Globalization, Security, Sustainability
Simon Dalby | trans. Adela Despujol Ruiz-Jiménez
With the new geological age known as the Anthropocene heralding dramatic disruptions in the earth system, geopolitics needs to be fundamentally reconsidered to deal with these new circumstances. Planetary boundaries and ecological change are now the key contextualization for considering future global political arrangements.
We now find ourselves in a new geological age: the Anthropocene. The climate is changing and species are disappearing at a rate not seen since Earth’s major extinctions. The rapid, large-scale changes caused by fossil-fuel powered globalization increasingly threaten societies in new, unforeseen ways. But most security policies continue to be built on notions that look backward to a time when geopolitical threats derived mainly from the rivalries of states with fixed boundaries. Instead, Anthropocene Geopolitics shows that security policy must look forward to quickly shape a sustainable world no longer dependent on fossil fuels.
A future of long-term peace and geopolitical security depends on keeping the earth in conditions roughly similar to those we have known throughout history. Minimizing disruptions that would further put civilization at risk of extinction urgently requires policies that reflect new Anthropocene “planetary boundaries.”
About the Author – Simon Dalby
Originally from Ireland, Simon Dalby is Professor Emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he teaches classes at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. He has been one of the key authors in the development of critical geopolitics, and his research interests include climate change and environmental security. In these fields, he has recently published works such as Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World (2024), Rethinking Environmental Security (2022), and Reframing Climate Change: Constructing Ecological Geopolitics (2016).
–
La elevación del nivel del mar, las alteraciones agrícolas, los incendios desmedidos, las sequías y las temperaturas extremas están cambiando las relaciones internacionales. Esto es geopolítico en el sentido de que las decisiones políticas sobre las modalidades de economía y las fuentes de energía están configurando las circunstancias futuras de la humanidad, reconvirtiendo partes sustanciales del geo. Las decisiones sobre si potenciar la capacidad para extraer combustibles fósiles frente a la mayor producción de placas solares, o si utilizar procedimientos para regenerar los bosques en vez de talarlos, ahora tienen consecuencias de una magnitud tan grande que están alterando el funcionamiento del Sistema Tierra. Este es el nuevo contexto de la geopolítica.
Geopolítica del Antropoceno sugiere que las nociones tradicionales de geopolítica, y la supuestamente inevitable rivalidad de las grandes potencias y sus ambiciones territoriales, tienen que trascenderse si se quiere lograr un mundo habitable para la mayoría de la humanidad en las próximas décadas. Para ello, el libro revisita debates centrales de la geopolítica sobre seguridad, soberanía, fronteras, territorio y poder teniendo en cuenta las actuales amenazas a la integridad ecológica. Al adoptar una perspectiva de la ecología política en una escala global, busca superar las ideas tradicionales de protección y seguridad medioambiental, invitándonos a repensar nuestra imaginación geopolítica para que la protección del planeta en el Antropoceno sea efectiva.
Sobre el Autor – Simon Dalby
De origen irlandés, es Profesor Emérito en Wilfrid Laurier University (Canadá), donde imparte clases en The Balsillie School of International Affairs. Ha sido uno de los autores clave en el desarrollo de la geopolítica crítica, y sus intereses de investigación incluyen el cambio climático y la seguridad medioambiental. En estos campos ha publicado recientemente obras como Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World (2024), Rethinking Environmental Security (2022), o Reframing Climate Change: Constructing Ecological Geopolitics (2016).
BIG_Review 6.1
The new issue of Borders in Globalization Review is published!
Guest editors Johanna Jaschik, Machteld Venken, and Birte Wassenberg bring time into border studies with this new collection, Border Temporalities in and Beyond Europe. This special issue features 12 research articles, a portfolio, poetry, policy work, and more!
Of course, space is well-trodden territory in border studies. But bordering happens in time as well. What are the tempos of life in borderlands? What are the marks and traces of borders across time? What is the enduring significance of human movement and exile throughout history? This innovative collection answers these questions from multiple academic and artistic perspectives.
Print editions are now available for purchase, and electronic copies are available for free online in Creative Commons open-access licensing. We hope you not only enjoy BIG_Review but share it as well!
