This excerpt explores a variety of borders from around the world. These case studies provide examples of border relations ranging from hostile to cooperative and illustrate the types of issues — including political and ethnic tension, labor and immigration, and cooperation in the realms of environmentalism, transportation, health, and trade — that can either plague a region or make it prosper.
The spreading concern for national security has galvanized a renewed focus on border issues around the world, further sharpening autonomous and protective tendencies. Territorial disputes, contentious borders, and terrorist activities play considerable roles in the effort to secure (and oftentimes seal) international borders. Fortresslike walls are being discussed — and in some cases erected — as nations across the planet parlay with their neighbors in the post-9/11 global political climate.
Although hostility and distrust often plagues many bordering countries' relations, some international neighbors have fostered relationships characterized by cooperation and innovative approaches toward mutual development. Cross-border transportation, binational environmental accords, and regional approaches to addressing health issues are just a few examples of the ways in which some nations have worked together despite the geopolitical boundaries that divide them. Such mutually beneficial relationships can serve as models for the rest of the world in a global climate often marked by apprehension and fear.
The Borders:North Korea and South Korea »
Hyperborder: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and its Future by Fernando Romero is excerpted with permission from Princeton Architectural Press.
North Korea and South Korea: The World's Most Fortified Border
The most fortified border in the world is that which divides North Korea, one of the last communist states, from the democratic Republic of South Korea. After World War II, when Japan ceased to rule over the unified nation of Korea, the country was divided at the 38th parallel by the Cold War enemies and world superpowers of that time, the U.S.S.R. and the United States. North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1950, the fighting ended in a cease-fire in 1953, which also marked the closing of the border and the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) — a 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) buffer zone peppered with land mines, dividing the two countries — which former President Clinton described in 2003 as "the scariest place on earth."1 The DMZ is split along the middle by the Military Demarcation Line, an ultimate barrier that if crossed would revive the war. Today some two million troops continue to patrol both sides of the 151-mile (248 km) DMZ on the perpetual brink of war, as North Korea continues its much contested nuclear weapons program while South Korean and U.S. armed forces remain alert little more than two miles away.
Next Border:Israel and Palestinian Territories »
Footnotes:
1. Joe Havely, "Korea's DMZ: 'Scariest Place on Earth,'" CNN, Aug. 28, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/22/koreas.dmz/index.html?_s=PM:asiapcf
Israel and Palestinian Territories: An Ethnic Divide
Palestine and Israel share a history plagued with hostility and conflict. During the nineteenth century, many European Jews emigrated to Palestine under the influence of a Zionist movement that called for a homeland for Jews in Israel. This exodus continued in full force during the first half of the twentieth century in the face of World War II and the Holocaust. From the start, the arrival of the Jewish people in Palestine caused strife. The native Palestinians were often displaced due to land purchases made by the immigrants, and tensions increased because Islam and Judaism historically share the same Holy Land. In 1948, after World War II ended, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, thus establishing the State of Israel. The partition also demarcated Jerusalem as an international zone, where neither Jewish nor Arab authority would exist, in an attempt to avoid further religious conflicts. The plan failed, however, as Israel's Arab neighbors were vehemently opposed to surrendering the land. After a period of ever-increasing tension the Six Day War broke out in 1967, resulting in Israel's seizing control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights — areas heavily populated with Palestinians. The resulting "occupation," as it is perceived by the Palestinians, has been a continuing source of contention and bitter hostility. The decades since the war have been punctuated by suicide bombings committed by radical Palestinians, and the Israeli government's subsequent retaliations.
One such retaliation is the extremely controversial "security fence" that Israel began erecting in 2002 to separate it from the predominantly Palestinian West Bank. The stated purpose of the security fence is to keep Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers out of Israel, although critics say the fence unfairly annexes Palestinian territories into Israel, further exacerbating the land dispute in the West Bank.2 The security barrier, which is already 170 miles long and is planned to stretch to 440 miles when finished, is a prisonlike fence complete with sensors, watchtowers, sniper posts, and barbed wire. Palestinians who wish to cross it must obtain permits from the Israeli government. Many of the permit solicitors — including some who have homes, jobs, or family within the fence's boundaries — have been rejected, resulting in further unrest. The wall was deemed a violation of international law by the International Court of Justice in an advisory opinion in 2004, but the opinion was rejected by the Israeli government in September of 2005.3 Today the construction of the controversial barrier continues.
Next Border:Morocco and Spain »
Morocco and Spain: Contrasting Demographics at the Door Between Africa and Europe
The case of Morocco and Spain as bordering nations is unique. Despite the obstacle the Strait of Gibraltar presents as a dividing mass of water between the two countries — and subsequently the two continents of Europe and Africa — illegal immigration has risen exponentially in the last twenty years. Today, Morocco is often described as being to Europe what Mexico is to the United States. As less-developed countries, Morocco and Mexico both lack viable opportunities for their citizens but geographically have relatively easy access to the wealthier, cheap labor-hungry nations of the European Union and the United States, respectively. Perhaps more so than Mexico, Morocco also serves as a "transit migration country": in recent decades it has become one of the primary staging areas for North African and increasingly sub-Saharan African immigrants en route to Europe.4 It is no surprise that Spain currently has the highest immigration rate in the European Union.
Migrants from Africa arrive to La Tejita Beach, a popular tourist destination in Spain.
In the midst of the heated debate surrounding soaring illegal immigration rates in Spain and throughout Western Europe, the region is currently facing drastic shifts in demographics due to low fertility rates and longer life expectancy. Europe's population is expected to age dramatically in the coming decades: by the year 2030 there will be one elderly person (over the age of 65) for every two people of productive, working age.5 Today the median age in the continent is 37.7 years; by 2050 it will rise to 52.3.6 At the end of the twentieth century, Spain's fertility rate ranked among the lowest in the EU at 1.2 children per woman.7 What these demographic shifts imply are a shrinking labor force, eventual economic stagnation, and a steadily growing elderly population in need of government aid, which will become increasingly unavailable if gaps in the labor force are not filled. In contrast, Morocco and the rest of the African nations have populations that are much younger. This demographic distinction, paired with the willingness (or necessity) of many Africans to migrate north in search of opportunity, could serve to fill the vacancies expected to surface in the European labor forces.
Next Border:The United States and Canada »
Footnotes:4. Hein De Haas, "Morocco: From Emigration Country to Africa's Migration Passage to Europe," Migration Information Source, Oct. 2005, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
5. "Demographic Time-Bomb Ticking Under Europe," Management Issues News: At the Heart of the Changing Work-place (Mar. 18, 2005), http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/85332-7055.asp (accessed Sept. 6, 2006, link no longer available).
6. Richard Bernstein, "The Aging Europe May Find Itself on the Sidelines,"New York Times, June 29, 2003.
7. Clean Clothes Campaign, "Working Conditions in Morocco," May 2003 Report, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The United States and Canada: Transboundary Environmental Cooperation
The United States and Canada — partners in the world's largest trading relationship — work to maintain a secure and efficient border that is conducive to mutual economic growth and prosperity.8 More than $1.2 billion in goods and services cross the border on a daily basis, and while this activity is beneficial to both economies, it has been historically taxing on the regional environment. Both countries have been committed to cooperating on environmental policies since the 1980s, and in response to increased degradation the two governments signed the Air Quality Agreement (AQA) in 1991, which required both the us and Canada to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions — contributing toxins to acid rain. In 2000, after the noticeable reduction of acid rain over the previous decade, the nations amended the AQA to include an Ozone Annex, the aim of which was to address ground-level ozone, a significant component of smog. The most recent biennial report of the AQA's progress shows that transboundary smog emissions have decreased since the implementation of the Ozone Annex, a success that encouraged the neighbors to sign the Border Air Quality Strategy in 2003, which builds further upon previous pacts made under the AQA, with a primary focus on pilot projects along the border that have launched coordinated efforts for air quality management and examinations of air pollution's effects on human health.
The area in dark gray is "Cascadia," a region of the United States and Canada which cooperate on a variety of environmental and tourism campaigns.
Along the western edge of the us-Canadian border many communities have gone beyond the environmental commitments made by the two federal governments in a unique relationship of cooperation uniting a cross-border bioregion. The recently dubbed "Cascadia" — a territory composed of several northwestern states in the us and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada — has developed regional environmental protection programs, tourism campaigns, cross-border transportation, and economic integration of the Pacific Northwest.9 Cascadia is considered a bioregion because of the common geological, ecological, and climatic patterns found in the area. Certain scholars also assert that a similar political ideology and social consciousness link the inhabitants of the region together, despite international and state boundaries.10 In the recent past, cross-border coalitions in this region have proved to be more efficient than the two countries' respective governments when confronting regional environmental issues and disasters. A 1988 oil spill off the Pacific coast provides the perfect example of a cross-border response initiative, where representatives from the West Coast Border States assembled the International Oil Spill Task Force due to dissatisfaction with the federal authorities' reaction to the problem. 11 Its success has produced a snowball effect of increased cross-border collaboration among the local governments, and today the bioregion serves as a model of coalition-building and progressive cross-border environmental initiatives for the rest of the world.
Next Border:France, Switzerland and Germany »
FOOTNOTES:8. Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/main/front_page/relationshipen.asp (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
9. Joachim Blatter, "Cross Border Regions: A Step Toward Sustainable Development? Experiences and Considerations from Examples in Europe and North America," in Paul Ganster, ed., Cooperation, Environment and Sustain-ability in Border Regions (San Diego: San Diego University Press and Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, 2001).
10. The Cascadia Institute, http://www.columbiana.org/cascadia_institute.htm (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
11. Blatter, "Cross Border Regions."
France, Switzerland, and Germany: Tri-National Transportation
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is the only completely trinational airport in the world, and it provides transportation to its surrounding tri-national region. Located in France close to the borders of Switzerland and Germany, the airport is jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives serving as advisors. The airport, which is administered under international law, is equipped with both French and Swiss customs sectors, as well as an international zone that all passengers enter before boarding the plane. Residents of the entire tri-national region consider it their "home"airport, through which they have access to more than a hundred international destinations.12 The French and the Swiss each comprise about 38 percent of local passengers, with Germans constituting the remaining 24 percent — figures that demonstrate how comprehensively the airport works to serve its patrons from all three countries. The tri-border area, called Regio TriRhena, is also complemented by a public ground-transportation system equipped with trains and buses connecting the same communities that utilize the airport, further emphasizing the harmonious nature of the tri-national region.
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is located in France and jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives.
The EuroAirport and Regio TriRhena present a unique model for the rest of the world for functional cross-border transportation and collaborative human and economic relations. In recent years, committees from the Middle East and Eastern Europe have visited the EuroAirport seeking guidance on potential application of the successful cooperative strategies to their own border regions.13 The example of the tri-border transport systems shows that international relations around the world would be well served to implement efficient cross-border transportation programs as they demonstrate an ability to cooperate, reach agreements, and provide beneficial services to populations residing in border regions.
Next Border:Southern Africa »
Southern Africa: Cross-Border Health Initiative to Combat HIV/AIDS
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization's December 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update, approximately 40.3 million people are living with HIV across the globe,14 — 65 percent of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic's most afflicted region. In 2005, the region's HIV prevalence among adults was 7.2 percent, and 2.4 million people died as a result of the disease — a sum that accounts for 77 percent of the worldwide AIDS death toll. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa is the region most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. According to us Agency for International Development (usAID), it is estimated that more than one-fifth of the respective adult populations in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe are living with the disease.15 Prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in the region is particularly high, demonstrating that rather than being concentrated in specific sub-groups (which tends to be the case in other parts of the world) the disease has grown to severely impact the general population. At the same time certain sub-populations, particularly in border regions, maintain a greater level of risk. Statistics show that in southern Africa mobile groups like migrant workers, truck drivers, and sex workers are three to six times more likely than the rest of the population to contract the virus.16 These groups' tendency toward mobility across borders and throughout the region makes them both difficult to diagnose and more likely to spread the disease — reasons for which they are the principal targets for new prevention and treatment programs.
In 2000, usAID introduced the Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa (RHAP/SA), designed to complement existing programs and to coordinate prevention and treatment efforts across borders.17 The advantage of collaboration and cohesive action between countries throughout the region was recognized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as the most effective way to confront the epidemic's spread across the nations' porous borders. Knowing this, the primary focus of RHAP/SA is to reduce the levels of transmission among populations — particularly those that are mobile — found along critical cross-border points, in an initiative called Corridors of Hope. This program has significantly increased access to HIV/AIDS prevention methods by providing education and risk-reduction counseling as well as distributing condoms at forty-one different cross-border sites in southern Africa. According to usAID, during the fiscal year of 2004 more than two million people at different border sites were informed about preventative measures as a direct result of the RHAP/SA and Corridors of Hope activities. Emphasizing the success and value of this type of regional development, the World Health Organization reports that a thorough program encompassing both prevention and treatment throughout Sub-Saharan Africa could avert 55 percent of potential infections by 2020.18 Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to be rampant throughout southern Africa, organizers involved in the cross-border health and prevention initiatives are optimistic that regional approaches and strategies will produce positive results and prove that prevention is an issue that requires cooperation rather than isolation.
Next Border:The Golden Triangle »
Footnotes14. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update," special report on HIV prevention (Geneva: UN-AIDS, Dec. 2005), http://www.who.int/hiv/epi-update2005_en.pdf (accessed Oct. 17, 2006, link no longer available).
15. usAID, "Health Profile: Southern Africa Region," Dec. 2004, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update."
The Golden Triangle: Regional Approach Opium Eradication and Narcotraffic Control
The "Golden Triangle" — a term used to refer to the border region where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos meet in Southeast Asia — has historically been a hotbed for the cultivation of opium poppies, the key component in heroin production. For decades drug traffickers were in control of the region, where borders were fuzzy and narcotics were easily smuggled into the hands of local users and the lucrative international drug market. In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to change due to international pressure and an increased concern for rural communities plagued by addiction and illicit crop-dependence. The Golden Triangle region has confronted the problem by significantly cutting back on cultivation, so much so that Laos, formerly the world's third largest opium producer after Afghanistan and Myanmar, declared itself poppy-free in February
2006.19
In Kunming, a Chinese city which borders the "Golden Triangle," recovering male drug addicts take part in a marchile drill while female addicts make small dolls as part of their rehabilitation program."
This monumental eradication effort has been successful for several reasons. According to Niklas Swanstrom, director of Silk Road Studies at Sweden's Uppsala University and expert on drugs and regional cooperation, the most effective way to tackle drug smuggling is to close down borders.20 When China realized that the Golden Triangle's illicit industry was infiltrating its territories, the government responded by sealing its border with Myanmar, a strategy that significantly reduced opium smuggling in the region. Another approach that is increasingly being accepted and encouraged by the UN and the region's national governments is alternative development, preferably implemented on a cross-border, regional basis. According to the terms outlined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this is a process that provides legal alternatives to communities dependent on income from unlawful activities.21 In the absence of initiatives that offer drug-cultivators (who are primarily impoverished farmers) alternatives for survival, narcotic crop eradication has the potential to devastate the livelihoods of entire communities. Recognizing this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China ratified the ACCORD Plan of Action in 2000 for a "drug-free ASEAN 2015," with the objective of introducing new alternatives to opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle area.22 The plan requires participating nations to practice regional cooperation by sharing information, techniques, and practices of sustainable opium eradication and alternative crop cultivation in order to more effectively create change and spark development throughout the region. The positive results of the program, which has been exemplified in the case of Laos and previously in Thailand, is evidence that alternative development is successful and should be applied to other parts of the world.
Next Border:South America »
Footnotes19. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle: Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna, 2006:45, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
20. Gulnoza Saidazimova, "Central Asia: Experts Say Region Should Look to 'Golden Triangle' to Combat Drug Smuggling," Radio Free Europe (Jan. 31, 2005), http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/37d15755-5c22-4df6-a4a92ab9cc3ab944.html (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
21. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Alternative Development: A Global Thematic Evaluation. Final Synthesis Report. New York, 2005, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
22. ASEAN Secretariat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Towards a Drug Free ASEAN and China 2015: Assessing ACCORD Progress 2000-2005" (report from the project Regional Cooperative Mechanism to Monitor and Execute the ACCORD Plan of Action, Oct. 2005), http://www.accordplan.net/file/122005/16/Assessing%20
ACCORD%20Progress%202000-2005.pdf (accessed Oct. 30, 2006, link no longer available).
