Comparing Border Security in North America and Europe
Publication Year: 2007
Published by: University of Ottawa Press
Series: Governance Series
The Westphalian state system developed from the establishment of sovereign powers within the confines of borderlines recognized by international agreements. During the construction of the modern state, the nationalist period resulted in the development of center-periphery...
This project was undertaken between the meeting of the Border Region in Transition network (BRIT), held in Jerusalem, Israel, in January 2005, and the annual meeting of the Association of Borderland Studies (ABS) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in April 2005. Having participated at...
Introduction: Borders, Borderlands, and Porosity
Border security has been high on public-policy agendas in Europe and North America since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the headquarters of the US military in Washington, DC. Governments are now confronted with managing secure borders, a policy objective that, in this era of increased...
Chapter 1. The Maritime Borders of Europe: Upstream Migratory Controls
Beginning in the 1990s, the member states of the European Union (EU) began to restrict the entrance of third-country migrants and, as a result, a greater number of asylum applicants began to resort to clandestine methods of immigration to enter the EU. The Mediterranean Sea, the...
Chapter 2. Whose Security? Dilemmas of US Border Security in the Arizona–Sonora Borderlands
Recent US government crackdowns on illicit crossings of the southern border with Mexico have helped to spawn a revolution in social networking among groups concerned with cross-border migration and national and human security. Current US border-security policy and practice have also helped to trigger crime waves associated with human...
Chapter 3. Border Acrobatics between the European Union and Africa: The Management of Sealed-off Permeability on the Borders of Ceuta and Melilla
Ceuta and Melilla, two North African territories under Spanish sovereignty, automatically became parts of the European Union (EU, then known as the European Communities, or EC) in 1986, when Spain joined it. Ceuta has a surface area of 19.48 square kilometres and a total perimeter 28 kilometres long, of which 8 kilometres constitute its...
Chapter 4. Fayuca Hormiga: The Cross-border Trade of Used Clothing between the United States and Mexico
Borders, regardless of their location, represent lucrative zones of exchange and trade, often illicit and clandestine. Along the US-Mexico border there is a lively trade taking second-hand clothing into Mexico through a complex system of smuggling, which is locally known...
Chapter 5. A New Northern Security Agenda
The Arctic has become a region of renewed and heightened geopolitical interest to decision-makers since the end of the Cold War. Despite the continuation of traditional security concerns within the region, attention has recently begun to shift from the military issues of strategic...
Chapter 6. From Iron Curtain to Paper Wall: The Influence of Border Regimes on Local and Regional Economies—The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Bazaars in the Lódz Region
The history of the Lodz region of Poland is closely tied to the development of the textile industry, and the region has even been labelled the "Polish Manchester" or "Textilopolis." Partly due to its location in central Europe, the Lodz textile industry has always been oriented toward the countries to the east of the Polish border. Its large bazaars, with their...
Chapter 7. The Economic Cost of Border Security: The Case of the Texas-Mexico Border and the US VISIT Program
Powerful forces of global economic integration, increasing crossborder trade and commerce, and recent acts of cross-border terrorism have renewed the interest of policy-makers and the public in the role of borders. In the United States, in response to the terrorist attacks....
Chapter 8. The Costs of Homeland Security
The US-Mexicoborderhasundergoneseveralhistorical transformations. Between 1848 and 1920 the border went through an era best characterized by informality: there were no border guards, no customs controls, and no checkpoints. This era is best referred to as a frontier system...
Chapter 9. Managing US–Mexico Transborder Cooperation on Local Security Issues and the Canadian Relationship
This chapter analyzes some concerns and challenges for US-Mexico cross-border cooperation on security issues, with particular emphasis on the experience of the San Diego-Tijuana region. The following three questions are discussed. Why is the Mexico-US border, particularly...
Chapter 10. Anti-terrorism in North America: Is There Convergence or Divergence in Canadian and US Legislative Responses to 9/11 and the US–Canada Border?
In early October 2005 members of the Minutemen Civil Defense [sic] Corps began patrolling the Canada-US border in Whatcom County, Washington State. Mirroring similar efforts on the borders of Arizona and California with Mexico in April 2005, they said that their mission was to ensure that illegal immigrants, drug smugglers, and terrorists...
Chapter 11. The Southern Border of Mexico in the Age of Globalization
At the beginning of the twenty-first century a renewed interest in the southern Mexican border can be observed. This interest is due, on one hand, to the rise of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation, or EZLN) and, on the other hand, to US President George W. Bush's concern for the security of his...
Chapter 12. Conclusion: Borders, Borderlands, and Security: European and North American Lessons and Public Policy Suggestions
Originally the editor and the authors of this book had three themes in mind: first, to discuss the relative importance of human agency on borders; second, to examine the porosity of borders; and third, to suggest new policy guidelines to governments and security agencies...
List of Contributors