system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[General sci-fi] In an interstellar setting (such as Star Wars) with various governments, how is the concept of borders between them handled and enforced in the vast emptiness of space?

To further expound upon the question: there's such a great distance between star systems. Would a government claim that x amount of light years surrounding their stat systems are their territory, like how earth nations claim territorial waters? Couldn't different territories overlap if the distance is great enough? It seems like the concept of borders would be very amorphous and hard to enforce.
gpt
No one's really interested in the empty space -- it's the stuff in it that wars are fought over.  Borders would reflect distances from places that had something of value, like air, water, habitable land, volatiles, solar radiation, etc.  This would include various bodies, like stars, planets, and planetoids.

The relevant distance would relate to the transport technology available and the ability of governments to patrol and enforce those borders.  Theoretically two nearby star systems might claim overlapping territory, but unless there was something worth fighting over in that area, it probably wouldn't amount to much.  Rival states may use the region as an excuse to provoke a conflict by staging "training exercises" and "live fire drills" there that draw their opponent into an open war.