Economic Development and Trade Across Borders: Free Trade Agreements in South America
Click to see a map of trading blocs around the world.
According to the neoliberal policies of the world's wealthier nations and global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank, a fundamental step toward fostering economic development in poorer countries is encouraging their participation in international trade. Through the adoption of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), developing nations around the world have opened their markets in an effort to become more efficient, competitive, and integrated in the global economy. International boundaries are ignored to allow trade, investment, and money to flow easily, but borders remain tightly secured to prevent people and labor from crossing as freely. Yet despite the increased mobility of capital and the introduction of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in poorer countries, the positive results of free trade in the developing world are controversial.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an initiative that has been in negotiation between thirty-four countries since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. Promoters of the FTAA seek to open the entire western hemisphere to trade and foreign investment with the establishment of the world's largest free trade bloc. Unfortunately, like its predecessor NAFTA, the agreement largely disregards the discrepancies between the economies of the countries to which it applies, leaving little hope for an equal dispersal of free trade benefits among the different nations. Recognizing this, several Latin American nations — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela in particular — have spoken out against this model and instead are working toward improved and efficient regional integration. The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), which was formally established in 1991 between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, is an example of this type of regional accord. Although the trading zone was hit hard by Brazil's currency devaluation in 1999 and the 2002 collapse of Argentina's economy, Mercosur may have the capability to balance out other global economic blocs like NAFTA and the European Union, if its members continue to deepen integration through policies such as synchronizing macroeconomic policies and market regulations, adopting a common currency, reducing barriers to trade, and liberalizing migratory flows.23 In December 2004, the trade bloc signaled a shift toward increased regionalism when it entered talks with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN — comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), culminating in a letter of intent calling for the establishment of the South American Community of Nations (CSN). CSN intends to apply the model of the European Union to their community by first lifting trade barriers throughout the continent, and proceeding to establish a common currency, passport, and parliament by the year 2019, thus opening borders in the region and establishing cohesive, universal economic development.
Next Border:Russia and the Ukraine »
Footnotes23. Matias Braun, Ricardo Hausmann, and Lant Pritchett, "The Proliferation of Sovereigns: Are There Lessons for Integration?," in Antonio Estevadeordal et al., ed., Integraing the Americas: FTAA and Beyond (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004),105 and Ernesto Lopez-Cordova and Mauricio Mesquita Moreira, "Regional Integration and Productivity: The Experiences of Brazil and Mexico," in Estevadeordal, Integrating the Americas, 599.
Energy Wars: The Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute and Russia's Rise To the Global Energy Elite
Russian gas pipelines course all over Europe
The present day's global economy is dependent on limited energy resources, specifically on fossil fuels. The peak oil phenomenon — the point at which half of the planet's oil reserves are expended and subsequently go into immediate decline — is looming, and soon will no longer be able to meet the ever-growing demand. Absent the rapid development of alternative fuel sources, the consequences of this imminent event will lead to price increases with an ensuing economic recession, and more ominously wars over control of the precious commodity. Experts in the field are not only unnerved by the dwindling amount of the global economy's fundamental fuel; the fact that the reserves are concentrated in the hands of countries whose political stability is in doubt and/or whose agenda is not pro-West is of deep concern.24
The recent emergence of a new "global energy elite" will likely put the Western nations of the world in an unprecedented position of vulnerability, as the industrialized, energy-consuming nature of their economies rely on consistent access to oil and natural gas, resources that are predominantly controlled by political actors who are not the West's unconditional allies. The case of Russia provides an apt example of this unfolding shift of power. In the advent of its largely unanticipated comeback from years in economic and political struggle in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin has made concerted and successful efforts to create a strategic position of power for itself in the global economy as the planet's chief source of natural gas. With 28 percent of the world's gas reserves located within Russia's boundaries, and estimates projecting that within two decades the country will be the provider of 50 percent of Western Europe's gas needs, the global political arena should be prepared for the potential ascendancy of Russia to its former superpower status.25 That is the acknowledged intention of the country's current president, Vladimir Putin, who prior to entering the presidency wrote that the key to Russia's rehabilitation of its "former might" was to capitalize on its role as provider of natural resources.26 The recent dispute with the government of Ukraine — which contrary to Russia's wishes is turning toward the West and may seek to join the European Union — exposed Russia's potential to use its gas reserves as leverage for enhancing geopolitical power and maintaining its traditional sphere of influence. On January 1, 2006, Russia's state-controlled Gazprom — which is the world's commanding gas extractor and the third largest corporation on the planet — cut off the gas supply to Ukraine, and effectively to that of Western Europe, which receives a majority of the energy source via Ukraine's pipeline system. The move — meant to pressure Ukraine into paying world market prices for the commodity and end a barter system where Russia exchanged gas for use of its neighbor's pipes — sent the European Union into a near panic and confirmed the region's dependency on Gazprom's product delivery, as it discovered that alternatives in the immediate and medium future are essentially not economical.27Next Border:The United States and Mexico »
Footnotes24. Michael Hirsh, "The Energy Wars: The Rise of a New Global Energy Elite Means High Oil and Gas Prices Are Here to Stay," Newsweek (May 3, 2006).
25. Ibid. Gary J. Schmitt, "Energy Security, National Security, and Natural Gas," American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, April 2006, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
26. Gabe Collins, "Russia's Energy Weapon," Global Events Magazine (May 4, 2006), http://www.geostrategymap.com/docf_Guest_May04_2006.htm, (link no longer available).
27. The American Friends Service Committee, "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)," (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The U.S.-Mexico Hyperborder: The Boundary Between a Superpower and a Developing Nation
Cars headed north in the Otay Mesa border crossing in Tijuana.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the world's longest contiguous international divide between a superpower and a developing nation. Long-standing differences between the standards of living and economies of the neighboring nations — as well as their geographical proximity — have provided the framework for a border shaped by numerous complexities and unique levels of hyperactivity. Crime, corruption, free trade, urbanization, resource scarcity, migration, border control, death, and environmental degradation are just some of the influences that have come to define the nature of the hyperborder, making the boundary unique in the contemporary world for the breadth of issues confronting it.
With the intention of fostering economic stability and regional development, NAFTA, which established a free trade bloc between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, went into effect on January 1, 1994. As neoliberal free trade agreements advocate, regulations pertaining to labor, the environment, and trade were all liberalized to facilitate an efficient market system, and the free flow of goods and capital across borders began immediately. The positive effects of NAFTA are considered controversial. Although foreign investment in Mexico has swelled, exports to the United States have surged, and employment in the export-oriented manufacturing companies — known as maquiladoras — has doubled, many would claim that the overall effects of the trade agreement on Mexico, the us, and the border region have been largely detrimental and have not brought widespread prosperity and development. 28 Arguably the most significant impact of NAFTA has been the increase of immigration flows between Mexico and the us since its implementation. When NAFTA was up for debate in the early 1990s, many academic and political advocates claimed that the quintessentially neoliberal economic policy would decrease migration between the neighboring nations. It was argued that MNCs would create jobs for the Mexican people and thus eliminate the need to migrate for survival's sake. However, since NAFTA's introduction, contrary to the arguments made by its supporters, the us has been witness to an increase of migration from Mexico. Real wages in Mexico are lower since NAFTA came into effect,29 and between 1994 and 2003 9.3 million people entered the Mexican job market while only 3 million jobs were created.30 These harsh realities have fanned the fire of both the informal sector in Mexico and immigration rates to the United States.
In Mexico, farmworkers exemplify a sector of society that has been especially affected by the free trade agreement. As trade barriers on agricultural goods were lifted, us exports have made their way into the Mexican market and have effectively saturated it. Currently, us wheat products represent 75 percent of the Mexican wheat market, up from 56 percent before NAFTA's inception.31 In 2001, statistics showed that approximately 6.2 million tons of us-grown corn were exported to Mexico annually — a particularly low blow for the southern nation, considering the crop's sacred value for the country where corn originated an estimated 4,000 years ago.32 Furthermore, crops grown in the us are often genetically modified, and thus appear to be of better value due to their size, an issue that angers many Mexican farmers and activists who prefer their crops — particularly corn — in their most natural form.33 us government-subsidized crops allow American farmers to keep prices low, crippling Mexican farmers' ability to compete with the imported goods. At a loss for alternatives, farmers must opt for survival, leading them to migrate, join the informal sector, or increasingly to enter into partnerships with Mexican drug cartels as cultivators of illegal narcotics heading to the us market.
Farmers and other Mexicans that choose to migrate in search of economic opportunities contribute to the urbanization of the border region. Currently the border population (90 percent of which lives in the fourteen sister cities) stands at around 12 million, yet by the year 2020 that statistic is expected to nearly double to 24 million.34 Since NAFTA's implementation, border cities have become destinations for rural-to-urban migrants seeking employment or staging areas before crossing, a pattern that has created expansive slums around city limits throughout the border region. The rapid population growth in border cities has made it difficult for infrastructure to keep up and has led to water scarcity, a lack of funding, increased vehicle and factory pollution, a degrading environment, health issues such as tuberculosis and a shortage of health-care workers, and higher crime rates. All of these challenges and issues contribute to the hyper state of the region.
Due to economic disparities between the two nations, the us-Mexico border has become a breeding ground for illegal activity. The trafficking of illegal drugs has become a multibillion dollar industry for the Mexican drug cartels, who utilize their geographical proximity to cater to the lucrative us market. Most illegal substances come from Mexico, which has recently displaced Colombia as the us's key supplier of narcotics. This change of power has been dubbed by many as the "Colombianization of Mexico," partly because the newfound market control has brought an upsurge in violence that is currently plaguing the nation, particularly the border region. Crimes connected to the drug cartels have reached unprecedented levels: between January and October of 2005 145 people, including 21 police officers and government officials, were killed in drug-related incidents in the border city of Nuevo Laredo alone.35Despite heightened border control, narcotraffickers have successfully increased the drug trade in recent years, exposing a dangerously intricate and perceivably impenetrable web of corruption. Due to the thriving nature of the business, money abounds for bribery and coercion. In order to complete and sustain illegal transactions, payoffs are made at every level, from politicians to police officers to border control officials, thus from the perspective of numerous players, incentives to dissipate the Mexican narcotrafficking industry are absent.
In 2005, deaths on the us side of the border reached unparalleled numbers: at least 464 immigrants perished by the end of the fiscal year, which was a 43 percent increase from 2004. This is largely due to the strengthening of the border control, which in the wake of September 11th has received increased funds from the us government. The funding has been allocated to improve technology and to hire more border personnel, making it more challenging to cross into the us illegally. Traditional crossing points have shifted from more urban, safer routes to rural, hazardous areas, requiring migrants to maneuver unknown, perilous territory and creating a boom in the human smuggling industry.
Next:The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in Global Context »
Footnotes28. Sandra Polaski, "Jobs, Wages, and Household Income," in John Audley et al., ed., NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004): 24.
29. Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo and Marcos Chavez, "Seven Myths About NAFTA. Three Lessons for Latin America," Interhemispheric Resource Center. November, 2003, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
30. Debbie Seidbend, "us Wheat and Corn Exports to Mexico Thrive Under NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement," AgExporter, Jan. 2004, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
31. Mark Stevenson, "Mexicans Angered by Spread of Genetically Modified Corn," Dec. 29, 2001, Associated Press, http://www.genet-info.org/genet/2001/Dec/msg00039.html (accessed Sept. 5, 2006; the original link no longer available, but the article can be found at www.organicconsumers.org.)
Ibid.
33. James Peach, "The Long-Run and the Energy Sector in the us-Mexico Border Region," in David A. Rohy, ed., The us-Mexican Border Environment: Trade, Energy, and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for the Border Region, Now and in 2020, SCERP monograph series no. 7. (San Diego: Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, San Diego State University Press, 2003).
Alfredo Corchado and Tracy Eaton, "Is Mexico Turning Into Colombia?" Dallas Morning News, Oct. 16, 2005.
35. Ted Robbins, "Illegal Immigrant Deaths Burden Border Towns," All Things Considered, NPR News, Oct. 6, 2006, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in the Global Context
The hyperborder is a distinct international boundary for the extensive array of influences that shape its current reality. Although examples of contentious issues or cooperative accords abound at other borders around the world, the us-Mexico border has been set apart as a site within one localized geographic region that is exposed to daily political tensions, economic disparity, hyper flows, interdependence, and more. However, through examining other border relations around the world, questions arise about the direction the hyperborder will take in the future. Could security issues make it the next North-South Korean border? Or will binational accords shape it into an integrated, fluid region like that of the borders between France, Switzerland, and Germany? Could the drug trade be demolished and replaced by alternative crop development, as the governments of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar have achieved? Or will racism and a fear of migrants result in the erection of high-tech border fences, like those between Israel and Palestine?
The border dividing the us from Mexico is subject to a wide variety of future possibilities. Increasing the unique nature of its circumstances are the varying studies that assert the region's potential for prosperity, development, and environmental entrepreneurship — proof that the us-Mexico border could serve as a global model for positive change in the future.
Back:« Introduction"
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This excerpt explores a variety of borders from around the world. These case studies provide examples of border relations ranging from hostile to cooperative and illustrate the types of issues — including political and ethnic tension, labor and immigration, and cooperation in the realms of environmentalism, transportation, health, and trade — that can either plague a region or make it prosper.
The spreading concern for national security has galvanized a renewed focus on border issues around the world, further sharpening autonomous and protective tendencies. Territorial disputes, contentious borders, and terrorist activities play considerable roles in the effort to secure (and oftentimes seal) international borders. Fortresslike walls are being discussed — and in some cases erected — as nations across the planet parlay with their neighbors in the post-9/11 global political climate.
Although hostility and distrust often plagues many bordering countries' relations, some international neighbors have fostered relationships characterized by cooperation and innovative approaches toward mutual development. Cross-border transportation, binational environmental accords, and regional approaches to addressing health issues are just a few examples of the ways in which some nations have worked together despite the geopolitical boundaries that divide them. Such mutually beneficial relationships can serve as models for the rest of the world in a global climate often marked by apprehension and fear.
The Borders:North Korea and South Korea »
Hyperborder: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and its Future by Fernando Romero is excerpted with permission from Princeton Architectural Press.
North Korea and South Korea: The World's Most Fortified Border
The most fortified border in the world is that which divides North Korea, one of the last communist states, from the democratic Republic of South Korea. After World War II, when Japan ceased to rule over the unified nation of Korea, the country was divided at the 38th parallel by the Cold War enemies and world superpowers of that time, the U.S.S.R. and the United States. North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1950, the fighting ended in a cease-fire in 1953, which also marked the closing of the border and the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) — a 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) buffer zone peppered with land mines, dividing the two countries — which former President Clinton described in 2003 as "the scariest place on earth."1 The DMZ is split along the middle by the Military Demarcation Line, an ultimate barrier that if crossed would revive the war. Today some two million troops continue to patrol both sides of the 151-mile (248 km) DMZ on the perpetual brink of war, as North Korea continues its much contested nuclear weapons program while South Korean and U.S. armed forces remain alert little more than two miles away.
Next Border:Israel and Palestinian Territories »
Footnotes:
1. Joe Havely, "Korea's DMZ: 'Scariest Place on Earth,'" CNN, Aug. 28, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/22/koreas.dmz/index.html?_s=PM:asiapcf
Israel and Palestinian Territories: An Ethnic Divide
Palestine and Israel share a history plagued with hostility and conflict. During the nineteenth century, many European Jews emigrated to Palestine under the influence of a Zionist movement that called for a homeland for Jews in Israel. This exodus continued in full force during the first half of the twentieth century in the face of World War II and the Holocaust. From the start, the arrival of the Jewish people in Palestine caused strife. The native Palestinians were often displaced due to land purchases made by the immigrants, and tensions increased because Islam and Judaism historically share the same Holy Land. In 1948, after World War II ended, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, thus establishing the State of Israel. The partition also demarcated Jerusalem as an international zone, where neither Jewish nor Arab authority would exist, in an attempt to avoid further religious conflicts. The plan failed, however, as Israel's Arab neighbors were vehemently opposed to surrendering the land. After a period of ever-increasing tension the Six Day War broke out in 1967, resulting in Israel's seizing control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights — areas heavily populated with Palestinians. The resulting "occupation," as it is perceived by the Palestinians, has been a continuing source of contention and bitter hostility. The decades since the war have been punctuated by suicide bombings committed by radical Palestinians, and the Israeli government's subsequent retaliations.
