Global Borderlands
A national border regime is often described as a ‘fortress.’ It is thus associated with the mythical image of a monolith: an organized whole that acts as a single, unified, unchanging force. Such an image obscures inconsistencies and contradictions. And it distracts from the workings of a border regime whose ‘order’ derives from global interdependencies. In such an ‘order,’ ‘national values’ remain ambiguous and under-defined, upheld or neglected depending on strategic priorities. Meanwhile national, supranational, and international border policies are flexibly adapted according to traditional or situational geo-economic and geopolitical interests and alliances. Those who are not supposed to be part of ‘us’ can thus be formed as ‘undesireable’ in ever new ways and subjected to state violence.