Border politics in a global era: comparative perspectives

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. will also stimulate attention in comparative politics, international studies, and political geography.

Part I. Conceptual framework and historical backgrounds -- Geography, maps, and the "other" in history -- Global inequalities and local borderlands : laying the conceptual foundations -- Part II. Regional case studies -- The Americas : an interdependent US-Mexico borderlands -- From borderlessness to the scars of partition in postcolonial South Asia -- European integration (under threat) : mobility in a superstructure -- Maritime and riverine borders -- Part III. Public policy issues -- Securities : environment, safety, and survival -- Citizenship, migration, and people's movement across borders -- Freer and fairer trade in borderlands -- Part IV. Bridging the borderlands -- Borderlands in films -- Toward solutions in policy change, institutions, and democracy : global to borderlands -- Conclusions: Answering questions, asking more while advancing border theories -- Postscript -- Appendix A: The value of US exports to Mexico and the number of US jobs that rely on trade with Mexico, 2012 (by state).