One such retaliation is the extremely controversial "security fence" that Israel began erecting in 2002 to separate it from the predominantly Palestinian West Bank. The stated purpose of the security fence is to keep Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers out of Israel, although critics say the fence unfairly annexes Palestinian territories into Israel, further exacerbating the land dispute in the West Bank.2 The security barrier, which is already 170 miles long and is planned to stretch to 440 miles when finished, is a prisonlike fence complete with sensors, watchtowers, sniper posts, and barbed wire. Palestinians who wish to cross it must obtain permits from the Israeli government. Many of the permit solicitors — including some who have homes, jobs, or family within the fence's boundaries — have been rejected, resulting in further unrest. The wall was deemed a violation of international law by the International Court of Justice in an advisory opinion in 2004, but the opinion was rejected by the Israeli government in September of 2005.3 Today the construction of the controversial barrier continues.
Next Border:Morocco and Spain »
Morocco and Spain: Contrasting Demographics at the Door Between Africa and Europe
The case of Morocco and Spain as bordering nations is unique. Despite the obstacle the Strait of Gibraltar presents as a dividing mass of water between the two countries — and subsequently the two continents of Europe and Africa — illegal immigration has risen exponentially in the last twenty years. Today, Morocco is often described as being to Europe what Mexico is to the United States. As less-developed countries, Morocco and Mexico both lack viable opportunities for their citizens but geographically have relatively easy access to the wealthier, cheap labor-hungry nations of the European Union and the United States, respectively. Perhaps more so than Mexico, Morocco also serves as a "transit migration country": in recent decades it has become one of the primary staging areas for North African and increasingly sub-Saharan African immigrants en route to Europe.4 It is no surprise that Spain currently has the highest immigration rate in the European Union.
Migrants from Africa arrive to La Tejita Beach, a popular tourist destination in Spain.
In the midst of the heated debate surrounding soaring illegal immigration rates in Spain and throughout Western Europe, the region is currently facing drastic shifts in demographics due to low fertility rates and longer life expectancy. Europe's population is expected to age dramatically in the coming decades: by the year 2030 there will be one elderly person (over the age of 65) for every two people of productive, working age.5 Today the median age in the continent is 37.7 years; by 2050 it will rise to 52.3.6 At the end of the twentieth century, Spain's fertility rate ranked among the lowest in the EU at 1.2 children per woman.7 What these demographic shifts imply are a shrinking labor force, eventual economic stagnation, and a steadily growing elderly population in need of government aid, which will become increasingly unavailable if gaps in the labor force are not filled. In contrast, Morocco and the rest of the African nations have populations that are much younger. This demographic distinction, paired with the willingness (or necessity) of many Africans to migrate north in search of opportunity, could serve to fill the vacancies expected to surface in the European labor forces.
Next Border:The United States and Canada »
Footnotes:4. Hein De Haas, "Morocco: From Emigration Country to Africa's Migration Passage to Europe," Migration Information Source, Oct. 2005, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
5. "Demographic Time-Bomb Ticking Under Europe," Management Issues News: At the Heart of the Changing Work-place (Mar. 18, 2005), http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/85332-7055.asp (accessed Sept. 6, 2006, link no longer available).
6. Richard Bernstein, "The Aging Europe May Find Itself on the Sidelines,"New York Times, June 29, 2003.
7. Clean Clothes Campaign, "Working Conditions in Morocco," May 2003 Report, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The United States and Canada: Transboundary Environmental Cooperation
The United States and Canada — partners in the world's largest trading relationship — work to maintain a secure and efficient border that is conducive to mutual economic growth and prosperity.8 More than $1.2 billion in goods and services cross the border on a daily basis, and while this activity is beneficial to both economies, it has been historically taxing on the regional environment. Both countries have been committed to cooperating on environmental policies since the 1980s, and in response to increased degradation the two governments signed the Air Quality Agreement (AQA) in 1991, which required both the us and Canada to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions — contributing toxins to acid rain. In 2000, after the noticeable reduction of acid rain over the previous decade, the nations amended the AQA to include an Ozone Annex, the aim of which was to address ground-level ozone, a significant component of smog. The most recent biennial report of the AQA's progress shows that transboundary smog emissions have decreased since the implementation of the Ozone Annex, a success that encouraged the neighbors to sign the Border Air Quality Strategy in 2003, which builds further upon previous pacts made under the AQA, with a primary focus on pilot projects along the border that have launched coordinated efforts for air quality management and examinations of air pollution's effects on human health.
The area in dark gray is "Cascadia," a region of the United States and Canada which cooperate on a variety of environmental and tourism campaigns.
Along the western edge of the us-Canadian border many communities have gone beyond the environmental commitments made by the two federal governments in a unique relationship of cooperation uniting a cross-border bioregion. The recently dubbed "Cascadia" — a territory composed of several northwestern states in the us and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada — has developed regional environmental protection programs, tourism campaigns, cross-border transportation, and economic integration of the Pacific Northwest.9 Cascadia is considered a bioregion because of the common geological, ecological, and climatic patterns found in the area. Certain scholars also assert that a similar political ideology and social consciousness link the inhabitants of the region together, despite international and state boundaries.10 In the recent past, cross-border coalitions in this region have proved to be more efficient than the two countries' respective governments when confronting regional environmental issues and disasters. A 1988 oil spill off the Pacific coast provides the perfect example of a cross-border response initiative, where representatives from the West Coast Border States assembled the International Oil Spill Task Force due to dissatisfaction with the federal authorities' reaction to the problem. 11 Its success has produced a snowball effect of increased cross-border collaboration among the local governments, and today the bioregion serves as a model of coalition-building and progressive cross-border environmental initiatives for the rest of the world.
Next Border:France, Switzerland and Germany »
FOOTNOTES:8. Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/main/front_page/relationshipen.asp (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
9. Joachim Blatter, "Cross Border Regions: A Step Toward Sustainable Development? Experiences and Considerations from Examples in Europe and North America," in Paul Ganster, ed., Cooperation, Environment and Sustain-ability in Border Regions (San Diego: San Diego University Press and Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, 2001).
10. The Cascadia Institute, http://www.columbiana.org/cascadia_institute.htm (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
11. Blatter, "Cross Border Regions."
France, Switzerland, and Germany: Tri-National Transportation
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is the only completely trinational airport in the world, and it provides transportation to its surrounding tri-national region. Located in France close to the borders of Switzerland and Germany, the airport is jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives serving as advisors. The airport, which is administered under international law, is equipped with both French and Swiss customs sectors, as well as an international zone that all passengers enter before boarding the plane. Residents of the entire tri-national region consider it their "home"airport, through which they have access to more than a hundred international destinations.12 The French and the Swiss each comprise about 38 percent of local passengers, with Germans constituting the remaining 24 percent — figures that demonstrate how comprehensively the airport works to serve its patrons from all three countries. The tri-border area, called Regio TriRhena, is also complemented by a public ground-transportation system equipped with trains and buses connecting the same communities that utilize the airport, further emphasizing the harmonious nature of the tri-national region.
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is located in France and jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives.
The EuroAirport and Regio TriRhena present a unique model for the rest of the world for functional cross-border transportation and collaborative human and economic relations. In recent years, committees from the Middle East and Eastern Europe have visited the EuroAirport seeking guidance on potential application of the successful cooperative strategies to their own border regions.13 The example of the tri-border transport systems shows that international relations around the world would be well served to implement efficient cross-border transportation programs as they demonstrate an ability to cooperate, reach agreements, and provide beneficial services to populations residing in border regions.
Next Border:Southern Africa »
Southern Africa: Cross-Border Health Initiative to Combat HIV/AIDS
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization's December 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update, approximately 40.3 million people are living with HIV across the globe,14 — 65 percent of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic's most afflicted region. In 2005, the region's HIV prevalence among adults was 7.2 percent, and 2.4 million people died as a result of the disease — a sum that accounts for 77 percent of the worldwide AIDS death toll. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa is the region most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. According to us Agency for International Development (usAID), it is estimated that more than one-fifth of the respective adult populations in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe are living with the disease.15 Prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in the region is particularly high, demonstrating that rather than being concentrated in specific sub-groups (which tends to be the case in other parts of the world) the disease has grown to severely impact the general population. At the same time certain sub-populations, particularly in border regions, maintain a greater level of risk. Statistics show that in southern Africa mobile groups like migrant workers, truck drivers, and sex workers are three to six times more likely than the rest of the population to contract the virus.16 These groups' tendency toward mobility across borders and throughout the region makes them both difficult to diagnose and more likely to spread the disease — reasons for which they are the principal targets for new prevention and treatment programs.
In 2000, usAID introduced the Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa (RHAP/SA), designed to complement existing programs and to coordinate prevention and treatment efforts across borders.17 The advantage of collaboration and cohesive action between countries throughout the region was recognized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as the most effective way to confront the epidemic's spread across the nations' porous borders. Knowing this, the primary focus of RHAP/SA is to reduce the levels of transmission among populations — particularly those that are mobile — found along critical cross-border points, in an initiative called Corridors of Hope. This program has significantly increased access to HIV/AIDS prevention methods by providing education and risk-reduction counseling as well as distributing condoms at forty-one different cross-border sites in southern Africa. According to usAID, during the fiscal year of 2004 more than two million people at different border sites were informed about preventative measures as a direct result of the RHAP/SA and Corridors of Hope activities. Emphasizing the success and value of this type of regional development, the World Health Organization reports that a thorough program encompassing both prevention and treatment throughout Sub-Saharan Africa could avert 55 percent of potential infections by 2020.18 Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to be rampant throughout southern Africa, organizers involved in the cross-border health and prevention initiatives are optimistic that regional approaches and strategies will produce positive results and prove that prevention is an issue that requires cooperation rather than isolation.
Next Border:The Golden Triangle »
Footnotes14. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update," special report on HIV prevention (Geneva: UN-AIDS, Dec. 2005), http://www.who.int/hiv/epi-update2005_en.pdf (accessed Oct. 17, 2006, link no longer available).
15. usAID, "Health Profile: Southern Africa Region," Dec. 2004, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update."
The Golden Triangle: Regional Approach Opium Eradication and Narcotraffic Control
The "Golden Triangle" — a term used to refer to the border region where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos meet in Southeast Asia — has historically been a hotbed for the cultivation of opium poppies, the key component in heroin production. For decades drug traffickers were in control of the region, where borders were fuzzy and narcotics were easily smuggled into the hands of local users and the lucrative international drug market. In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to change due to international pressure and an increased concern for rural communities plagued by addiction and illicit crop-dependence. The Golden Triangle region has confronted the problem by significantly cutting back on cultivation, so much so that Laos, formerly the world's third largest opium producer after Afghanistan and Myanmar, declared itself poppy-free in February
2006.19
In Kunming, a Chinese city which borders the "Golden Triangle," recovering male drug addicts take part in a marchile drill while female addicts make small dolls as part of their rehabilitation program."
This monumental eradication effort has been successful for several reasons. According to Niklas Swanstrom, director of Silk Road Studies at Sweden's Uppsala University and expert on drugs and regional cooperation, the most effective way to tackle drug smuggling is to close down borders.20 When China realized that the Golden Triangle's illicit industry was infiltrating its territories, the government responded by sealing its border with Myanmar, a strategy that significantly reduced opium smuggling in the region. Another approach that is increasingly being accepted and encouraged by the UN and the region's national governments is alternative development, preferably implemented on a cross-border, regional basis. According to the terms outlined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this is a process that provides legal alternatives to communities dependent on income from unlawful activities.21 In the absence of initiatives that offer drug-cultivators (who are primarily impoverished farmers) alternatives for survival, narcotic crop eradication has the potential to devastate the livelihoods of entire communities. Recognizing this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China ratified the ACCORD Plan of Action in 2000 for a "drug-free ASEAN 2015," with the objective of introducing new alternatives to opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle area.22 The plan requires participating nations to practice regional cooperation by sharing information, techniques, and practices of sustainable opium eradication and alternative crop cultivation in order to more effectively create change and spark development throughout the region. The positive results of the program, which has been exemplified in the case of Laos and previously in Thailand, is evidence that alternative development is successful and should be applied to other parts of the world.
Next Border:South America »
Footnotes19. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle: Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna, 2006:45, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
20. Gulnoza Saidazimova, "Central Asia: Experts Say Region Should Look to 'Golden Triangle' to Combat Drug Smuggling," Radio Free Europe (Jan. 31, 2005), http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/37d15755-5c22-4df6-a4a92ab9cc3ab944.html (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
21. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Alternative Development: A Global Thematic Evaluation. Final Synthesis Report. New York, 2005, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
22. ASEAN Secretariat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Towards a Drug Free ASEAN and China 2015: Assessing ACCORD Progress 2000-2005" (report from the project Regional Cooperative Mechanism to Monitor and Execute the ACCORD Plan of Action, Oct. 2005), http://www.accordplan.net/file/122005/16/Assessing%20
ACCORD%20Progress%202000-2005.pdf (accessed Oct. 30, 2006, link no longer available).
Economic Development and Trade Across Borders: Free Trade Agreements in South America
Click to see a map of trading blocs around the world.
According to the neoliberal policies of the world's wealthier nations and global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank, a fundamental step toward fostering economic development in poorer countries is encouraging their participation in international trade. Through the adoption of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), developing nations around the world have opened their markets in an effort to become more efficient, competitive, and integrated in the global economy. International boundaries are ignored to allow trade, investment, and money to flow easily, but borders remain tightly secured to prevent people and labor from crossing as freely. Yet despite the increased mobility of capital and the introduction of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in poorer countries, the positive results of free trade in the developing world are controversial.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an initiative that has been in negotiation between thirty-four countries since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. Promoters of the FTAA seek to open the entire western hemisphere to trade and foreign investment with the establishment of the world's largest free trade bloc. Unfortunately, like its predecessor NAFTA, the agreement largely disregards the discrepancies between the economies of the countries to which it applies, leaving little hope for an equal dispersal of free trade benefits among the different nations. Recognizing this, several Latin American nations — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela in particular — have spoken out against this model and instead are working toward improved and efficient regional integration. The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), which was formally established in 1991 between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, is an example of this type of regional accord. Although the trading zone was hit hard by Brazil's currency devaluation in 1999 and the 2002 collapse of Argentina's economy, Mercosur may have the capability to balance out other global economic blocs like NAFTA and the European Union, if its members continue to deepen integration through policies such as synchronizing macroeconomic policies and market regulations, adopting a common currency, reducing barriers to trade, and liberalizing migratory flows.23 In December 2004, the trade bloc signaled a shift toward increased regionalism when it entered talks with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN — comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), culminating in a letter of intent calling for the establishment of the South American Community of Nations (CSN). CSN intends to apply the model of the European Union to their community by first lifting trade barriers throughout the continent, and proceeding to establish a common currency, passport, and parliament by the year 2019, thus opening borders in the region and establishing cohesive, universal economic development.
Next Border:Russia and the Ukraine »
Footnotes23. Matias Braun, Ricardo Hausmann, and Lant Pritchett, "The Proliferation of Sovereigns: Are There Lessons for Integration?," in Antonio Estevadeordal et al., ed., Integraing the Americas: FTAA and Beyond (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004),105 and Ernesto Lopez-Cordova and Mauricio Mesquita Moreira, "Regional Integration and Productivity: The Experiences of Brazil and Mexico," in Estevadeordal, Integrating the Americas, 599.