If you are reading BIG_Review and work in a border organization, your policy research is of interest to us. Do contact us—this indeed is a call for papers! This opportunity has been made possible thanks to the support of the World Customs Organization and Korea Customs.
BIG Podcast #35 & #36 — Borders, Territorial Jurisdiction and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
featuring Cedric Ryngaert (Professor of Public International Law at Utrecht University, Netherlands)
What do state borders mean in a world where thousands of different jurisdictions overlap, serve multiple functions, and take multiple forms? The theme of this podcast explores the concept of jurisdiction in light of Border Studies, state territorial sovereignty and the normative power of the State which can extend beyond borders. There are several types of jurisdictions. Territorial jurisdiction refers to the power of a state to enforce its laws within its geographic boundaries, while extraterritorial jurisdiction refers to the ability of a state to extend its laws beyond its borders often due to particular links, such as actions having effects on its nationals or its interests abroad (and this extraterritorial jurisdiction also concerns other entities such as the EU, or even certain global private firms). This topic raises complex questions regarding sovereignty, human rights, international cooperation and the regulation of transnational activities. It allows us to better understand the variable function of legal limits of borders. The first part of the podcast mainly focuses on the notion of jurisdiction and jurisdiction of a territorial nature.
Listen to Part One – Episode #35 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!
Listen to Part Two – Episode #36 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!
BIG_Review 5.2
The new issue of Borders in Globalization Review is published! You’ll find cutting-edge research in border studies, extensive policy analyses, border artwork, film reviews, and book reviews. We hope you enjoy it!
Leading the issue are two innovative research articles. First, Berfin Nur Osso integrates critical analysis of European Union migration policy with artistic expressions of refugees and other migrants on the move, featuring their narratives and their paintings. Then, for our French readers, Abdoulaye Ngom presents a case study of a Senegalese family arranging for one of their sons to undertake a precarious journey to Europe, chronicling the complexity of the dilemmas and trajectories they face.
Our readership has expanded to include policy makers in various border management organizations, customs and immigration, and border regions world-wide. So in this issue’s policy section, you’ll find policy papers from South Africa, Italy, Zimbabwe, Moldova, and Australia that reflect this newly expanded scope. We are grateful for the important contributions of Jean Luc Erero, Paola Malaspina, Rwatida Mafurutu, Mihail Secu, and Jamie Ferrill and Allanah O’Hanlon. If you are reading BIG_Review and work in a border organization, your policy research is of interest to us. Do contact us—this indeed is a call for papers! This opportunity has been made possible thanks to the support of the World Customs Organization and Korea Customs.
The new issue is also rich with artwork engaging with the contradictions of borders. In the Chief Editor’s Choice Portfolio, featured on the cover, artist Laurent Reynès shares an innovative sculpture of border lines, conceptualizing the connections and hardships they engender. The work is the product of civil society collaboration with students from the University of Strasbourg, at the Center of Excellence’s 2023 Castle-talks on Narratives on Borders in Europe. In our poetry section, readers will find six poems grappling with borders, four poems by European poet Loris Ferri and two by Canadian Chad Norman. We then present a bold project of activism and artwork, the Navire Avenir, or, the Vessel of the Future, a campaign to conceptualize and actualize an appropriate life-saving response to the crisis of migrants lost at sea, brought to you by the Collectif du Navire Avenir.
Once again, our issue closes with two film and two book reviews. Sinem Arslan and Murat Çemrek recap recent cinema that dramatizes life struggles against closed borders in Turkey and Palestine respectively. Finally, Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly and Victor Konrad review recent academic publications in border studies.
Print editions are now available for purchase, and electronic copies are available for free online in Creative Commons open-access licensing. We hope you not only enjoy BIG_Review but share it as well!
