Border militarization, technology and crime control

Abstract

This chapter begins with an account of what is conventionally understood as border militarization: the fortification of the border and the involvement of military and para-military personnel in border control. This will be followed – using the European Border Surveillance System as a case-study – with an examination of how militarized pre-emptive logics, with evident affinities to those emerging from the ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’, inform the design and operationalization of informatized and militarized border control. The chapter examines how the ‘virtual border’ is militarized, drawing upon Amoore’s notion of ‘algorithmic war’. The militarization of the border through naval interdiction practices is evident in other borderzones, notably in the USA and Australia. The advent of high-technology border surveillance systems that integrate hardware and software evidences how border militarization is both material and virtual. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the limits, trends and consequences of high-technology border militarization in the Global North.