Energy Wars: The Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute and Russia's Rise To the Global Energy Elite
Russian gas pipelines course all over Europe
The present day's global economy is dependent on limited energy resources, specifically on fossil fuels. The peak oil phenomenon — the point at which half of the planet's oil reserves are expended and subsequently go into immediate decline — is looming, and soon will no longer be able to meet the ever-growing demand. Absent the rapid development of alternative fuel sources, the consequences of this imminent event will lead to price increases with an ensuing economic recession, and more ominously wars over control of the precious commodity. Experts in the field are not only unnerved by the dwindling amount of the global economy's fundamental fuel; the fact that the reserves are concentrated in the hands of countries whose political stability is in doubt and/or whose agenda is not pro-West is of deep concern.24
The recent emergence of a new "global energy elite" will likely put the Western nations of the world in an unprecedented position of vulnerability, as the industrialized, energy-consuming nature of their economies rely on consistent access to oil and natural gas, resources that are predominantly controlled by political actors who are not the West's unconditional allies. The case of Russia provides an apt example of this unfolding shift of power. In the advent of its largely unanticipated comeback from years in economic and political struggle in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin has made concerted and successful efforts to create a strategic position of power for itself in the global economy as the planet's chief source of natural gas. With 28 percent of the world's gas reserves located within Russia's boundaries, and estimates projecting that within two decades the country will be the provider of 50 percent of Western Europe's gas needs, the global political arena should be prepared for the potential ascendancy of Russia to its former superpower status.25 That is the acknowledged intention of the country's current president, Vladimir Putin, who prior to entering the presidency wrote that the key to Russia's rehabilitation of its "former might" was to capitalize on its role as provider of natural resources.26 The recent dispute with the government of Ukraine — which contrary to Russia's wishes is turning toward the West and may seek to join the European Union — exposed Russia's potential to use its gas reserves as leverage for enhancing geopolitical power and maintaining its traditional sphere of influence. On January 1, 2006, Russia's state-controlled Gazprom — which is the world's commanding gas extractor and the third largest corporation on the planet — cut off the gas supply to Ukraine, and effectively to that of Western Europe, which receives a majority of the energy source via Ukraine's pipeline system. The move — meant to pressure Ukraine into paying world market prices for the commodity and end a barter system where Russia exchanged gas for use of its neighbor's pipes — sent the European Union into a near panic and confirmed the region's dependency on Gazprom's product delivery, as it discovered that alternatives in the immediate and medium future are essentially not economical.27Next Border:The United States and Mexico »
Footnotes24. Michael Hirsh, "The Energy Wars: The Rise of a New Global Energy Elite Means High Oil and Gas Prices Are Here to Stay," Newsweek (May 3, 2006).
25. Ibid. Gary J. Schmitt, "Energy Security, National Security, and Natural Gas," American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, April 2006, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
26. Gabe Collins, "Russia's Energy Weapon," Global Events Magazine (May 4, 2006), http://www.geostrategymap.com/docf_Guest_May04_2006.htm, (link no longer available).
27. The American Friends Service Committee, "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)," (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The U.S.-Mexico Hyperborder: The Boundary Between a Superpower and a Developing Nation
Cars headed north in the Otay Mesa border crossing in Tijuana.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the world's longest contiguous international divide between a superpower and a developing nation. Long-standing differences between the standards of living and economies of the neighboring nations — as well as their geographical proximity — have provided the framework for a border shaped by numerous complexities and unique levels of hyperactivity. Crime, corruption, free trade, urbanization, resource scarcity, migration, border control, death, and environmental degradation are just some of the influences that have come to define the nature of the hyperborder, making the boundary unique in the contemporary world for the breadth of issues confronting it.
With the intention of fostering economic stability and regional development, NAFTA, which established a free trade bloc between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, went into effect on January 1, 1994. As neoliberal free trade agreements advocate, regulations pertaining to labor, the environment, and trade were all liberalized to facilitate an efficient market system, and the free flow of goods and capital across borders began immediately. The positive effects of NAFTA are considered controversial. Although foreign investment in Mexico has swelled, exports to the United States have surged, and employment in the export-oriented manufacturing companies — known as maquiladoras — has doubled, many would claim that the overall effects of the trade agreement on Mexico, the us, and the border region have been largely detrimental and have not brought widespread prosperity and development. 28 Arguably the most significant impact of NAFTA has been the increase of immigration flows between Mexico and the us since its implementation. When NAFTA was up for debate in the early 1990s, many academic and political advocates claimed that the quintessentially neoliberal economic policy would decrease migration between the neighboring nations. It was argued that MNCs would create jobs for the Mexican people and thus eliminate the need to migrate for survival's sake. However, since NAFTA's introduction, contrary to the arguments made by its supporters, the us has been witness to an increase of migration from Mexico. Real wages in Mexico are lower since NAFTA came into effect,29 and between 1994 and 2003 9.3 million people entered the Mexican job market while only 3 million jobs were created.30 These harsh realities have fanned the fire of both the informal sector in Mexico and immigration rates to the United States.
In Mexico, farmworkers exemplify a sector of society that has been especially affected by the free trade agreement. As trade barriers on agricultural goods were lifted, us exports have made their way into the Mexican market and have effectively saturated it. Currently, us wheat products represent 75 percent of the Mexican wheat market, up from 56 percent before NAFTA's inception.31 In 2001, statistics showed that approximately 6.2 million tons of us-grown corn were exported to Mexico annually — a particularly low blow for the southern nation, considering the crop's sacred value for the country where corn originated an estimated 4,000 years ago.32 Furthermore, crops grown in the us are often genetically modified, and thus appear to be of better value due to their size, an issue that angers many Mexican farmers and activists who prefer their crops — particularly corn — in their most natural form.33 us government-subsidized crops allow American farmers to keep prices low, crippling Mexican farmers' ability to compete with the imported goods. At a loss for alternatives, farmers must opt for survival, leading them to migrate, join the informal sector, or increasingly to enter into partnerships with Mexican drug cartels as cultivators of illegal narcotics heading to the us market.
Farmers and other Mexicans that choose to migrate in search of economic opportunities contribute to the urbanization of the border region. Currently the border population (90 percent of which lives in the fourteen sister cities) stands at around 12 million, yet by the year 2020 that statistic is expected to nearly double to 24 million.34 Since NAFTA's implementation, border cities have become destinations for rural-to-urban migrants seeking employment or staging areas before crossing, a pattern that has created expansive slums around city limits throughout the border region. The rapid population growth in border cities has made it difficult for infrastructure to keep up and has led to water scarcity, a lack of funding, increased vehicle and factory pollution, a degrading environment, health issues such as tuberculosis and a shortage of health-care workers, and higher crime rates. All of these challenges and issues contribute to the hyper state of the region.
Due to economic disparities between the two nations, the us-Mexico border has become a breeding ground for illegal activity. The trafficking of illegal drugs has become a multibillion dollar industry for the Mexican drug cartels, who utilize their geographical proximity to cater to the lucrative us market. Most illegal substances come from Mexico, which has recently displaced Colombia as the us's key supplier of narcotics. This change of power has been dubbed by many as the "Colombianization of Mexico," partly because the newfound market control has brought an upsurge in violence that is currently plaguing the nation, particularly the border region. Crimes connected to the drug cartels have reached unprecedented levels: between January and October of 2005 145 people, including 21 police officers and government officials, were killed in drug-related incidents in the border city of Nuevo Laredo alone.35Despite heightened border control, narcotraffickers have successfully increased the drug trade in recent years, exposing a dangerously intricate and perceivably impenetrable web of corruption. Due to the thriving nature of the business, money abounds for bribery and coercion. In order to complete and sustain illegal transactions, payoffs are made at every level, from politicians to police officers to border control officials, thus from the perspective of numerous players, incentives to dissipate the Mexican narcotrafficking industry are absent.
In 2005, deaths on the us side of the border reached unparalleled numbers: at least 464 immigrants perished by the end of the fiscal year, which was a 43 percent increase from 2004. This is largely due to the strengthening of the border control, which in the wake of September 11th has received increased funds from the us government. The funding has been allocated to improve technology and to hire more border personnel, making it more challenging to cross into the us illegally. Traditional crossing points have shifted from more urban, safer routes to rural, hazardous areas, requiring migrants to maneuver unknown, perilous territory and creating a boom in the human smuggling industry.
Next:The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in Global Context »
Footnotes28. Sandra Polaski, "Jobs, Wages, and Household Income," in John Audley et al., ed., NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004): 24.
29. Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo and Marcos Chavez, "Seven Myths About NAFTA. Three Lessons for Latin America," Interhemispheric Resource Center. November, 2003, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
30. Debbie Seidbend, "us Wheat and Corn Exports to Mexico Thrive Under NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement," AgExporter, Jan. 2004, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
31. Mark Stevenson, "Mexicans Angered by Spread of Genetically Modified Corn," Dec. 29, 2001, Associated Press, http://www.genet-info.org/genet/2001/Dec/msg00039.html (accessed Sept. 5, 2006; the original link no longer available, but the article can be found at www.organicconsumers.org.)
Ibid.
33. James Peach, "The Long-Run and the Energy Sector in the us-Mexico Border Region," in David A. Rohy, ed., The us-Mexican Border Environment: Trade, Energy, and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for the Border Region, Now and in 2020, SCERP monograph series no. 7. (San Diego: Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, San Diego State University Press, 2003).
Alfredo Corchado and Tracy Eaton, "Is Mexico Turning Into Colombia?" Dallas Morning News, Oct. 16, 2005.
35. Ted Robbins, "Illegal Immigrant Deaths Burden Border Towns," All Things Considered, NPR News, Oct. 6, 2006, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in the Global Context
The hyperborder is a distinct international boundary for the extensive array of influences that shape its current reality. Although examples of contentious issues or cooperative accords abound at other borders around the world, the us-Mexico border has been set apart as a site within one localized geographic region that is exposed to daily political tensions, economic disparity, hyper flows, interdependence, and more. However, through examining other border relations around the world, questions arise about the direction the hyperborder will take in the future. Could security issues make it the next North-South Korean border? Or will binational accords shape it into an integrated, fluid region like that of the borders between France, Switzerland, and Germany? Could the drug trade be demolished and replaced by alternative crop development, as the governments of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar have achieved? Or will racism and a fear of migrants result in the erection of high-tech border fences, like those between Israel and Palestine?
The border dividing the us from Mexico is subject to a wide variety of future possibilities. Increasing the unique nature of its circumstances are the varying studies that assert the region's potential for prosperity, development, and environmental entrepreneurship — proof that the us-Mexico border could serve as a global model for positive change in the future.
Back:« Introduction"
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This excerpt explores a variety of borders from around the world. These case studies provide examples of border relations ranging from hostile to cooperative and illustrate the types of issues — including political and ethnic tension, labor and immigration, and cooperation in the realms of environmentalism, transportation, health, and trade — that can either plague a region or make it prosper.
The spreading concern for national security has galvanized a renewed focus on border issues around the world, further sharpening autonomous and protective tendencies. Territorial disputes, contentious borders, and terrorist activities play considerable roles in the effort to secure (and oftentimes seal) international borders. Fortresslike walls are being discussed — and in some cases erected — as nations across the planet parlay with their neighbors in the post-9/11 global political climate.
Although hostility and distrust often plagues many bordering countries' relations, some international neighbors have fostered relationships characterized by cooperation and innovative approaches toward mutual development. Cross-border transportation, binational environmental accords, and regional approaches to addressing health issues are just a few examples of the ways in which some nations have worked together despite the geopolitical boundaries that divide them. Such mutually beneficial relationships can serve as models for the rest of the world in a global climate often marked by apprehension and fear.
The Borders:North Korea and South Korea »
Hyperborder: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and its Future by Fernando Romero is excerpted with permission from Princeton Architectural Press.
North Korea and South Korea: The World's Most Fortified Border
The most fortified border in the world is that which divides North Korea, one of the last communist states, from the democratic Republic of South Korea. After World War II, when Japan ceased to rule over the unified nation of Korea, the country was divided at the 38th parallel by the Cold War enemies and world superpowers of that time, the U.S.S.R. and the United States. North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1950, the fighting ended in a cease-fire in 1953, which also marked the closing of the border and the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) — a 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) buffer zone peppered with land mines, dividing the two countries — which former President Clinton described in 2003 as "the scariest place on earth."1 The DMZ is split along the middle by the Military Demarcation Line, an ultimate barrier that if crossed would revive the war. Today some two million troops continue to patrol both sides of the 151-mile (248 km) DMZ on the perpetual brink of war, as North Korea continues its much contested nuclear weapons program while South Korean and U.S. armed forces remain alert little more than two miles away.
Next Border:Israel and Palestinian Territories »
Footnotes:
1. Joe Havely, "Korea's DMZ: 'Scariest Place on Earth,'" CNN, Aug. 28, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/22/koreas.dmz/index.html?_s=PM:asiapcf
Israel and Palestinian Territories: An Ethnic Divide
Palestine and Israel share a history plagued with hostility and conflict. During the nineteenth century, many European Jews emigrated to Palestine under the influence of a Zionist movement that called for a homeland for Jews in Israel. This exodus continued in full force during the first half of the twentieth century in the face of World War II and the Holocaust. From the start, the arrival of the Jewish people in Palestine caused strife. The native Palestinians were often displaced due to land purchases made by the immigrants, and tensions increased because Islam and Judaism historically share the same Holy Land. In 1948, after World War II ended, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, thus establishing the State of Israel. The partition also demarcated Jerusalem as an international zone, where neither Jewish nor Arab authority would exist, in an attempt to avoid further religious conflicts. The plan failed, however, as Israel's Arab neighbors were vehemently opposed to surrendering the land. After a period of ever-increasing tension the Six Day War broke out in 1967, resulting in Israel's seizing control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights — areas heavily populated with Palestinians. The resulting "occupation," as it is perceived by the Palestinians, has been a continuing source of contention and bitter hostility. The decades since the war have been punctuated by suicide bombings committed by radical Palestinians, and the Israeli government's subsequent retaliations.
One such retaliation is the extremely controversial "security fence" that Israel began erecting in 2002 to separate it from the predominantly Palestinian West Bank. The stated purpose of the security fence is to keep Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers out of Israel, although critics say the fence unfairly annexes Palestinian territories into Israel, further exacerbating the land dispute in the West Bank.2 The security barrier, which is already 170 miles long and is planned to stretch to 440 miles when finished, is a prisonlike fence complete with sensors, watchtowers, sniper posts, and barbed wire. Palestinians who wish to cross it must obtain permits from the Israeli government. Many of the permit solicitors — including some who have homes, jobs, or family within the fence's boundaries — have been rejected, resulting in further unrest. The wall was deemed a violation of international law by the International Court of Justice in an advisory opinion in 2004, but the opinion was rejected by the Israeli government in September of 2005.3 Today the construction of the controversial barrier continues.
Next Border:Morocco and Spain »
Morocco and Spain: Contrasting Demographics at the Door Between Africa and Europe
The case of Morocco and Spain as bordering nations is unique. Despite the obstacle the Strait of Gibraltar presents as a dividing mass of water between the two countries — and subsequently the two continents of Europe and Africa — illegal immigration has risen exponentially in the last twenty years. Today, Morocco is often described as being to Europe what Mexico is to the United States. As less-developed countries, Morocco and Mexico both lack viable opportunities for their citizens but geographically have relatively easy access to the wealthier, cheap labor-hungry nations of the European Union and the United States, respectively. Perhaps more so than Mexico, Morocco also serves as a "transit migration country": in recent decades it has become one of the primary staging areas for North African and increasingly sub-Saharan African immigrants en route to Europe.4 It is no surprise that Spain currently has the highest immigration rate in the European Union.
Migrants from Africa arrive to La Tejita Beach, a popular tourist destination in Spain.
In the midst of the heated debate surrounding soaring illegal immigration rates in Spain and throughout Western Europe, the region is currently facing drastic shifts in demographics due to low fertility rates and longer life expectancy. Europe's population is expected to age dramatically in the coming decades: by the year 2030 there will be one elderly person (over the age of 65) for every two people of productive, working age.5 Today the median age in the continent is 37.7 years; by 2050 it will rise to 52.3.6 At the end of the twentieth century, Spain's fertility rate ranked among the lowest in the EU at 1.2 children per woman.7 What these demographic shifts imply are a shrinking labor force, eventual economic stagnation, and a steadily growing elderly population in need of government aid, which will become increasingly unavailable if gaps in the labor force are not filled. In contrast, Morocco and the rest of the African nations have populations that are much younger. This demographic distinction, paired with the willingness (or necessity) of many Africans to migrate north in search of opportunity, could serve to fill the vacancies expected to surface in the European labor forces.
Next Border:The United States and Canada »
Footnotes:4. Hein De Haas, "Morocco: From Emigration Country to Africa's Migration Passage to Europe," Migration Information Source, Oct. 2005, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
5. "Demographic Time-Bomb Ticking Under Europe," Management Issues News: At the Heart of the Changing Work-place (Mar. 18, 2005), http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/85332-7055.asp (accessed Sept. 6, 2006, link no longer available).
