The Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration Controls in North America and Europe

Timothy Snyder (& Peter Andreas)

The Wall Around the West:
State Borders and Immigration Controls in North America and Europe

Even as economic and military walls have come down in the post-Cold War era, states have rapidly built new barriers to prevent a perceived invasion of “undesirables.” Nowhere is this more dramatically evident than along the geographic fault lines dividing rich from poor countries: especially the southern border of the United States, and the southern and eastern borders of the European Union. This volume examines the practice, politics, and consequences of building these new walls in North America and Europe. At the same time, it challenges dominant accounts of globalization, in which state borders will be irrelevant to the human experience. In short, the volume brings borders back in to the study of international politics.

List of Contributors
Maria-Elena Alcaraz, Malcolm Anderson, Peter Andreas, Roland Freudenstein, Virginie Guiraudon, Leszek Jesien, Rey Koslowski, Gallya Lahav, Christopher Mitchell, Gustavo Moha, Joseph Nevins, Timothy Snyder, David Spener, John Torpey, and Milada Vachudova.


“As restrictions on trade, capital, and technology flows come down, border control agencies have often become the fastest growing branches of Western governments. The Wall Around the West tackles head-on the central issue of how to reconcile the conflicting demands of economic growth and social coherence in the context of declining birth rates and immigration pressures. This book provides a penetrating analysis of the basic dilemma confronting Western societies.”
- Samuel Huntington, Harvard University

“Peter Andreas and Timothy Snyder have put together an excellent book. The essays in this volume offer a critique of the growing literature on globalization, reminding us that, in spite of trendy arguments about the de-territorialization of the state, borders still matter.”
- James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University

“The Berlin Wall may have fallen, but the European Union and the United States have built new walls at their borders to keep out migrants from without. This book admirably combines a comparative approach to both international migration processes and the attempts of states to control and prevent such migrations. With subtlety and historical depth, the authors analyze Latin American, Caribbean, and Eastern European migrations as well as U.S. and European Union migrant deterrence and control policies.”
- Jorge I. Dominguez, Harvard University

“This volume is highly recommendable. The volume makes inspiring reading by virtue of its deliberate challenge to radical postmodern theory about the future of the state and its meticulous documentation.”
- International Affairs


Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000