An interior country or state that is surrounded by land. Without coasts, a landlocked state is at a disadvantage in a number of ways -- in terms of access to international trade routes, and in the scramble for possession of areas of the continental shelf and control of the exclusive economic zone beyond. De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 606.