Session organiser: Anna Moraczewska
Department of International Security, Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland
Session description
Borders are barometers of the changes taking place in a country's internal and international environment. They are a snapshot of the changes and trends occurring, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, any changes concerning borders and borderlands have important implications for the political order. Faced with known and unknown challenges, politicians make decisions about the rules of the border, which are implemented at the borders themselves, in border regions and in borderlands. In different countries we can observe different strategies for adapting the border firstly to threats and secondly to political decisions towards the border. We can distinguish between retroactive, reactive and anticipatory adaptations, which apply to borders and borderlands.
This trend can also be observed in theoretical studies of the border and borderland concepts. With the increase in threats of various origins to state security, more studies have emerged on the phenomenon of border securitisation and its effects. The concepts of mobile borders, smart borders, biopolitical borders, teichopolitics and referring to the concept of borders from the 1920s and 1930s have become popular.
The aim of the debate in the session will be:
– to identify different types of border and borderland adaptation to security challenges and political decisions
– evolution of border practices
– policy decisions vis-à-vis the role and infrastructure of borders
– narratives on the role of the border and borderlands in both theory and practice
– best border practices
– new trends that will shape borders and borderlands in future
– case studies of border adaptation
– border vulnerability
– border resilience
– and related topics.
The discussion among researchers, experts, practitioners is to bring recommendations for politicians and border societies in a form of a publication.