6. Richard Bernstein, "The Aging Europe May Find Itself on the Sidelines,"New York Times, June 29, 2003.
7. Clean Clothes Campaign, "Working Conditions in Morocco," May 2003 Report, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The United States and Canada: Transboundary Environmental Cooperation
The United States and Canada — partners in the world's largest trading relationship — work to maintain a secure and efficient border that is conducive to mutual economic growth and prosperity.8 More than $1.2 billion in goods and services cross the border on a daily basis, and while this activity is beneficial to both economies, it has been historically taxing on the regional environment. Both countries have been committed to cooperating on environmental policies since the 1980s, and in response to increased degradation the two governments signed the Air Quality Agreement (AQA) in 1991, which required both the us and Canada to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions — contributing toxins to acid rain. In 2000, after the noticeable reduction of acid rain over the previous decade, the nations amended the AQA to include an Ozone Annex, the aim of which was to address ground-level ozone, a significant component of smog. The most recent biennial report of the AQA's progress shows that transboundary smog emissions have decreased since the implementation of the Ozone Annex, a success that encouraged the neighbors to sign the Border Air Quality Strategy in 2003, which builds further upon previous pacts made under the AQA, with a primary focus on pilot projects along the border that have launched coordinated efforts for air quality management and examinations of air pollution's effects on human health.
The area in dark gray is "Cascadia," a region of the United States and Canada which cooperate on a variety of environmental and tourism campaigns.
Along the western edge of the us-Canadian border many communities have gone beyond the environmental commitments made by the two federal governments in a unique relationship of cooperation uniting a cross-border bioregion. The recently dubbed "Cascadia" — a territory composed of several northwestern states in the us and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada — has developed regional environmental protection programs, tourism campaigns, cross-border transportation, and economic integration of the Pacific Northwest.9 Cascadia is considered a bioregion because of the common geological, ecological, and climatic patterns found in the area. Certain scholars also assert that a similar political ideology and social consciousness link the inhabitants of the region together, despite international and state boundaries.10 In the recent past, cross-border coalitions in this region have proved to be more efficient than the two countries' respective governments when confronting regional environmental issues and disasters. A 1988 oil spill off the Pacific coast provides the perfect example of a cross-border response initiative, where representatives from the West Coast Border States assembled the International Oil Spill Task Force due to dissatisfaction with the federal authorities' reaction to the problem. 11 Its success has produced a snowball effect of increased cross-border collaboration among the local governments, and today the bioregion serves as a model of coalition-building and progressive cross-border environmental initiatives for the rest of the world.
Next Border:France, Switzerland and Germany »
FOOTNOTES:8. Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/main/front_page/relationshipen.asp (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
9. Joachim Blatter, "Cross Border Regions: A Step Toward Sustainable Development? Experiences and Considerations from Examples in Europe and North America," in Paul Ganster, ed., Cooperation, Environment and Sustain-ability in Border Regions (San Diego: San Diego University Press and Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, 2001).
10. The Cascadia Institute, http://www.columbiana.org/cascadia_institute.htm (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
11. Blatter, "Cross Border Regions."
France, Switzerland, and Germany: Tri-National Transportation
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is the only completely trinational airport in the world, and it provides transportation to its surrounding tri-national region. Located in France close to the borders of Switzerland and Germany, the airport is jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives serving as advisors. The airport, which is administered under international law, is equipped with both French and Swiss customs sectors, as well as an international zone that all passengers enter before boarding the plane. Residents of the entire tri-national region consider it their "home"airport, through which they have access to more than a hundred international destinations.12 The French and the Swiss each comprise about 38 percent of local passengers, with Germans constituting the remaining 24 percent — figures that demonstrate how comprehensively the airport works to serve its patrons from all three countries. The tri-border area, called Regio TriRhena, is also complemented by a public ground-transportation system equipped with trains and buses connecting the same communities that utilize the airport, further emphasizing the harmonious nature of the tri-national region.
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is located in France and jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives.
The EuroAirport and Regio TriRhena present a unique model for the rest of the world for functional cross-border transportation and collaborative human and economic relations. In recent years, committees from the Middle East and Eastern Europe have visited the EuroAirport seeking guidance on potential application of the successful cooperative strategies to their own border regions.13 The example of the tri-border transport systems shows that international relations around the world would be well served to implement efficient cross-border transportation programs as they demonstrate an ability to cooperate, reach agreements, and provide beneficial services to populations residing in border regions.
Next Border:Southern Africa »
Southern Africa: Cross-Border Health Initiative to Combat HIV/AIDS
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization's December 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update, approximately 40.3 million people are living with HIV across the globe,14 — 65 percent of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic's most afflicted region. In 2005, the region's HIV prevalence among adults was 7.2 percent, and 2.4 million people died as a result of the disease — a sum that accounts for 77 percent of the worldwide AIDS death toll. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa is the region most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. According to us Agency for International Development (usAID), it is estimated that more than one-fifth of the respective adult populations in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe are living with the disease.15 Prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in the region is particularly high, demonstrating that rather than being concentrated in specific sub-groups (which tends to be the case in other parts of the world) the disease has grown to severely impact the general population. At the same time certain sub-populations, particularly in border regions, maintain a greater level of risk. Statistics show that in southern Africa mobile groups like migrant workers, truck drivers, and sex workers are three to six times more likely than the rest of the population to contract the virus.16 These groups' tendency toward mobility across borders and throughout the region makes them both difficult to diagnose and more likely to spread the disease — reasons for which they are the principal targets for new prevention and treatment programs.
In 2000, usAID introduced the Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa (RHAP/SA), designed to complement existing programs and to coordinate prevention and treatment efforts across borders.17 The advantage of collaboration and cohesive action between countries throughout the region was recognized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as the most effective way to confront the epidemic's spread across the nations' porous borders. Knowing this, the primary focus of RHAP/SA is to reduce the levels of transmission among populations — particularly those that are mobile — found along critical cross-border points, in an initiative called Corridors of Hope. This program has significantly increased access to HIV/AIDS prevention methods by providing education and risk-reduction counseling as well as distributing condoms at forty-one different cross-border sites in southern Africa. According to usAID, during the fiscal year of 2004 more than two million people at different border sites were informed about preventative measures as a direct result of the RHAP/SA and Corridors of Hope activities. Emphasizing the success and value of this type of regional development, the World Health Organization reports that a thorough program encompassing both prevention and treatment throughout Sub-Saharan Africa could avert 55 percent of potential infections by 2020.18 Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to be rampant throughout southern Africa, organizers involved in the cross-border health and prevention initiatives are optimistic that regional approaches and strategies will produce positive results and prove that prevention is an issue that requires cooperation rather than isolation.
Next Border:The Golden Triangle »
Footnotes14. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update," special report on HIV prevention (Geneva: UN-AIDS, Dec. 2005), http://www.who.int/hiv/epi-update2005_en.pdf (accessed Oct. 17, 2006, link no longer available).
15. usAID, "Health Profile: Southern Africa Region," Dec. 2004, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update."
The Golden Triangle: Regional Approach Opium Eradication and Narcotraffic Control
The "Golden Triangle" — a term used to refer to the border region where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos meet in Southeast Asia — has historically been a hotbed for the cultivation of opium poppies, the key component in heroin production. For decades drug traffickers were in control of the region, where borders were fuzzy and narcotics were easily smuggled into the hands of local users and the lucrative international drug market. In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to change due to international pressure and an increased concern for rural communities plagued by addiction and illicit crop-dependence. The Golden Triangle region has confronted the problem by significantly cutting back on cultivation, so much so that Laos, formerly the world's third largest opium producer after Afghanistan and Myanmar, declared itself poppy-free in February
2006.19
In Kunming, a Chinese city which borders the "Golden Triangle," recovering male drug addicts take part in a marchile drill while female addicts make small dolls as part of their rehabilitation program."
This monumental eradication effort has been successful for several reasons. According to Niklas Swanstrom, director of Silk Road Studies at Sweden's Uppsala University and expert on drugs and regional cooperation, the most effective way to tackle drug smuggling is to close down borders.20 When China realized that the Golden Triangle's illicit industry was infiltrating its territories, the government responded by sealing its border with Myanmar, a strategy that significantly reduced opium smuggling in the region. Another approach that is increasingly being accepted and encouraged by the UN and the region's national governments is alternative development, preferably implemented on a cross-border, regional basis. According to the terms outlined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this is a process that provides legal alternatives to communities dependent on income from unlawful activities.21 In the absence of initiatives that offer drug-cultivators (who are primarily impoverished farmers) alternatives for survival, narcotic crop eradication has the potential to devastate the livelihoods of entire communities. Recognizing this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China ratified the ACCORD Plan of Action in 2000 for a "drug-free ASEAN 2015," with the objective of introducing new alternatives to opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle area.22 The plan requires participating nations to practice regional cooperation by sharing information, techniques, and practices of sustainable opium eradication and alternative crop cultivation in order to more effectively create change and spark development throughout the region. The positive results of the program, which has been exemplified in the case of Laos and previously in Thailand, is evidence that alternative development is successful and should be applied to other parts of the world.
Next Border:South America »
Footnotes19. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle: Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna, 2006:45, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
20. Gulnoza Saidazimova, "Central Asia: Experts Say Region Should Look to 'Golden Triangle' to Combat Drug Smuggling," Radio Free Europe (Jan. 31, 2005), http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/37d15755-5c22-4df6-a4a92ab9cc3ab944.html (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available).
21. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Alternative Development: A Global Thematic Evaluation. Final Synthesis Report. New York, 2005, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
22. ASEAN Secretariat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Towards a Drug Free ASEAN and China 2015: Assessing ACCORD Progress 2000-2005" (report from the project Regional Cooperative Mechanism to Monitor and Execute the ACCORD Plan of Action, Oct. 2005), http://www.accordplan.net/file/122005/16/Assessing%20
ACCORD%20Progress%202000-2005.pdf (accessed Oct. 30, 2006, link no longer available).
Economic Development and Trade Across Borders: Free Trade Agreements in South America
Click to see a map of trading blocs around the world.
According to the neoliberal policies of the world's wealthier nations and global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank, a fundamental step toward fostering economic development in poorer countries is encouraging their participation in international trade. Through the adoption of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), developing nations around the world have opened their markets in an effort to become more efficient, competitive, and integrated in the global economy. International boundaries are ignored to allow trade, investment, and money to flow easily, but borders remain tightly secured to prevent people and labor from crossing as freely. Yet despite the increased mobility of capital and the introduction of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in poorer countries, the positive results of free trade in the developing world are controversial.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an initiative that has been in negotiation between thirty-four countries since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. Promoters of the FTAA seek to open the entire western hemisphere to trade and foreign investment with the establishment of the world's largest free trade bloc. Unfortunately, like its predecessor NAFTA, the agreement largely disregards the discrepancies between the economies of the countries to which it applies, leaving little hope for an equal dispersal of free trade benefits among the different nations. Recognizing this, several Latin American nations — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela in particular — have spoken out against this model and instead are working toward improved and efficient regional integration. The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), which was formally established in 1991 between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, is an example of this type of regional accord. Although the trading zone was hit hard by Brazil's currency devaluation in 1999 and the 2002 collapse of Argentina's economy, Mercosur may have the capability to balance out other global economic blocs like NAFTA and the European Union, if its members continue to deepen integration through policies such as synchronizing macroeconomic policies and market regulations, adopting a common currency, reducing barriers to trade, and liberalizing migratory flows.23 In December 2004, the trade bloc signaled a shift toward increased regionalism when it entered talks with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN — comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), culminating in a letter of intent calling for the establishment of the South American Community of Nations (CSN). CSN intends to apply the model of the European Union to their community by first lifting trade barriers throughout the continent, and proceeding to establish a common currency, passport, and parliament by the year 2019, thus opening borders in the region and establishing cohesive, universal economic development.
Next Border:Russia and the Ukraine »
Footnotes23. Matias Braun, Ricardo Hausmann, and Lant Pritchett, "The Proliferation of Sovereigns: Are There Lessons for Integration?," in Antonio Estevadeordal et al., ed., Integraing the Americas: FTAA and Beyond (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004),105 and Ernesto Lopez-Cordova and Mauricio Mesquita Moreira, "Regional Integration and Productivity: The Experiences of Brazil and Mexico," in Estevadeordal, Integrating the Americas, 599.
Energy Wars: The Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute and Russia's Rise To the Global Energy Elite
Russian gas pipelines course all over Europe
The present day's global economy is dependent on limited energy resources, specifically on fossil fuels. The peak oil phenomenon — the point at which half of the planet's oil reserves are expended and subsequently go into immediate decline — is looming, and soon will no longer be able to meet the ever-growing demand. Absent the rapid development of alternative fuel sources, the consequences of this imminent event will lead to price increases with an ensuing economic recession, and more ominously wars over control of the precious commodity. Experts in the field are not only unnerved by the dwindling amount of the global economy's fundamental fuel; the fact that the reserves are concentrated in the hands of countries whose political stability is in doubt and/or whose agenda is not pro-West is of deep concern.24
The recent emergence of a new "global energy elite" will likely put the Western nations of the world in an unprecedented position of vulnerability, as the industrialized, energy-consuming nature of their economies rely on consistent access to oil and natural gas, resources that are predominantly controlled by political actors who are not the West's unconditional allies. The case of Russia provides an apt example of this unfolding shift of power. In the advent of its largely unanticipated comeback from years in economic and political struggle in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin has made concerted and successful efforts to create a strategic position of power for itself in the global economy as the planet's chief source of natural gas. With 28 percent of the world's gas reserves located within Russia's boundaries, and estimates projecting that within two decades the country will be the provider of 50 percent of Western Europe's gas needs, the global political arena should be prepared for the potential ascendancy of Russia to its former superpower status.25 That is the acknowledged intention of the country's current president, Vladimir Putin, who prior to entering the presidency wrote that the key to Russia's rehabilitation of its "former might" was to capitalize on its role as provider of natural resources.26 The recent dispute with the government of Ukraine — which contrary to Russia's wishes is turning toward the West and may seek to join the European Union — exposed Russia's potential to use its gas reserves as leverage for enhancing geopolitical power and maintaining its traditional sphere of influence. On January 1, 2006, Russia's state-controlled Gazprom — which is the world's commanding gas extractor and the third largest corporation on the planet — cut off the gas supply to Ukraine, and effectively to that of Western Europe, which receives a majority of the energy source via Ukraine's pipeline system. The move — meant to pressure Ukraine into paying world market prices for the commodity and end a barter system where Russia exchanged gas for use of its neighbor's pipes — sent the European Union into a near panic and confirmed the region's dependency on Gazprom's product delivery, as it discovered that alternatives in the immediate and medium future are essentially not economical.27Next Border:The United States and Mexico »
Footnotes24. Michael Hirsh, "The Energy Wars: The Rise of a New Global Energy Elite Means High Oil and Gas Prices Are Here to Stay," Newsweek (May 3, 2006).
25. Ibid. Gary J. Schmitt, "Energy Security, National Security, and Natural Gas," American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, April 2006, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
26. Gabe Collins, "Russia's Energy Weapon," Global Events Magazine (May 4, 2006), http://www.geostrategymap.com/docf_Guest_May04_2006.htm, (link no longer available).
27. The American Friends Service Committee, "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)," (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The U.S.-Mexico Hyperborder: The Boundary Between a Superpower and a Developing Nation
Cars headed north in the Otay Mesa border crossing in Tijuana.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the world's longest contiguous international divide between a superpower and a developing nation. Long-standing differences between the standards of living and economies of the neighboring nations — as well as their geographical proximity — have provided the framework for a border shaped by numerous complexities and unique levels of hyperactivity. Crime, corruption, free trade, urbanization, resource scarcity, migration, border control, death, and environmental degradation are just some of the influences that have come to define the nature of the hyperborder, making the boundary unique in the contemporary world for the breadth of issues confronting it.
