The Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration Controls in North America and Europe - Paperback

by Maria-Elena Alcaraz (Contribution by), Malcolm Anderson (Contribution by), Peter Andreas (Contribution by)

Even as economic and military walls have come down in the post-Cold War era, states have rapidly built new barriers to prevent a perceived invasion of 'undesirables.' Nowhere is this more dramatically evident than along the geographic fault lines dividing rich from poor countries: especially the southern border of the United States, and the southern and eastern borders of the European Union. This volume examines the practice, politics, and consequences of building these new walls in North America and Europe. At the same time, it challenges dominant accounts of globalization, in which state borders will be irrelevant to the human experience. In short, the volume brings borders back in to the study of international politics.

Author Biography

Peter Andreas is assistant professor of political science at Reed College. He was formerly an academy scholar at Harvard University. Timothy Snyder is an academy scholar at Harvard University.