the 'empire' or the 'socialist community of states' (Sozialistische Staatengemeinschaft). Recent research has shown that not only economic interrelationships, but also social, cultural and educational interdependencies are crucially based on transnational interdependencies.