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, while 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.