Frontex and the Rising of a New Border Control Culture in Europe


Book Description

This book examines the rapidly expanding EU agency's distinct role in EU border control, showing that Frontex is a prominent border control actor that reshapes the EU borders by promoting a new border control culture. Bringing culture into the analysis of Frontex, this book offers an alternative in-depth understanding of the agency's function, focusing on the production and diffusion of border control assumptions and practices within a border control community. Based on data drawn from primary research at Frontex and two EU external borders, namely Lampedusa and Evros, this book examines Frontex's contribution to the emergence of a new border control culture in Europe, replacing the pre-existing Schengen culture. Compared with the existing literature on Frontex, this novel account takes into consideration the evolving nature of borders and border control, discussing three contemporary challenges for the established border control regime: Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and hard security preoccupations, such as the fall-out from the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the weaponisation of migration at the Greek-Turkish land border. Frontex and the Rising of a New Border Control Culture in Europe will appeal to scholars and students of border management, EU studies, migration, geography, international relations, and security, along with policymakers and practitioners with an interest in EU border control and Frontex.




Frontex and the Rising of a New Border Control Culture in Europe


Book Description

This book examines the rapidly expanding EU agency’s distinct role in EU border control, showing that Frontex is a prominent border control actor that reshapes the EU borders by promoting a new border control culture. Bringing culture into the analysis of Frontex, this book offers an alternative in-depth understanding of the agency’s function, focusing on the production and diffusion of border control assumptions and practices within a border control community. Based on data drawn from primary research at Frontex and two EU external borders, namely Lampedusa and Evros, this book examines Frontex’s contribution to the emergence of a new border control culture in Europe, replacing the pre-existing Schengen culture. Compared with the existing literature on Frontex, this novel account takes into consideration the evolving nature of borders and border control, discussing three contemporary challenges for the established border control regime: Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and hard security preoccupations, such as the fall-out from the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the weaponisation of migration at the Greek-Turkish land border. Frontex and the Rising of a New Border Control Culture in Europe will appeal to scholars and students of border management, EU studies, migration, geography, international relations, and security, along with policymakers and practitioners with an interest in EU border control and Frontex.




Cross Border Security in the Southern African Region


Book Description

This book provides a sophisticated analysis of cross-border challenges and problems in the southern African region. It advances explanations that transcend the state-centric narrative that has nationalised cross-border security. It provides insights from non-state actors such as informal cross-border traders (ICBTs), informal cross-border transporters, undocumented migrants, and cross-border communities. It argues that security needs to be understood beyond a state-centric paradigm by focusing on the political, economic, environmental, and societal threats at macro, meso, and micro levels. The book suggests that at the core of cross-border security challenges in the Southern African region is a post-colonial governmentality. This drives the nationalisation of cross-border security as though it is the only security leading to nation-states, in turn depoliticising and invisibilising the security and livelihoods of ordinary people, even when nation-states claim to be protecting the same. The book will be a useful resource for students, scholars, and researchers of African Studies, Border Studies, Human Geography, Migration Studies, Development Studies, International Studies, International Relations, Political Science, and Security Studies.




The Empowerment of EU Agencies in EU Border Management


Book Description

This book examines the role of European Union (EU) agencies in the EU’s external border control policy, looking at how the empowerment of particular bodies has shaped the management of their external borders and influenced EU governance more broadly. Focusing on four key aspects of agency involvement – joint sea operations, information access, inter-agency cooperation, and international action – the book sheds light on the daily policy implementation and operational collaboration at the EU’s external borders and beyond. It finds that the agencies increasingly demonstrated the capacity to sway decision-making and implementation from within. This has led to a reduction in Member States’ policy autonomy, an increase in EU oversight over border management, and the institutionalisation of a common administrative capacity at the EU level, leading to a shift in the EU’s approach to border management towards integration. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of border management, migration studies and asylum, EU administration and agencies, and more broadly European studies, international relations, and public administration.




Superpower Europe


Book Description

The European Union is in a state of revolution. In response to new global realities from the climate crisis to the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine to the emerging cold war with China, the EU is transforming into a federal superpower in a new world order. In this timely intervention, Marc De Vos gets to the heart of the challenges facing the European Union as it undergoes this silent revolution. Charting its changing mission and identity from a European community into a geostrategic coalition of Eurasian countries; from a union of values into a union of power; and from a market project into a state project, he exposes what’s at stake for both the EU itself and its partners across the world. But retaining this new superpower status, he cautions, is not a given. The European Union’s de facto metamorphosis must mature into a democratic political structure or it risks a crisis of legitimacy that could ultimately threaten the stability of the European Union itself.




Displacement, Environments, and Photo-Politics in the Mediterranean


Book Description

Focusing on the Mediterranean region from 2015 onwards, this volume explores photography’s engagement with displacement, a process that denotes the environmental and social breakdown of places and the forced mobility of people. The ongoing proliferation of photography of the displaced plays a crucial role in shaping opinions, by sensitising the public to the despair of displacement and hardening them to the trope through repeated exposure. Through a range of images by both established and amateur photographers, as well as ethnographic notes that draw from interviews with actors who are either displaced or working with the displaced, Parvati Nair questions the extent to which photography opens a space of possibility for the displaced in the face of globally dominant ideological drives that lead to the Anthropocene. Chapters focus on key aspects of this mass phenomenon, such as the question of crises no longer as exception but as historical process, the lived experiences of protracted relegation to borders and exposure to possible death, the prevalence of domicide and the spread of encampments, and the question of hope for the future. The book will be of interest to scholars in photography theory, migration and refugee studies, art history, Mediterranean studies, and political science.




Borders and Border Regions in Europe


Book Description

Focussing European borders: The book provides insight into a variety of changes in the nature of borders in Europe and its neighborhood from various disciplinary perspectives. Special attention is paid to the history and contemporary dynamics at Polish and German borders. Of particular interest are the creation of Euroregions, mutual perceptions of Poles and Germans at the border, EU Regional Policy, media debates on the extension of the Schengen area. Analysis of cross-border mobility between Abkhazia and Georgia or the impact of Israel's »Security Fence« to Palestine on society complement the focus on Europe with a wider view.




Global humanitarianism and media culture


Book Description

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This collection interrogates the representation of humanitarian crisis, catastrophe and care. Contributors explore the refraction of humanitarian intervention from the mid-twentieth century to the present across a diverse range of media forms, including screen media (film, television and online video), newspapers, memoirs, music festivals and social media platforms (notably Facebook, YouTube and Flickr). Examining the historical, cultural and political contexts that have shaped the mediation of humanitarian relationships since the middle of the twentieth century, the book reveals significant synergies between the humanitarian enterprise – the endeavour to alleviate the suffering of particular groups – and its media representations, particularly in their modes of addressing and appealing to specific publics.







Europe in 12 Lessons


Book Description