Border Politics in a Global Era: Comparative Perspectives

Description

Initially, research in border studies relied mainly on generalizations from cases in the US-Mexico borderlands before subsequently burgeoning in Europe. Border Politics in a Global Era seeks to expand the study further to include the post-colonial South in response to the major challenge of interdisciplinary border studies: to explore borderlands in many contexts, with and across a variety of states, including the so-called developing, post-colonial states. Culled from decades of firsthand observations of borders from around the world and written with a critical and gender lens, the text is framed with attention to history, geography, and the power of films and travelogues to represent people as "others." Professor Kathleen Staudt advances border concepts, categories, and theories to focus on trade, migration, and security highlighting the importance of states, their length of time since independence, and border bureaucrats' discretionary practices. Drawing on her Border Inequalities Database for a global perspective, Staudt calls for reducing inequalities and building institutions in the common grounds of borderlands. The book features maps and other visuals with lists of links at the close of most chapters. Broadly comparative in nature, Border Politics in a Global Era will appeal not only to students of border studies; it will also stimulate attention in comparative politics, international studies, and political geography. Dedication Brief Contents Contents Part I: Conceptual Framework and Historical Backgrounds 1 Introduction 2 Geography, Maps, and the “Other” in History 3 Global Inequalities and Local Borderlands: Conceptual Foundations Part II: Regional Case Studies 4 The Americas: Interdependent US-Mexico Borderlands 5 From Borderlessness to Partition Scars and Border Fences: Postcolonial South Asia 6 European Integration (Under Threat): Mobility in a Superstructure 7 Maritime and River Borders Part III: Public Policy Issues 8 Securities: Environmental, Safety, and Survival 9 Citizenship, Migration, and the Movement of People Across Borders 10 Freer and Fairer Trade in Borderlands Part IV: Bridging the Borderlands 11 Borderlands in Films 12 Toward Solutions: NGOs and Policy Change, Global to Regional 13 Conclusions and Reflections on Border Politics in a Global Era Postscript Appendix: The Value of US Exports to Mexico and the Number of US Jobs That Rely on Trade with Mexico, 2012 (by State) Bibliography Index