Border militarisation and the re‐articulation of sovereignty

Abstract

This paper identifies a global trend towards hardened, militarised borders through the use of military technologies, hardware and personnel. In contrast to claims of waning state sovereignty, drawing on detailed case studies from the United States and European Union, we argue the militarisation of borders represents a re-articulation and expansion of state sovereignty into new spaces and arenas. We argue that the nexus of military-security contractors, dramatically increased security budgets, and the discourse of threats from terrorism and immigration is resulting in a profound shift in border security. The construction of barriers, deployment of more personnel and the investment in a wide range of military and security technologies from drones to smart border technologies that attempt to monitor, identify and prevent unauthorised movements are emblematic of this shift. We link this increasing militarisation to dehumanisation of migrant others and to the increasing mortality in border spaces. By documenting this trend and identifying a range of different practices that are included under the rubric of militarisation, this paper is both a call for nuanced interpretation and more sustained investigation of the expansion of the military into the policing of borders.

The Changing Spatiality of the “European Refugee/Migrant Crisis”

“…Among them different aspects of the Common European Asylum Policy (especially the Dublin III Regulation and readmission agreements), important differences in the implementation of the common asylum policy (despite the efforts to harmonize the asylum procedures and the rights of asylum seekers) and above all the growing trend in securitization, militarization and externalization of the EU migration and asylum policy, have to be acknowledged (see Allen et al, 2017;Beznec, Speer and Stojić Mitrović, 2016;Ibrahim, 2005;Jones and Johnson, 2016). All the above-mentioned factors indicate that the spatial dispersion of the asylum applicants is therefore the result of circumstance, not of planned actions.…”

“…The "European refugee/migrant crisis" has demonstrated the limits of a "Europe without borders". The restoration of internal border controls and the growing securitization and militarization of borders (see Jones and Johnson, 2016) has had a tremendous effect on the permeability of national borders, especially for third-country nationals. The idea of a "borderless Europe" also neglects the fact that the removal of border controls leads to the increase of internal control mechanisms (e.g., police activities at railway stations, airports, highways and city centers) across the national territories of the individual member countries (Kunz and Leinonen, 2007).…”

Sanctuary Inter/rupted : Borders, illegalization, and unbelonging

“…Furthermore, this paper is written from a place of urgency. States are increasingly intensifying securitization and militarization of borders (Jones and Johnson ; Bauder ; Jones et al ) and this is no less true at the Canada‐US border (Gilbert , 210). Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, there has also been an expanded definition of what “counts as criminal activity” (Paik , 4) through which migrants have been criminalized.…”

The ethics of border guarding: a first exploration and a research agenda for the future

“…While sketching what border guarding ethics entails, we will regularly juxtapose it against the moral education most Western military personnel receive -not only because of the professional affiliation of the authors of this paper, but also because (semi-)military organizations such as the French Gendarmerie Nationale, the Spanish Guardia Civil and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee are increasingly tasked with border guarding duties. In fact, some see a militarization of border guarding (Pevnick, 2011, p. 2;Jones and Johnson, 2016), while also immigration itself is now and then described using bellicose terms such as 'invasion' or 'threat' (see for instance Pevnick, 2011, p. 3).…”