With the intention of fostering economic stability and regional development, NAFTA, which established a free trade bloc between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, went into effect on January 1, 1994. As neoliberal free trade agreements advocate, regulations pertaining to labor, the environment, and trade were all liberalized to facilitate an efficient market system, and the free flow of goods and capital across borders began immediately. The positive effects of NAFTA are considered controversial. Although foreign investment in Mexico has swelled, exports to the United States have surged, and employment in the export-oriented manufacturing companies — known as maquiladoras — has doubled, many would claim that the overall effects of the trade agreement on Mexico, the us, and the border region have been largely detrimental and have not brought widespread prosperity and development. 28 Arguably the most significant impact of NAFTA has been the increase of immigration flows between Mexico and the us since its implementation. When NAFTA was up for debate in the early 1990s, many academic and political advocates claimed that the quintessentially neoliberal economic policy would decrease migration between the neighboring nations. It was argued that MNCs would create jobs for the Mexican people and thus eliminate the need to migrate for survival's sake. However, since NAFTA's introduction, contrary to the arguments made by its supporters, the us has been witness to an increase of migration from Mexico. Real wages in Mexico are lower since NAFTA came into effect,29 and between 1994 and 2003 9.3 million people entered the Mexican job market while only 3 million jobs were created.30 These harsh realities have fanned the fire of both the informal sector in Mexico and immigration rates to the United States.
In Mexico, farmworkers exemplify a sector of society that has been especially affected by the free trade agreement. As trade barriers on agricultural goods were lifted, us exports have made their way into the Mexican market and have effectively saturated it. Currently, us wheat products represent 75 percent of the Mexican wheat market, up from 56 percent before NAFTA's inception.31 In 2001, statistics showed that approximately 6.2 million tons of us-grown corn were exported to Mexico annually — a particularly low blow for the southern nation, considering the crop's sacred value for the country where corn originated an estimated 4,000 years ago.32 Furthermore, crops grown in the us are often genetically modified, and thus appear to be of better value due to their size, an issue that angers many Mexican farmers and activists who prefer their crops — particularly corn — in their most natural form.33 us government-subsidized crops allow American farmers to keep prices low, crippling Mexican farmers' ability to compete with the imported goods. At a loss for alternatives, farmers must opt for survival, leading them to migrate, join the informal sector, or increasingly to enter into partnerships with Mexican drug cartels as cultivators of illegal narcotics heading to the us market.
Farmers and other Mexicans that choose to migrate in search of economic opportunities contribute to the urbanization of the border region. Currently the border population (90 percent of which lives in the fourteen sister cities) stands at around 12 million, yet by the year 2020 that statistic is expected to nearly double to 24 million.34 Since NAFTA's implementation, border cities have become destinations for rural-to-urban migrants seeking employment or staging areas before crossing, a pattern that has created expansive slums around city limits throughout the border region. The rapid population growth in border cities has made it difficult for infrastructure to keep up and has led to water scarcity, a lack of funding, increased vehicle and factory pollution, a degrading environment, health issues such as tuberculosis and a shortage of health-care workers, and higher crime rates. All of these challenges and issues contribute to the hyper state of the region.
Due to economic disparities between the two nations, the us-Mexico border has become a breeding ground for illegal activity. The trafficking of illegal drugs has become a multibillion dollar industry for the Mexican drug cartels, who utilize their geographical proximity to cater to the lucrative us market. Most illegal substances come from Mexico, which has recently displaced Colombia as the us's key supplier of narcotics. This change of power has been dubbed by many as the "Colombianization of Mexico," partly because the newfound market control has brought an upsurge in violence that is currently plaguing the nation, particularly the border region. Crimes connected to the drug cartels have reached unprecedented levels: between January and October of 2005 145 people, including 21 police officers and government officials, were killed in drug-related incidents in the border city of Nuevo Laredo alone.35Despite heightened border control, narcotraffickers have successfully increased the drug trade in recent years, exposing a dangerously intricate and perceivably impenetrable web of corruption. Due to the thriving nature of the business, money abounds for bribery and coercion. In order to complete and sustain illegal transactions, payoffs are made at every level, from politicians to police officers to border control officials, thus from the perspective of numerous players, incentives to dissipate the Mexican narcotrafficking industry are absent.
In 2005, deaths on the us side of the border reached unparalleled numbers: at least 464 immigrants perished by the end of the fiscal year, which was a 43 percent increase from 2004. This is largely due to the strengthening of the border control, which in the wake of September 11th has received increased funds from the us government. The funding has been allocated to improve technology and to hire more border personnel, making it more challenging to cross into the us illegally. Traditional crossing points have shifted from more urban, safer routes to rural, hazardous areas, requiring migrants to maneuver unknown, perilous territory and creating a boom in the human smuggling industry.
Next:The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in Global Context »
Footnotes28. Sandra Polaski, "Jobs, Wages, and Household Income," in John Audley et al., ed., NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004): 24.
29. Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo and Marcos Chavez, "Seven Myths About NAFTA. Three Lessons for Latin America," Interhemispheric Resource Center. November, 2003, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006).
30. Debbie Seidbend, "us Wheat and Corn Exports to Mexico Thrive Under NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement," AgExporter, Jan. 2004, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
31. Mark Stevenson, "Mexicans Angered by Spread of Genetically Modified Corn," Dec. 29, 2001, Associated Press, http://www.genet-info.org/genet/2001/Dec/msg00039.html (accessed Sept. 5, 2006; the original link no longer available, but the article can be found at www.organicconsumers.org.)
Ibid.
33. James Peach, "The Long-Run and the Energy Sector in the us-Mexico Border Region," in David A. Rohy, ed., The us-Mexican Border Environment: Trade, Energy, and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for the Border Region, Now and in 2020, SCERP monograph series no. 7. (San Diego: Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, San Diego State University Press, 2003).
Alfredo Corchado and Tracy Eaton, "Is Mexico Turning Into Colombia?" Dallas Morning News, Oct. 16, 2005.
35. Ted Robbins, "Illegal Immigrant Deaths Burden Border Towns," All Things Considered, NPR News, Oct. 6, 2006, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in the Global Context
The hyperborder is a distinct international boundary for the extensive array of influences that shape its current reality. Although examples of contentious issues or cooperative accords abound at other borders around the world, the us-Mexico border has been set apart as a site within one localized geographic region that is exposed to daily political tensions, economic disparity, hyper flows, interdependence, and more. However, through examining other border relations around the world, questions arise about the direction the hyperborder will take in the future. Could security issues make it the next North-South Korean border? Or will binational accords shape it into an integrated, fluid region like that of the borders between France, Switzerland, and Germany? Could the drug trade be demolished and replaced by alternative crop development, as the governments of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar have achieved? Or will racism and a fear of migrants result in the erection of high-tech border fences, like those between Israel and Palestine?
The border dividing the us from Mexico is subject to a wide variety of future possibilities. Increasing the unique nature of its circumstances are the varying studies that assert the region's potential for prosperity, development, and environmental entrepreneurship — proof that the us-Mexico border could serve as a global model for positive change in the future.
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9 Star Hotel: Excerpt: The Hyperborder in a Globalized World
This excerpt explores a variety of borders from around the world. These case studies provide examples of border relations ranging from hostile to cooperative and illustrate the types of issues -- including political and ethnic tension, labor and immigration, and cooperation in the realms of environmentalism, transportation, health, and trade -- that can either plague a region or make it prosper.
The spreading concern for national security has galvanized a renewed focus on border issues around the world, further sharpening autonomous and protective tendencies. Territorial disputes, contentious borders, and terrorist activities play considerable roles in the effort to secure (and oftentimes seal) international borders. Fortresslike walls are being discussed -- and in some cases erected -- as nations across the planet parlay with their neighbors in the post-9/11 global political climate.
Although hostility and distrust often plagues many bordering countries' relations, some international neighbors have fostered relationships characterized by cooperation and innovative approaches toward mutual development. Cross-border transportation, binational environmental accords, and regional approaches to addressing health issues are just a few examples of the ways in which some nations have worked together despite the geopolitical boundaries that divide them. Such mutually beneficial relationships can serve as models for the rest of the world in a global climate often marked by apprehension and fear.
North Korea and South Korea: The World's Most Fortified Border
The most fortified border in the world is that which divides North Korea, one of the last communist states, from the democratic Republic of South Korea. After World War II, when Japan ceased to rule over the unified nation of Korea, the country was divided at the 38th parallel by the Cold War enemies and world superpowers of that time, the U.S.S.R. and the United States. North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1950, the fighting ended in a cease-fire in 1953, which also marked the closing of the border and the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) -- a 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) buffer zone peppered with land mines, dividing the two countries -- which former President Clinton described in 2003 as "the scariest place on earth."1 The DMZ is split along the middle by the Military Demarcation Line, an ultimate barrier that if crossed would revive the war. Today some two million troops continue to patrol both sides of the 151-mile (248 km) DMZ on the perpetual brink of war, as North Korea continues its much contested nuclear weapons program while South Korean and U.S. armed forces remain alert little more than two miles away.
Footnotes:
1. Joe Havely, "Korea's DMZ: 'Scariest Place on Earth,'" CNN, Aug. 28, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/22/koreas.dmz/index.html?_s=PM:asiapcf
Israel and Palestinian Territories: An Ethnic Divide
Palestine and Israel share a history plagued with hostility and conflict. During the nineteenth century, many European Jews emigrated to Palestine under the influence of a Zionist movement that called for a homeland for Jews in Israel. This exodus continued in full force during the first half of the twentieth century in the face of World War II and the Holocaust. From the start, the arrival of the Jewish people in Palestine caused strife. The native Palestinians were often displaced due to land purchases made by the immigrants, and tensions increased because Islam and Judaism historically share the same Holy Land. In 1948, after World War II ended, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, thus establishing the State of Israel. The partition also demarcated Jerusalem as an international zone, where neither Jewish nor Arab authority would exist, in an attempt to avoid further religious conflicts. The plan failed, however, as Israel's Arab neighbors were vehemently opposed to surrendering the land. After a period of ever-increasing tension the Six Day War broke out in 1967, resulting in Israel's seizing control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights -- areas heavily populated with Palestinians. The resulting "occupation," as it is perceived by the Palestinians, has been a continuing source of contention and bitter hostility. The decades since the war have been punctuated by suicide bombings committed by radical Palestinians, and the Israeli government's subsequent retaliations.
One such retaliation is the extremely controversial "security fence" that Israel began erecting in 2002 to separate it from the predominantly Palestinian West Bank. The stated purpose of the security fence is to keep Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers out of Israel, although critics say the fence unfairly annexes Palestinian territories into Israel, further exacerbating the land dispute in the West Bank.2 The security barrier, which is already 170 miles long and is planned to stretch to 440 miles when finished, is a prisonlike fence complete with sensors, watchtowers, sniper posts, and barbed wire. Palestinians who wish to cross it must obtain permits from the Israeli government. Many of the permit solicitors -- including some who have homes, jobs, or family within the fence's boundaries -- have been rejected, resulting in further unrest. The wall was deemed a violation of international law by the International Court of Justice in an advisory opinion in 2004, but the opinion was rejected by the Israeli government in September of 2005.3 Today the construction of the controversial barrier continues.
Morocco and Spain: Contrasting Demographics at the Door Between Africa and Europe
The case of Morocco and Spain as bordering nations is unique. Despite the obstacle the Strait of Gibraltar presents as a dividing mass of water between the two countries -- and subsequently the two continents of Europe and Africa -- illegal immigration has risen exponentially in the last twenty years. Today, Morocco is often described as being to Europe what Mexico is to the United States. As less-developed countries, Morocco and Mexico both lack viable opportunities for their citizens but geographically have relatively easy access to the wealthier, cheap labor-hungry nations of the European Union and the United States, respectively. Perhaps more so than Mexico, Morocco also serves as a "transit migration country": in recent decades it has become one of the primary staging areas for North African and increasingly sub-Saharan African immigrants en route to Europe.4 It is no surprise that Spain currently has the highest immigration rate in the European Union.
Migrants from Africa arrive to La Tejita Beach, a popular tourist destination in Spain.
In the midst of the heated debate surrounding soaring illegal immigration rates in Spain and throughout Western Europe, the region is currently facing drastic shifts in demographics due to low fertility rates and longer life expectancy. Europe's population is expected to age dramatically in the coming decades: by the year 2030 there will be one elderly person (over the age of 65) for every two people of productive, working age.5 Today the median age in the continent is 37.7 years; by 2050 it will rise to 52.3.6 At the end of the twentieth century, Spain's fertility rate ranked among the lowest in the EU at 1.2 children per woman.7 What these demographic shifts imply are a shrinking labor force, eventual economic stagnation, and a steadily growing elderly population in need of government aid, which will become increasingly unavailable if gaps in the labor force are not filled. In contrast, Morocco and the rest of the African nations have populations that are much younger. This demographic distinction, paired with the willingness (or necessity) of many Africans to migrate north in search of opportunity, could serve to fill the vacancies expected to surface in the European labor forces.
Footnotes: 4. Hein De Haas, "Morocco: From Emigration Country to Africa's Migration Passage to Europe," Migration Information Source, Oct. 2005, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006). 5. "Demographic Time-Bomb Ticking Under Europe," Management Issues News: At the Heart of the Changing Work-place (Mar. 18, 2005), http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/85332-7055.asp (accessed Sept. 6, 2006, link no longer available). 6. Richard Bernstein, "The Aging Europe May Find Itself on the Sidelines,"New York Times, June 29, 2003. 7. Clean Clothes Campaign, "Working Conditions in Morocco," May 2003 Report, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The United States and Canada: Transboundary Environmental Cooperation
The United States and Canada -- partners in the world's largest trading relationship -- work to maintain a secure and efficient border that is conducive to mutual economic growth and prosperity.8 More than $1.2 billion in goods and services cross the border on a daily basis, and while this activity is beneficial to both economies, it has been historically taxing on the regional environment. Both countries have been committed to cooperating on environmental policies since the 1980s, and in response to increased degradation the two governments signed the Air Quality Agreement (AQA) in 1991, which required both the us and Canada to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions -- contributing toxins to acid rain. In 2000, after the noticeable reduction of acid rain over the previous decade, the nations amended the AQA to include an Ozone Annex, the aim of which was to address ground-level ozone, a significant component of smog. The most recent biennial report of the AQA's progress shows that transboundary smog emissions have decreased since the implementation of the Ozone Annex, a success that encouraged the neighbors to sign the Border Air Quality Strategy in 2003, which builds further upon previous pacts made under the AQA, with a primary focus on pilot projects along the border that have launched coordinated efforts for air quality management and examinations of air pollution's effects on human health.
The area in dark gray is "Cascadia," a region of the United States and Canada which cooperate on a variety of environmental and tourism campaigns.
Along the western edge of the us-Canadian border many communities have gone beyond the environmental commitments made by the two federal governments in a unique relationship of cooperation uniting a cross-border bioregion. The recently dubbed "Cascadia" -- a territory composed of several northwestern states in the us and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada -- has developed regional environmental protection programs, tourism campaigns, cross-border transportation, and economic integration of the Pacific Northwest.9 Cascadia is considered a bioregion because of the common geological, ecological, and climatic patterns found in the area. Certain scholars also assert that a similar political ideology and social consciousness link the inhabitants of the region together, despite international and state boundaries.10 In the recent past, cross-border coalitions in this region have proved to be more efficient than the two countries' respective governments when confronting regional environmental issues and disasters. A 1988 oil spill off the Pacific coast provides the perfect example of a cross-border response initiative, where representatives from the West Coast Border States assembled the International Oil Spill Task Force due to dissatisfaction with the federal authorities' reaction to the problem. 11 Its success has produced a snowball effect of increased cross-border collaboration among the local governments, and today the bioregion serves as a model of coalition-building and progressive cross-border environmental initiatives for the rest of the world.
FOOTNOTES: 8. Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/main/front_page/relationshipen.asp (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available). 9. Joachim Blatter, "Cross Border Regions: A Step Toward Sustainable Development? Experiences and Considerations from Examples in Europe and North America," in Paul Ganster, ed., Cooperation, Environment and Sustain-ability in Border Regions (San Diego: San Diego University Press and Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, 2001). 10. The Cascadia Institute, http://www.columbiana.org/cascadia_institute.htm (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available). 11. Blatter, "Cross Border Regions."
