Borders, Fences and Walls: State of Insecurity?(Border Regions Series)

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the question remains `Do good fences still make good neighbours’? Since the Great Wall of China, the Antonine Wall, built in Scotland to support Hadrian's Wall, the Roman `Limes’ or the Danevirk fence, the `wall’ has been a constant in the protection of defined entities claiming sovereignty, East and West. But is the wall more than an historical relict for the management of borders? In recent years, the wall has been given renewed vigour in North America, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border, and in Israel-Palestine. But the success of these new walls in the development of friendly and orderly relations between nations (or indeed, within nations) remains unclear. What role does the wall play in the development of security and insecurity? Do walls contribute to a sense of insecurity as much as they assuage fears and create a sense of security for those 'behind the line'? Exactly what kind of security is associated with border walls? This book explores the issue of how the return of the border fences and walls as a political tool may be symptomatic of a new era in border studies and international relations. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this volume examines problems that include security issues ; the recurrence and/or decline of the wall; wall discourses ; legal approaches to the wall; the `wall industry’ and border technology, as well as their symbolism, role, objectives and efficiency.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction, Elisabeth Vallet. Part I Insecurity and Borders in Europe and North America: The Mediterranean Sea as a European border: trans-Mediterranean migration, forced return and violation of fundamental rights, Maria Chiara Locchi; The Canary Islands' `maritime wall’: migration pressure, security measures and economic crisis in the mid-Atlantic, Josefina Domínguez-Mujica, Ramón Díaz-Hernández and Juan Parreno-Castellano; A community of borders, borders of the community: the EU’s Integrated Border Management Strategy, Denis Duez; Border games: from duel to Russian Roulette at the border, Markus Heiskanen; Borders, bordered lands and borderlands: geographical states of insecurity between Canada and the United States and the impacts of security primacy, Victor Konrad. Part II Towards a Theory of Border Walls?: Walls and borders in a globalized world: the paradoxical revenge of territorialization, Jean-Jacques Roche; Border fences in the globalizing world: beyond traditional geopolitics and post-positivist approaches, Serghei Golunov; Is the wall soluble into international law?, Jean-Marc Sorel; Walls of money: securitization of border discourse and militarization of markets, Elisabeth Vallet and Charles-Philippe David. Part III Fenced Borders in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Walls and access to natural resources, Sabine Lavorel; Border fences as an anti-immigration device: a comparative view of American and Spanish policies, Said Saddiki; Walls, sensors and drones: technology and surveillance on the US-Mexico border, Rodrigo Nieto-Gomez; Technologies, practices and the reproduction of conflict: the impact of the West Bank barrier on peace building, Christine Leunberger; Towards a high-tech `limes’ on the edges of Europe? Managing the external borders of the European Union, Vincent Boulanin and Renaud Bellais; Towards the wall between Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Irasema Coronado; Border wall as architecture, Ronald Rael. Index.

About the Author :
Elisabeth Vallet is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography and scientific director of Geopolitics at the Raoul Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada.

Review :
'Contrary to what we have been told by the globalization theorists that the world has become deterritorialized and borderless, the past decade has seen an upsurge in the construction of new fences and walls as part of the inter-state borders within the international system. This is largely due to the sense of fear of the "outsider" in a post 9/11 world. Part of this is real, much of it is a social construction which enables governments to justify the establishment of new border fences as a means of keeping out the "alien" and controlling their own territory. The collection of chapters in this book highlights diverse aspects of the ways in which walls and fences function in a globalized world, covering regions as far apart as America and Spain, and from the West Bank to Africa. The book is to be recommended for all students of the renaissant discipline of border studies.' David Newman, Ben Gurion University, Israel and Editor, Geopolitics 'Notwithstanding all the post-Cold War "endist" illusions, the contemporary world political map is marked by a growing number of boundaries and walls. This book presents an important aid in the understanding of this far from painless process. This set of contributions edited by Elisabeth Vallet moves a step towards a theory of walled borders, introducing at the same time a wide array of different case studies.' Elena dell'Agnese, Universita di Milano-Bicocca, Italy 'With its rich collection of contributions, this volume illustrates the diversity amongst physical borders in different parts of the world. It is an important and very welcome addition to the border studies literature.' Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, University of Victoria, Canada