Speed Bumps and Accelerators

This paper looks at some of the most pressing challenges to border management policies in the transatlantic area. Borders are treated as physical spaces where the link between external and internal security is most visible: whenever efforts to deal with a specific challenge by diplomatic or other means fail, the consequences will be felt on the borders. This is the case with Syria where the continued conflicts and the absence of political solution have resulted in record numbers of Syrian refugees on the EU borders. In the United States, the difficulties experienced by the government of Mexico in dealing with drug-traffickers and gangs in the north translate into problems on the U.S.-Mexico borders and within the U.S. territory itself. Finally, despite development aid provided to poorest nations, each year millions of people abandon their homes and migrate in the search of a better life. This paper looks at border management in a broader context whereby borders represent the last line of “defense” before an external issue becomes an internal problem in the transatlantic area.