Geopolitics of Border Theory: The changing global mobility regime.

Building on contemporary research on the changing and heterogeneous roles of international borders, this paper examines the geopolitics of borders. In addition to relating the disciplines of geography, sociology, and international relations to their analytical foci, I argue that the global mobility regime is undergoing a fundamental shift in strategy and tactics in light of the American war on terror. The 20th C global mobility regime was designed to reify state/national structures in a way that normalized Cold War geopolitics and decolonization -- which had the aim of liberalizing the global movement of persons. In the age of globalization: geographers have pointed to the disaggregation of territoriality; sociologists pointed to the delocalization of border functions; and international relations scholars examined the changing security/mobility dynamic. In this paper I analyze the ways in which America (as the hegemonic underwriter of the global mobility regime) and the ICAO (Int'l Civil Aviation Authority - as the bearer of norms and standards for international mobility) have reacted to the war on terror. Coupling a theoretical survey of border theory with the specific empirical cases of the American border and ICAO yield a fruitful examination of the current function and symbolism of international borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]