I know, it sounds liek it might be a bit strange...
I'm thinking of the conference room (the one where Hugo Chavez jsut bitched out Bush) and having each country seated where they are during those meetings.
Continents could be arranged by allied countries in real life COntinenets woudl be either very small (so its a lot of continents which are easy to take) or very large (so no one really gets any continents since they'd all be hard to keep, i dont' liek this version)
impassible borders could be pacts pacts (symbolised by a pair of shaking hands maybe?)