#30 & 31 BIG Podcast – Democracy, Migration Studies, and Border Studies: Bridges and/or Gaps
featuring Oliver Schmidtke, UVic European Studies Scholar, Professor, and Director of the Centre for Global Studies
Classically, Migration Studies explore all mobility regimes of human groups. There is a spectrum of public policies ranging from the migration of high-skilled workers to refugees. For the Migration Studies, national borders provide a form of social closure. Traditionally, Borders refer to issues that are fundamental to political community (state sovereignty, territorial delimitation, national security, political identity). And for this reason, borders are also instruments for regulating flows, policy tool for inclusion/exclusion. Several authors have pointed out a form of gap between Border Studies and Migration Studies. That there was a lack of cross-fertilization between these two research traditions. And some populist and nationalist discourses can exploit the ambivalence of the borders and the confusion around it. In this episode, Oliver Schmidtke joins BIG_Lab to discuss all the relations between democracy, migration, and borders and get answers to some important questions.
Listen to Part One: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Listen to Part Two: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Oliver Schmidtke is a Professor in the Departments of Political Science and History at the University of Victoria where he also holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European History and Politics. He received his PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. He taught at the Humboldt University Berlin before joining UVic in 2000 and has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Bonn University, the European University Institute, and Hamburg University.
BIG_Review 5.1
Fall/Winter 2023/2024
The long-awaited and much anticipated new issue of Borders in Globalization Review is here! This outstanding collection of scholarship and artwork enriches border studies and cultural reflections on (and against) borders, and it is available for free, in open access CC-BY-NC (except where stipulated).
This issue of BIG_Review inauguates our new focus on Indigenous Internationalisms, with a Special Section: Honouring Indigenous Land and Water Defenders, edited by Jeff Ganohalidoh Corntassel and featuring original essays, interviews, poetry, and artworks by Indigenous contributors. The issue also presents a new Portfolio: Documenting Border Barriers, by Pamela Dodds, which starkly portrays the rise of international walls and fences around the world. In addition, we share a Special Section on the rebordering of Europe: Border Renaissance, edited by Astrid Fellner, Eva Nossem, and Christian Wille, featuring seven research articles and an introduction.
Herein and going forward, all Indigenous content in BIG_Review is marked by a decorative design by Métis artist and BIG Indigenous Coordinator, Braelynn Abercrombie. Braelynn’s artwork depicts salmon (as well as the sustainable practice of reef net fishing) and kwetlal or camas, which are vital to the food systems, sacred relationships, and the future health and well-being of Lekwungen, W̱SÁNEĆ and coastal Indigenous nations.
Read the latest issue here!
Cover art © Francis Dick.
#28 & #29 BIG Podcast – Hadrian’s Wall, Frontiers of the Roman Empire and Border Studies (Part One)
featuring archeologist David J. Breeze, British archaeologist and scholar of Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine’s Wall, and the Roman army
The history of the Roman Empire is intertwined with the control of the entire Mediterranean Sea and reached at its peak 5 million km² for 60 million inhabitants. The empire was heterogeneous and expanded through conquests and was maintained through a network of frontiers and a system of friendly, allies or “client” states (reges amicique populi Romani). Due to rebellions from some tribes as the Brigantes, and after having visited the Danube and Rhine frontiers, the Roman Emperor Hadrian (reigned 117–138) came to Britannia in July 122 BC. By ordering the construction of the Wall (between 122 – and maybe before according to certain authors – and 127 AD), Hadrian put an end to the territorial expansion of the Roman Empire. In short, Hadrian adopted a policy of protecting frontiers without expansion.
What functions did the borders of the Roman Empire have? What functions did Hadrian’s Wall have? Can the frontiers of the Roman Empire be considered strict separations between the civilized (Roman) world and the world of the barbarians (“qui barbaros Romanosque Divideret”)? How is archeology an interesting and relevant discipline for Border Studies? We will discuss all this and get answers with archeologist David J. Breeze.
Listen to #28 (Part One): Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Listen to #29 (Part Two): Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
David J. Breeze is an archaeologist, teacher, and scholar of Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine Wall, and the Roman army. He has been Chair of the International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies and President of several archaeological societies in the UK. He was Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Scotland from 1989 to 2005, and subsequently led the team which successfully nominated the Antonine Wall as a World Heritage Site in 2008. David has excavated on both Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall and written several books on these frontiers, on frontiers elsewhere in the Roman Empire and on the Roman army.