France, Switzerland, and Germany: Tri-National Transportation
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is the only completely trinational airport in the world, and it provides transportation to its surrounding tri-national region. Located in France close to the borders of Switzerland and Germany, the airport is jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives serving as advisors. The airport, which is administered under international law, is equipped with both French and Swiss customs sectors, as well as an international zone that all passengers enter before boarding the plane. Residents of the entire tri-national region consider it their "home"airport, through which they have access to more than a hundred international destinations.12 The French and the Swiss each comprise about 38 percent of local passengers, with Germans constituting the remaining 24 percent -- figures that demonstrate how comprehensively the airport works to serve its patrons from all three countries. The tri-border area, called Regio TriRhena, is also complemented by a public ground-transportation system equipped with trains and buses connecting the same communities that utilize the airport, further emphasizing the harmonious nature of the tri-national region.
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is located in France and jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives.
The EuroAirport and Regio TriRhena present a unique model for the rest of the world for functional cross-border transportation and collaborative human and economic relations. In recent years, committees from the Middle East and Eastern Europe have visited the EuroAirport seeking guidance on potential application of the successful cooperative strategies to their own border regions.13 The example of the tri-border transport systems shows that international relations around the world would be well served to implement efficient cross-border transportation programs as they demonstrate an ability to cooperate, reach agreements, and provide beneficial services to populations residing in border regions.
Southern Africa: Cross-Border Health Initiative to Combat HIV/AIDS
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization's December 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update, approximately 40.3 million people are living with HIV across the globe,14 -- 65 percent of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic's most afflicted region. In 2005, the region's HIV prevalence among adults was 7.2 percent, and 2.4 million people died as a result of the disease -- a sum that accounts for 77 percent of the worldwide AIDS death toll. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa is the region most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. According to us Agency for International Development (usAID), it is estimated that more than one-fifth of the respective adult populations in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe are living with the disease.15 Prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in the region is particularly high, demonstrating that rather than being concentrated in specific sub-groups (which tends to be the case in other parts of the world) the disease has grown to severely impact the general population. At the same time certain sub-populations, particularly in border regions, maintain a greater level of risk. Statistics show that in southern Africa mobile groups like migrant workers, truck drivers, and sex workers are three to six times more likely than the rest of the population to contract the virus.16 These groups' tendency toward mobility across borders and throughout the region makes them both difficult to diagnose and more likely to spread the disease -- reasons for which they are the principal targets for new prevention and treatment programs.
In 2000, usAID introduced the Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa (RHAP/SA), designed to complement existing programs and to coordinate prevention and treatment efforts across borders.17 The advantage of collaboration and cohesive action between countries throughout the region was recognized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as the most effective way to confront the epidemic's spread across the nations' porous borders. Knowing this, the primary focus of RHAP/SA is to reduce the levels of transmission among populations -- particularly those that are mobile -- found along critical cross-border points, in an initiative called Corridors of Hope. This program has significantly increased access to HIV/AIDS prevention methods by providing education and risk-reduction counseling as well as distributing condoms at forty-one different cross-border sites in southern Africa. According to usAID, during the fiscal year of 2004 more than two million people at different border sites were informed about preventative measures as a direct result of the RHAP/SA and Corridors of Hope activities. Emphasizing the success and value of this type of regional development, the World Health Organization reports that a thorough program encompassing both prevention and treatment throughout Sub-Saharan Africa could avert 55 percent of potential infections by 2020.18 Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to be rampant throughout southern Africa, organizers involved in the cross-border health and prevention initiatives are optimistic that regional approaches and strategies will produce positive results and prove that prevention is an issue that requires cooperation rather than isolation.
Footnotes 14. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update," special report on HIV prevention (Geneva: UN-AIDS, Dec. 2005), http://www.who.int/hiv/epi-update2005_en.pdf (accessed Oct. 17, 2006, link no longer available). 15. usAID, "Health Profile: Southern Africa Region," Dec. 2004, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006). 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. UNAIDS and World Health Organization, "AIDS Epidemic Update."
The Golden Triangle: Regional Approach Opium Eradication and Narcotraffic Control
The "Golden Triangle" -- a term used to refer to the border region where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos meet in Southeast Asia -- has historically been a hotbed for the cultivation of opium poppies, the key component in heroin production. For decades drug traffickers were in control of the region, where borders were fuzzy and narcotics were easily smuggled into the hands of local users and the lucrative international drug market. In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to change due to international pressure and an increased concern for rural communities plagued by addiction and illicit crop-dependence. The Golden Triangle region has confronted the problem by significantly cutting back on cultivation, so much so that Laos, formerly the world's third largest opium producer after Afghanistan and Myanmar, declared itself poppy-free in February
2006.19
In Kunming, a Chinese city which borders the "Golden Triangle," recovering male drug addicts take part in a marchile drill while female addicts make small dolls as part of their rehabilitation program."
This monumental eradication effort has been successful for several reasons. According to Niklas Swanstrom, director of Silk Road Studies at Sweden's Uppsala University and expert on drugs and regional cooperation, the most effective way to tackle drug smuggling is to close down borders.20 When China realized that the Golden Triangle's illicit industry was infiltrating its territories, the government responded by sealing its border with Myanmar, a strategy that significantly reduced opium smuggling in the region. Another approach that is increasingly being accepted and encouraged by the UN and the region's national governments is alternative development, preferably implemented on a cross-border, regional basis. According to the terms outlined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this is a process that provides legal alternatives to communities dependent on income from unlawful activities.21 In the absence of initiatives that offer drug-cultivators (who are primarily impoverished farmers) alternatives for survival, narcotic crop eradication has the potential to devastate the livelihoods of entire communities. Recognizing this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China ratified the ACCORD Plan of Action in 2000 for a "drug-free ASEAN 2015," with the objective of introducing new alternatives to opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle area.22 The plan requires participating nations to practice regional cooperation by sharing information, techniques, and practices of sustainable opium eradication and alternative crop cultivation in order to more effectively create change and spark development throughout the region. The positive results of the program, which has been exemplified in the case of Laos and previously in Thailand, is evidence that alternative development is successful and should be applied to other parts of the world.
Footnotes 19. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Golden Triangle: Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna, 2006:45, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006). 20. Gulnoza Saidazimova, "Central Asia: Experts Say Region Should Look to 'Golden Triangle' to Combat Drug Smuggling," Radio Free Europe (Jan. 31, 2005), http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/37d15755-5c22-4df6-a4a92ab9cc3ab944.html (accessed Sept. 7, 2006, link no longer available). 21. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Alternative Development: A Global Thematic Evaluation. Final Synthesis Report. New York, 2005, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006). 22. ASEAN Secretariat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Towards a Drug Free ASEAN and China 2015: Assessing ACCORD Progress 2000-2005" (report from the project Regional Cooperative Mechanism to Monitor and Execute the ACCORD Plan of Action, Oct. 2005), http://www.accordplan.net/file/122005/16/Assessing%20
ACCORD%20Progress%202000-2005.pdf (accessed Oct. 30, 2006, link no longer available).
According to the neoliberal policies of the world's wealthier nations and global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank, a fundamental step toward fostering economic development in poorer countries is encouraging their participation in international trade. Through the adoption of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), developing nations around the world have opened their markets in an effort to become more efficient, competitive, and integrated in the global economy. International boundaries are ignored to allow trade, investment, and money to flow easily, but borders remain tightly secured to prevent people and labor from crossing as freely. Yet despite the increased mobility of capital and the introduction of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in poorer countries, the positive results of free trade in the developing world are controversial.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an initiative that has been in negotiation between thirty-four countries since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. Promoters of the FTAA seek to open the entire western hemisphere to trade and foreign investment with the establishment of the world's largest free trade bloc. Unfortunately, like its predecessor NAFTA, the agreement largely disregards the discrepancies between the economies of the countries to which it applies, leaving little hope for an equal dispersal of free trade benefits among the different nations. Recognizing this, several Latin American nations -- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela in particular -- have spoken out against this model and instead are working toward improved and efficient regional integration. The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), which was formally established in 1991 between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, is an example of this type of regional accord. Although the trading zone was hit hard by Brazil's currency devaluation in 1999 and the 2002 collapse of Argentina's economy, Mercosur may have the capability to balance out other global economic blocs like NAFTA and the European Union, if its members continue to deepen integration through policies such as synchronizing macroeconomic policies and market regulations, adopting a common currency, reducing barriers to trade, and liberalizing migratory flows.23 In December 2004, the trade bloc signaled a shift toward increased regionalism when it entered talks with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN -- comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), culminating in a letter of intent calling for the establishment of the South American Community of Nations (CSN). CSN intends to apply the model of the European Union to their community by first lifting trade barriers throughout the continent, and proceeding to establish a common currency, passport, and parliament by the year 2019, thus opening borders in the region and establishing cohesive, universal economic development.
Footnotes 23. Matias Braun, Ricardo Hausmann, and Lant Pritchett, "The Proliferation of Sovereigns: Are There Lessons for Integration?," in Antonio Estevadeordal et al., ed., Integraing the Americas: FTAA and Beyond (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004),105 and Ernesto Lopez-Cordova and Mauricio Mesquita Moreira, "Regional Integration and Productivity: The Experiences of Brazil and Mexico," in Estevadeordal, Integrating the Americas, 599.
The present day's global economy is dependent on limited energy resources, specifically on fossil fuels. The peak oil phenomenon -- the point at which half of the planet's oil reserves are expended and subsequently go into immediate decline -- is looming, and soon will no longer be able to meet the ever-growing demand. Absent the rapid development of alternative fuel sources, the consequences of this imminent event will lead to price increases with an ensuing economic recession, and more ominously wars over control of the precious commodity. Experts in the field are not only unnerved by the dwindling amount of the global economy's fundamental fuel; the fact that the reserves are concentrated in the hands of countries whose political stability is in doubt and/or whose agenda is not pro-West is of deep concern.24
The recent emergence of a new "global energy elite" will likely put the Western nations of the world in an unprecedented position of vulnerability, as the industrialized, energy-consuming nature of their economies rely on consistent access to oil and natural gas, resources that are predominantly controlled by political actors who are not the West's unconditional allies. The case of Russia provides an apt example of this unfolding shift of power. In the advent of its largely unanticipated comeback from years in economic and political struggle in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin has made concerted and successful efforts to create a strategic position of power for itself in the global economy as the planet's chief source of natural gas. With 28 percent of the world's gas reserves located within Russia's boundaries, and estimates projecting that within two decades the country will be the provider of 50 percent of Western Europe's gas needs, the global political arena should be prepared for the potential ascendancy of Russia to its former superpower status.25 That is the acknowledged intention of the country's current president, Vladimir Putin, who prior to entering the presidency wrote that the key to Russia's rehabilitation of its "former might" was to capitalize on its role as provider of natural resources.26 The recent dispute with the government of Ukraine -- which contrary to Russia's wishes is turning toward the West and may seek to join the European Union -- exposed Russia's potential to use its gas reserves as leverage for enhancing geopolitical power and maintaining its traditional sphere of influence. On January 1, 2006, Russia's state-controlled Gazprom -- which is the world's commanding gas extractor and the third largest corporation on the planet -- cut off the gas supply to Ukraine, and effectively to that of Western Europe, which receives a majority of the energy source via Ukraine's pipeline system. The move -- meant to pressure Ukraine into paying world market prices for the commodity and end a barter system where Russia exchanged gas for use of its neighbor's pipes -- sent the European Union into a near panic and confirmed the region's dependency on Gazprom's product delivery, as it discovered that alternatives in the immediate and medium future are essentially not economical.27
Footnotes 24. Michael Hirsh, "The Energy Wars: The Rise of a New Global Energy Elite Means High Oil and Gas Prices Are Here to Stay," Newsweek (May 3, 2006). 25. Ibid. Gary J. Schmitt, "Energy Security, National Security, and Natural Gas," American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, April 2006, (accessed Sept. 7, 2006). 26. Gabe Collins, "Russia's Energy Weapon," Global Events Magazine (May 4, 2006), http://www.geostrategymap.com/docf_Guest_May04_2006.htm, (link no longer available). 27. The American Friends Service Committee, "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)," (accessed Sept. 7, 2006).
The U.S.-Mexico Hyperborder: The Boundary Between a Superpower and a Developing Nation
Cars headed north in the Otay Mesa border crossing in Tijuana.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the world's longest contiguous international divide between a superpower and a developing nation. Long-standing differences between the standards of living and economies of the neighboring nations -- as well as their geographical proximity -- have provided the framework for a border shaped by numerous complexities and unique levels of hyperactivity. Crime, corruption, free trade, urbanization, resource scarcity, migration, border control, death, and environmental degradation are just some of the influences that have come to define the nature of the hyperborder, making the boundary unique in the contemporary world for the breadth of issues confronting it.
With the intention of fostering economic stability and regional development, NAFTA, which established a free trade bloc between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, went into effect on January 1, 1994. As neoliberal free trade agreements advocate, regulations pertaining to labor, the environment, and trade were all liberalized to facilitate an efficient market system, and the free flow of goods and capital across borders began immediately. The positive effects of NAFTA are considered controversial. Although foreign investment in Mexico has swelled, exports to the United States have surged, and employment in the export-oriented manufacturing companies -- known as maquiladoras -- has doubled, many would claim that the overall effects of the trade agreement on Mexico, the us, and the border region have been largely detrimental and have not brought widespread prosperity and development. 28 Arguably the most significant impact of NAFTA has been the increase of immigration flows between Mexico and the us since its implementation. When NAFTA was up for debate in the early 1990s, many academic and political advocates claimed that the quintessentially neoliberal economic policy would decrease migration between the neighboring nations. It was argued that MNCs would create jobs for the Mexican people and thus eliminate the need to migrate for survival's sake. However, since NAFTA's introduction, contrary to the arguments made by its supporters, the us has been witness to an increase of migration from Mexico. Real wages in Mexico are lower since NAFTA came into effect,29 and between 1994 and 2003 9.3 million people entered the Mexican job market while only 3 million jobs were created.30 These harsh realities have fanned the fire of both the informal sector in Mexico and immigration rates to the United States.
In Mexico, farmworkers exemplify a sector of society that has been especially affected by the free trade agreement. As trade barriers on agricultural goods were lifted, us exports have made their way into the Mexican market and have effectively saturated it. Currently, us wheat products represent 75 percent of the Mexican wheat market, up from 56 percent before NAFTA's inception.31 In 2001, statistics showed that approximately 6.2 million tons of us-grown corn were exported to Mexico annually -- a particularly low blow for the southern nation, considering the crop's sacred value for the country where corn originated an estimated 4,000 years ago.32 Furthermore, crops grown in the us are often genetically modified, and thus appear to be of better value due to their size, an issue that angers many Mexican farmers and activists who prefer their crops -- particularly corn -- in their most natural form.33 us government-subsidized crops allow American farmers to keep prices low, crippling Mexican farmers' ability to compete with the imported goods. At a loss for alternatives, farmers must opt for survival, leading them to migrate, join the informal sector, or increasingly to enter into partnerships with Mexican drug cartels as cultivators of illegal narcotics heading to the us market.
Farmers and other Mexicans that choose to migrate in search of economic opportunities contribute to the urbanization of the border region. Currently the border population (90 percent of which lives in the fourteen sister cities) stands at around 12 million, yet by the year 2020 that statistic is expected to nearly double to 24 million.34 Since NAFTA's implementation, border cities have become destinations for rural-to-urban migrants seeking employment or staging areas before crossing, a pattern that has created expansive slums around city limits throughout the border region. The rapid population growth in border cities has made it difficult for infrastructure to keep up and has led to water scarcity, a lack of funding, increased vehicle and factory pollution, a degrading environment, health issues such as tuberculosis and a shortage of health-care workers, and higher crime rates. All of these challenges and issues contribute to the hyper state of the region.
Due to economic disparities between the two nations, the us-Mexico border has become a breeding ground for illegal activity. The trafficking of illegal drugs has become a multibillion dollar industry for the Mexican drug cartels, who utilize their geographical proximity to cater to the lucrative us market. Most illegal substances come from Mexico, which has recently displaced Colombia as the us's key supplier of narcotics. This change of power has been dubbed by many as the "Colombianization of Mexico," partly because the newfound market control has brought an upsurge in violence that is currently plaguing the nation, particularly the border region. Crimes connected to the drug cartels have reached unprecedented levels: between January and October of 2005 145 people, including 21 police officers and government officials, were killed in drug-related incidents in the border city of Nuevo Laredo alone.35Despite heightened border control, narcotraffickers have successfully increased the drug trade in recent years, exposing a dangerously intricate and perceivably impenetrable web of corruption. Due to the thriving nature of the business, money abounds for bribery and coercion. In order to complete and sustain illegal transactions, payoffs are made at every level, from politicians to police officers to border control officials, thus from the perspective of numerous players, incentives to dissipate the Mexican narcotrafficking industry are absent.
