The Cosmopolitanization of the EU's Borders?

Abstract

The political geography of Europe has, for centuries, been based around the borders of its nation-states. The ability of the nation-state to control its territory and police its borders has been essential to the practices of war and diplomacy, the legitimacy of governments, immigration policies and trade. But processes of globalization and European Union (EU) integration have transformed the borders of Europe and the nation-states within it. While globalization theorists tend to posit an opening up of borders to global flows of capital, information and people, the changed nature of the border is itself often left unexamined and it is assumed that borders have simply disappeared. Some scholars and activists, however, are now arguing that, rather than fading away, borders are proliferating in the globalized world and their functions spreading into many different areas of society. This article examines the transformation of the ‘classical’ border of the nation-state into a number of new forms, using the work of theorists such as Balibar (2004a, 2004b), Mezzadra (2004), Rigo (2005) and Walters (2004). It then examines how these theories have been applied in recent literature, and in particular Chris Rumford’s (2006) analysis of the European Neighbourhood policy and his argument that this represents a ‘cosmopolitanization’ of European borders.