What question did this study set out to answer?

This article investigates how responses to terrorism in the EU create new bordering practices that challenge traditional inside/outside concepts.

April 1, 2008Open Access

Borderwork beyond Inside/Outside? Frontex, the Citizen–Detective and the War on Terror

Key Points

This article investigates how responses to terrorism in the EU create new bordering practices that challenge traditional inside/outside concepts.
Analyzes the surveillance activities of Frontex in Africa.
Examines the integration of European citizenship with EU counter-terrorism strategies post-9/11.
Introduces new border vocabularies to conceptualize emerging forms of borderwork.
Identifies evolving borders that complicate traditional notions of inside and outside.
Highlights the amalgamation of citizenship and surveillance in counter-terror efforts.
Argues for the necessity of new terminologies to describe contemporary border practices.

Abstract

Abstract The article begins by noting Etienne Balibar's insight that the borders of Europe may be vacillating but that they are changing and multiplying rather than simply disappearing. Drawing upon this insight, it seeks to investigate ways in which responses to the threat of terrorism in the EU have involved bordering practices that to some extent challenge commonsensical understandings of what and where the borders of Europe should be according to the conventional ‘inside/outside’ model. In this context, two cases are examined: the recent surveillance activities of the new EU border management agency Frontex in Africa; and the emergence of surveillance strategies arising from the linking of notions of European citizenship with EU-wide counter-terrorism initiatives following 9/11. It is argued that new border vocabularies are necessary in order for emerging forms of borderwork to be identified and interrogated in the context of the on-going ‘war on terror’.

Read Full Paperexternally

Mark Helpful

Bookmark

Relay

View Full Paper