In 2005, deaths on the us side of the border reached unparalleled numbers: at least 464 immigrants perished by the end of the fiscal year, which was a 43 percent increase from 2004. This is largely due to the strengthening of the border control, which in the wake of September 11th has received increased funds from the us government. The funding has been allocated to improve technology and to hire more border personnel, making it more challenging to cross into the us illegally. Traditional crossing points have shifted from more urban, safer routes to rural, hazardous areas, requiring migrants to maneuver unknown, perilous territory and creating a boom in the human smuggling industry.
Footnotes 28. Sandra Polaski, "Jobs, Wages, and Household Income," in John Audley et al., ed., NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004): 24. 29. Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo and Marcos Chavez, "Seven Myths About NAFTA. Three Lessons for Latin America," Interhemispheric Resource Center. November, 2003, (accessed Dec. 30, 2006). 30. Debbie Seidbend, "us Wheat and Corn Exports to Mexico Thrive Under NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement," AgExporter, Jan. 2004, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006). 31. Mark Stevenson, "Mexicans Angered by Spread of Genetically Modified Corn," Dec. 29, 2001, Associated Press, http://www.genet-info.org/genet/2001/Dec/msg00039.html (accessed Sept. 5, 2006; the original link no longer available, but the article can be found at www.organicconsumers.org.) Ibid. 33. James Peach, "The Long-Run and the Energy Sector in the us-Mexico Border Region," in David A. Rohy, ed., The us-Mexican Border Environment: Trade, Energy, and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for the Border Region, Now and in 2020, SCERP monograph series no. 7. (San Diego: Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, San Diego State University Press, 2003). Alfredo Corchado and Tracy Eaton, "Is Mexico Turning Into Colombia?" Dallas Morning News, Oct. 16, 2005. 35. Ted Robbins, "Illegal Immigrant Deaths Burden Border Towns," All Things Considered, NPR News, Oct. 6, 2006, (accessed Sept. 5, 2006).
The (U.S.-Mexico) Hyperborder in the Global Context
The hyperborder is a distinct international boundary for the extensive array of influences that shape its current reality. Although examples of contentious issues or cooperative accords abound at other borders around the world, the us-Mexico border has been set apart as a site within one localized geographic region that is exposed to daily political tensions, economic disparity, hyper flows, interdependence, and more. However, through examining other border relations around the world, questions arise about the direction the hyperborder will take in the future. Could security issues make it the next North-South Korean border? Or will binational accords shape it into an integrated, fluid region like that of the borders between France, Switzerland, and Germany? Could the drug trade be demolished and replaced by alternative crop development, as the governments of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar have achieved? Or will racism and a fear of migrants result in the erection of high-tech border fences, like those between Israel and Palestine?
The border dividing the us from Mexico is subject to a wide variety of future possibilities. Increasing the unique nature of its circumstances are the varying studies that assert the region's potential for prosperity, development, and environmental entrepreneurship -- proof that the us-Mexico border could serve as a global model for positive change in the future.
This excerpt explores a variety of borders from around the world. These case studies provide examples of border relations ranging from hostile to cooperative and illustrate the types of issues — including political and ethnic tension, labor and immigration, and cooperation in the realms of environmentalism, transportation, health, and trade — that can either plague a region or make it prosper.
The spreading concern for national security has galvanized a renewed focus on border issues around the world, further sharpening autonomous and protective tendencies. Territorial disputes, contentious borders, and terrorist activities play considerable roles in the effort to secure (and oftentimes seal) international borders. Fortresslike walls are being discussed — and in some cases erected — as nations across the planet parlay with their neighbors in the post-9/11 global political climate.
Although hostility and distrust often plagues many bordering countries' relations, some international neighbors have fostered relationships characterized by cooperation and innovative approaches toward mutual development. Cross-border transportation, binational environmental accords, and regional approaches to addressing health issues are just a few examples of the ways in which some nations have worked together despite the geopolitical boundaries that divide them. Such mutually beneficial relationships can serve as models for the rest of the world in a global climate often marked by apprehension and fear.
The Borders: North Korea and South Korea »
The most fortified border in the world is that which divides North Korea, one of the last communist states, from the democratic Republic of South Korea. After World War II, when Japan ceased to rule over the unified nation of Korea, the country was divided at the 38th parallel by the Cold War enemies and world superpowers of that time, the U.S.S.R. and the United States. North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1950, the fighting ended in a cease-fire in 1953, which also marked the closing of the border and the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) — a 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) buffer zone peppered with land mines, dividing the two countries — which former President Clinton described in 2003 as "the scariest place on earth."1 The DMZ is split along the middle by the Military Demarcation Line, an ultimate barrier that if crossed would revive the war. Today some two million troops continue to patrol both sides of the 151-mile (248 km) DMZ on the perpetual brink of war, as North Korea continues its much contested nuclear weapons program while South Korean and U.S. armed forces remain alert little more than two miles away.
Next Border: Israel and Palestinian Territories »
Palestine and Israel share a history plagued with hostility and conflict. During the nineteenth century, many European Jews emigrated to Palestine under the influence of a Zionist movement that called for a homeland for Jews in Israel. This exodus continued in full force during the first half of the twentieth century in the face of World War II and the Holocaust. From the start, the arrival of the Jewish people in Palestine caused strife. The native Palestinians were often displaced due to land purchases made by the immigrants, and tensions increased because Islam and Judaism historically share the same Holy Land. In 1948, after World War II ended, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, thus establishing the State of Israel. The partition also demarcated Jerusalem as an international zone, where neither Jewish nor Arab authority would exist, in an attempt to avoid further religious conflicts. The plan failed, however, as Israel's Arab neighbors were vehemently opposed to surrendering the land. After a period of ever-increasing tension the Six Day War broke out in 1967, resulting in Israel's seizing control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights — areas heavily populated with Palestinians. The resulting "occupation," as it is perceived by the Palestinians, has been a continuing source of contention and bitter hostility. The decades since the war have been punctuated by suicide bombings committed by radical Palestinians, and the Israeli government's subsequent retaliations.
The case of Morocco and Spain as bordering nations is unique. Despite the obstacle the Strait of Gibraltar presents as a dividing mass of water between the two countries — and subsequently the two continents of Europe and Africa — illegal immigration has risen exponentially in the last twenty years. Today, Morocco is often described as being to Europe what Mexico is to the United States. As less-developed countries, Morocco and Mexico both lack viable opportunities for their citizens but geographically have relatively easy access to the wealthier, cheap labor-hungry nations of the European Union and the United States, respectively. Perhaps more so than Mexico, Morocco also serves as a "transit migration country": in recent decades it has become one of the primary staging areas for North African and increasingly sub-Saharan African immigrants en route to Europe.4 It is no surprise that Spain currently has the highest immigration rate in the European Union.
Migrants from Africa arrive to La Tejita Beach, a popular tourist destination in Spain.
In the midst of the heated debate surrounding soaring illegal immigration rates in Spain and throughout Western Europe, the region is currently facing drastic shifts in demographics due to low fertility rates and longer life expectancy. Europe's population is expected to age dramatically in the coming decades: by the year 2030 there will be one elderly person (over the age of 65) for every two people of productive, working age.5 Today the median age in the continent is 37.7 years; by 2050 it will rise to 52.3.6 At the end of the twentieth century, Spain's fertility rate ranked among the lowest in the EU at 1.2 children per woman.7 What these demographic shifts imply are a shrinking labor force, eventual economic stagnation, and a steadily growing elderly population in need of government aid, which will become increasingly unavailable if gaps in the labor force are not filled. In contrast, Morocco and the rest of the African nations have populations that are much younger. This demographic distinction, paired with the willingness (or necessity) of many Africans to migrate north in search of opportunity, could serve to fill the vacancies expected to surface in the European labor forces.
Next Border: The United States and Canada »
The United States and Canada — partners in the world's largest trading relationship — work to maintain a secure and efficient border that is conducive to mutual economic growth and prosperity.8 More than $1.2 billion in goods and services cross the border on a daily basis, and while this activity is beneficial to both economies, it has been historically taxing on the regional environment. Both countries have been committed to cooperating on environmental policies since the 1980s, and in response to increased degradation the two governments signed the Air Quality Agreement (AQA) in 1991, which required both the us and Canada to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions — contributing toxins to acid rain. In 2000, after the noticeable reduction of acid rain over the previous decade, the nations amended the AQA to include an Ozone Annex, the aim of which was to address ground-level ozone, a significant component of smog. The most recent biennial report of the AQA's progress shows that transboundary smog emissions have decreased since the implementation of the Ozone Annex, a success that encouraged the neighbors to sign the Border Air Quality Strategy in 2003, which builds further upon previous pacts made under the AQA, with a primary focus on pilot projects along the border that have launched coordinated efforts for air quality management and examinations of air pollution's effects on human health.
The area in dark gray is "Cascadia," a region of the United States and Canada which cooperate on a variety of environmental and tourism campaigns.
Along the western edge of the us-Canadian border many communities have gone beyond the environmental commitments made by the two federal governments in a unique relationship of cooperation uniting a cross-border bioregion. The recently dubbed "Cascadia" — a territory composed of several northwestern states in the us and British Columbia and Alberta in Canada — has developed regional environmental protection programs, tourism campaigns, cross-border transportation, and economic integration of the Pacific Northwest.9 Cascadia is considered a bioregion because of the common geological, ecological, and climatic patterns found in the area. Certain scholars also assert that a similar political ideology and social consciousness link the inhabitants of the region together, despite international and state boundaries.10 In the recent past, cross-border coalitions in this region have proved to be more efficient than the two countries' respective governments when confronting regional environmental issues and disasters. A 1988 oil spill off the Pacific coast provides the perfect example of a cross-border response initiative, where representatives from the West Coast Border States assembled the International Oil Spill Task Force due to dissatisfaction with the federal authorities' reaction to the problem. 11 Its success has produced a snowball effect of increased cross-border collaboration among the local governments, and today the bioregion serves as a model of coalition-building and progressive cross-border environmental initiatives for the rest of the world.
Next Border: France, Switzerland and Germany »
The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is located in France and jointly operated by the Swiss and the French, with German representatives.
The "Golden Triangle" — a term used to refer to the border region where Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, and Laos meet in Southeast Asia — has historically been a hotbed for the cultivation of opium poppies, the key component in heroin production. For decades drug traffickers were in control of the region, where borders were fuzzy and narcotics were easily smuggled into the hands of local users and the lucrative international drug market. In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to change due to international pressure and an increased concern for rural communities plagued by addiction and illicit crop-dependence. The Golden Triangle region has confronted the problem by significantly cutting back on cultivation, so much so that Laos, formerly the world's third largest opium producer after Afghanistan and Myanmar, declared itself poppy-free in February
2006.19
In Kunming, a Chinese city which borders the "Golden Triangle," recovering male drug addicts take part in a marchile drill while female addicts make small dolls as part of their rehabilitation program."
Cars headed north in the Otay Mesa border crossing in Tijuana.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the world's longest contiguous international divide between a superpower and a developing nation. Long-standing differences between the standards of living and economies of the neighboring nations — as well as their geographical proximity — have provided the framework for a border shaped by numerous complexities and unique levels of hyperactivity. Crime, corruption, free trade, urbanization, resource scarcity, migration, border control, death, and environmental degradation are just some of the influences that have come to define the nature of the hyperborder, making the boundary unique in the contemporary world for the breadth of issues confronting it.
With the intention of fostering economic stability and regional development, NAFTA, which established a free trade bloc between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, went into effect on January 1, 1994. As neoliberal free trade agreements advocate, regulations pertaining to labor, the environment, and trade were all liberalized to facilitate an efficient market system, and the free flow of goods and capital across borders began immediately. The positive effects of NAFTA are considered controversial. Although foreign investment in Mexico has swelled, exports to the United States have surged, and employment in the export-oriented manufacturing companies — known as maquiladoras — has doubled, many would claim that the overall effects of the trade agreement on Mexico, the us, and the border region have been largely detrimental and have not brought widespread prosperity and development. 28 Arguably the most significant impact of NAFTA has been the increase of immigration flows between Mexico and the us since its implementation. When NAFTA was up for debate in the early 1990s, many academic and political advocates claimed that the quintessentially neoliberal economic policy would decrease migration between the neighboring nations. It was argued that MNCs would create jobs for the Mexican people and thus eliminate the need to migrate for survival's sake. However, since NAFTA's introduction, contrary to the arguments made by its supporters, the us has been witness to an increase of migration from Mexico. Real wages in Mexico are lower since NAFTA came into effect,29 and between 1994 and 2003 9.3 million people entered the Mexican job market while only 3 million jobs were created.30 These harsh realities have fanned the fire of both the informal sector in Mexico and immigration rates to the United States.
In Mexico, farmworkers exemplify a sector of society that has been especially affected by the free trade agreement. As trade barriers on agricultural goods were lifted, us exports have made their way into the Mexican market and have effectively saturated it. Currently, us wheat products represent 75 percent of the Mexican wheat market, up from 56 percent before NAFTA's inception.31 In 2001, statistics showed that approximately 6.2 million tons of us-grown corn were exported to Mexico annually — a particularly low blow for the southern nation, considering the crop's sacred value for the country where corn originated an estimated 4,000 years ago.32 Furthermore, crops grown in the us are often genetically modified, and thus appear to be of better value due to their size, an issue that angers many Mexican farmers and activists who prefer their crops — particularly corn — in their most natural form.33 us government-subsidized crops allow American farmers to keep prices low, crippling Mexican farmers' ability to compete with the imported goods. At a loss for alternatives, farmers must opt for survival, leading them to migrate, join the informal sector, or increasingly to enter into partnerships with Mexican drug cartels as cultivators of illegal narcotics heading to the us market.
Farmers and other Mexicans that choose to migrate in search of economic opportunities contribute to the urbanization of the border region. Currently the border population (90 percent of which lives in the fourteen sister cities) stands at around 12 million, yet by the year 2020 that statistic is expected to nearly double to 24 million.34 Since NAFTA's implementation, border cities have become destinations for rural-to-urban migrants seeking employment or staging areas before crossing, a pattern that has created expansive slums around city limits throughout the border region. The rapid population growth in border cities has made it difficult for infrastructure to keep up and has led to water scarcity, a lack of funding, increased vehicle and factory pollution, a degrading environment, health issues such as tuberculosis and a shortage of health-care workers, and higher crime rates. All of these challenges and issues contribute to the hyper state of the region.
Due to economic disparities between the two nations, the us-Mexico border has become a breeding ground for illegal activity. The trafficking of illegal drugs has become a multibillion dollar industry for the Mexican drug cartels, who utilize their geographical proximity to cater to the lucrative us market. Most illegal substances come from Mexico, which has recently displaced Colombia as the us's key supplier of narcotics. This change of power has been dubbed by many as the "Colombianization of Mexico," partly because the newfound market control has brought an upsurge in violence that is currently plaguing the nation, particularly the border region. Crimes connected to the drug cartels have reached unprecedented levels: between January and October of 2005 145 people, including 21 police officers and government officials, were killed in drug-related incidents in the border city of Nuevo Laredo alone.35Despite heightened border control, narcotraffickers have successfully increased the drug trade in recent years, exposing a dangerously intricate and perceivably impenetrable web of corruption. Due to the thriving nature of the business, money abounds for bribery and coercion. In order to complete and sustain illegal transactions, payoffs are made at every level, from politicians to police officers to border control officials, thus from the perspective of numerous players, incentives to dissipate the Mexican narcotrafficking industry are absent.
In 2005, deaths on the us side of the border reached unparalleled numbers: at least 464 immigrants perished by the end of the fiscal year, which was a 43 percent increase from 2004. This is largely due to the strengthening of the border control, which in the wake of September 11th has received increased funds from the us government. The funding has been allocated to improve technology and to hire more border personnel, making it more challenging to cross into the us illegally. Traditional crossing points have shifted from more urban, safer routes to rural, hazardous areas, requiring migrants to maneuver unknown, perilous territory and creating a boom in the human smuggling industry.
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