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Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel
*** Winner of the 2013 Julian Minghi Outstanding Research Award presented at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting ***
Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, why are leading democracies like the United States, India, and Israel building massive walls and fences on their borders? Despite predictions of a borderless world through globalization, these three countries alone have built an astonishing total of 5,700 kilometers of security barriers. In this groundbreaking work, Reece Jones analyzes how these controversial border security projects were justified in their respective countries, what consequences these physical barriers have on the lives of those living in these newly securitized spaces, and what long-term effects the hardening of political borders will have in these societies and globally.
Border Walls is a bold, important intervention that demonstrates that the exclusion and violence necessary to secure the borders of the modern state often undermine the very ideals of freedom and democracy the barriers are meant to protect.
Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, why are leading democracies like the United States, India, and Israel building massive walls and fences on their borders? Despite predictions of a borderless world through globalization, these three countries alone have built an astonishing total of 5,700 kilometers of security barriers. In this groundbreaking work, Reece Jones analyzes how these controversial border security projects were justified in their respective countries, what consequences these physical barriers have on the lives of those living in these newly securitized spaces, and what long-term effects the hardening of political borders will have in these societies and globally.
Border Walls is a bold, important intervention that demonstrates that the exclusion and violence necessary to secure the borders of the modern state often undermine the very ideals of freedom and democracy the barriers are meant to protect.
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 2012
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About the author
Reece Jones
11 books67 followersReece Jones is the author of five books: Nobody is Protected, White Borders, Violent Borders, Border Walls, and the forthcoming Smuggler with Greg Boos. He is a professor of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai'i, editor-in-chief of the journal Geopolitics, and a Guggenheim Fellow.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 24, 2013
This book was far more theoretical than I'd hoped. If you're looking for a fact-full account of the proliferation of border barriers around the world in recent years, as I was, this is not it. On the other hand, if you're looking for a critical account of this phenomenon's causes, justifications and implications in the US, India, and Israel, then this is just the right book for you. Definitely interesting.
October 14, 2024
Jones is concise and makes a pleasant read out of an unpleasant subject. Unnerving to see the global impact that the US's War on Terror has had on border discourse.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews