Identities, Borderscapes, Orders: (In)Security, (Im)Mobility and Crisis in the EU and Ukraine(Frontiers in International Relations)

This book provides a pre-history of Russia's war on Ukraine and Europe’s relations to it, illuminating the deep roots of the EU’s neighbourhood crisis as well as the migration crises the Union created in the last decade. To do so, the book employs a new and innovative framework that allows for a comprehensive, yet nuanced analysis of borders and a more cogent interpretation of their socio-political consequences. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship the book analytically examines the key common elements of borderscapes and links them in related arrays to allow for nuanced evaluation of both their particular and cumulative effects, as well as interpretation of their overall consequences, particularly for issues of identities and orders. The book offers a significant conceptual and theoretical advance, providing a transferable conceptualization of borderscapes to guide research, analysis, and interpretation. Drawing on the author’s experience in policy, practice and academia, it also makes a methodological contribution by pushing the boundaries of reflexivity in interpretive International Relations (IR) research.  Analyzing three main sites in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the book challenges conventional critical wisdom on EU bordering in the Schengen zone, at its external frontiers, and in its Eastern neighborhood. In so doing, it sheds new light on the politics of post-communist transitions as well as the contemporary politics of CEE. It also shows how EU bordering and its relations to identities and orders created great benefits for many Europeans, but also hindered the lives of many others and became self-defeating. This book is a must-read for scholars, students, and policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of Critical Border Studies (CBS) in particular, and International Relations in general. It will also appeal to anyone interested in CEE or wishing to get a deeper understanding of Russia’s warand the fight for Europe’s future.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction: Identities, Borders and Orders in Central & Eastern Europe.- Chapter 2. Conceptualising the Borderscape.- Chapter 3. Interpretively Researching the CEE Borderscape.- Chapter 4. A Diverse Archipelago: Borderscape Features.- Chapter 5. Euro-renovations: Borderscape Discourses.- Chapter 6. Limiting Europe: Borderscape Practices.- Chapter 7. Conclusion A Moveable East and the EU’s Unfulfilled Potential.- Chapter 8. Epilogue:  Europe Through the Prism of Russia’s War on Ukraine.

About the Author :
Dr ​Benjamin Tallis joined the German Council on Foreign Relations in September 2022. He is a research fellow and runs the project “Action Group Zeitenwende” on the transformation of Germany’s security and foreign policy. He previously worked for the EU on security missions in Ukraine and the Balkans and was policy officer at the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management in Berlin. Tallis spent five years at the Institute of International Relations (IIR) Prague where he headed the Centre for European Security, advised numerous European governments, edited the journal New Perspectives, and created the 2017 Prague Insecurity Conference. He worked at the Hertie School in Berlin and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH). At the latter, he advised the German government on the future of European security and curated the 2019 Hamburg Insecurity Sessions. He contributed to the 2016 EU Global Strategy and advised on visa liberalization for Ukraine in 2017. Tallis holds a doctorate from the University of Manchester, regularly appears in the media, and has been published in Foreign Policy, Politico, The Independent, and in leading academic journals including International Studies Quarterly, Security Dialogue, and Cooperation and Conflict. From 2015-2018 he served on the governing council of the European International Studies Association (EISA). 

Review :
“Bridging the gap between Critical Border Studies (CBS) and international relations, this book is a welcome addition to the scholarship … . The book will also appeal to anyone interested in deepening their understanding of how borders are intricately intertwined with socio-political changes within CEE and the region more broadly.” (Sandra Hagelin, Europe-Asia Studie, December 7, 2023)