the government or outside medical personnel) may assist in stopping the spread of the disease. Religious and cultural communities Some religious or ethnoreligious communities are considered closed. For example: The Amish are regarded as closed community; the Amish intentionally set themselves apart from the modern world. Since the 11th century, the Druze have been a closed community. Closed countries Examples of closed countries Japan (formerly) – under the Sakoku policy of the Edo period, Japan secluded itself from Western influences, controlling contract. North Korea - see also North Korean defectors. Often regarded as the world's most secretive state. Soviet Union - Soviet diplomat Anatoly Dobrynin wrote in his memoirs: "In the closed society of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin was afraid of emigration in general (irrespective of nationality or religion)" for fear of causing domestic instability. See also Refusenik "closed cities" — secretive, specially controlled zones that contained nuclear reactors and other sensitive facilities continue to exist in Russia today. Burma (Myanmar) - formerly a closed society and international pariah, Burma underwent political reforms beginning in 2011 that made its society more open. Eritrea - Human Rights Watch has described Eritrea as one of the world's most closed countries. Eritrea has a closed, militarized, and heavily fortified border with Ethiopia, its regional rival with which tensions are high. Further reading "Anatomy: World's Most Isolated Countries". World Policy Journal 30.1 (2013): 22–23. Reiff, Joseph T. Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi's Closed Society. Oxford University Press, 2016. Erler, Mary Carpenter. Reading and Writing during the Dissolution: Monks, Friars, and Nuns 1530–1558. Cambridge University Press, 2013. Kinkead, Gwen. Chinatown: A Portrait of a Closed Society. HarperCollins Publishers, 1992 Gibney, Mark. Open Borders? Closed Societies?: The Ethical and Political Issues. Greenwood, 1988. Nakhimovsky, Isaac. The Closed Commercial State: Perpetual Peace and Commercial Society from Rousseau to Fichte. Princeton University Press ,2011. Symbol and Meaning Beyond the Closed Community: Essays in Mesoamerican Ideas (ed. Gary H. Gossen: University Press of Colorado, 1986. Gontier, Thierry. "Open and Closed Societies: Voegelin as Reader of Bergson". Politics, Religion & Ideology 16.1 (2015): 23–38. Web. See also Gated community Capital controls Human capital flight References External links Vellend, Mark (23 May 2012). "Ecology The Community Concept". Oxford Bibliographies Online. Community building