#26 and #27 BIG Podcast – “Nation State Model and Creative Solutions for Border Problems”
featuring Nick Megoran, Political Geographer at Newcastle University, England
The Nation-State model is built on the synchronization between a so-called state territory and a so-called national population. The mechanical imposition of this specific model has led to serious conflicts in certain parts of the world (we will discover the ancient situation of Denmark/Germany border and the current one of Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan border). There have been several ways of thinking and representing the construction of this nation-state with its constituent factors, its regime of political sovereignty and territorial boundaries: community of origin, community of language, community of interests and values, cultural homogenization, elective community, common history and territorial patriotism but also imagined community. What are the consequences of this model on the design of the country’s borders? How to organize borderlands while avoiding conflicts with neighbors? With Nick Megoran, this podcast (in 2 parts) is an opportunity to talk about several original practices such as condominiums, joint development zones, territorial leasing, enclaves, the exchange of territory, statutory autonomy, free and customs zones, mobile borders, decoupling of international borders from other functional or administrative limits, juridical and economic cross-border cooperation. So many illustrations that allow us to think differently about sovereignty and state borders. Sovereignty doesn’t have to be Zero-Sum. Borders don’t have to be Walls and Barriers.
Listen to #26 (Part One): Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Listen to #27 (Part Two): Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Nick Megoran is a Visiting Fellow working with the Borders in Globalization program and the Centre for Global Studies and Professor of Political Geography at Newcastle University. His work focuses on nationalism and border dynamics in the Danish-German and Uzbek-Kyrgyz borderlands, which he has been researching for three decades. He has authored numerous articles and books on this topic, including Nationalism in Central Asia: A Biography of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan Boundary (Pittsburgh 2017).
#23 BIG Podcast – “Villes et agglomérations transfrontalières: Enjeux et Défis”
featuring Bernard Reitel, Professeur de Géographie Politique et Urbaine à l’Université d’Artois, France
Parmi tous les milieux possibles à cheval sur les frontières internationales, les villes et agglomérations transfrontalières sont un cas d’étude très intéressant; elles sont des entités urbaines qui existent à travers les frontières, et de part et d’autre de ces frontières. Elles ont la frontière à la fois comme condition d’existence et comme défi à surmonter. Les villes et agglomérations transfrontalières viennent questionner l’objet des frontières et les frontières viennent aussi interroger la nature des villes et agglomérations frontalières et transfrontalières. Nous allons en connaitre davantage sur ces relations complexes et diverses avec le professeur et géographie Bernard Reitel.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube!
Bernard Reitel is a Professor of Political and Urban Geography at Artois University in France. He is a member of the French-Belgian consortium ‘Institut des Frontières et des Discontinuités’ and held a Jean Monnet Chair (2017–2020). His work lies at the intersection of urban geography and political geography, more precisely in the field of studies on urban development, governance and border studies. He is currently researching urban planning, territorial governance in border cities and cross-border agglomeration, and the resemantisation of urban public space by local public bodies in Western Europe.
#14 BIG Podcast – “Les frontières et la cohésion territoriale européenne”
featuring Jean Peyrony – Directeur général de la Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière
Les régions frontalières et transfrontalières sont au cœur de la construction européenne. La cohésion territoriale est l’un des objectifs de l’Union européenne : cette politique vise à réduire les écarts de niveaux de vie et de développement dans les régions de l’UE. La Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière est une agence française qui aide à la compréhension des enjeux des espaces transfrontaliers. Quelles sont les relations entre l’objectif de cohésion territoriale européenne et les frontières ? Quels sont les enjeux en termes de gouvernance transfrontalière ? Qu’est-ce qu’un bassin de vie transfrontalier ? De nombreuses questions sont posées et l’heure est à la réinvention de concepts et de méthodes pour des politiques publiques plus résilientes dans le contexte frontalier et transfrontalier. Une meilleure intégration transfrontalière est donc à l’ordre du jour. Eléments de réponse et de réflexion avec Jean Peyrony, directeur général de la MOT.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and the Podcast App!
