Politics, People and Passports: Contesting Security, Travel and Trade on the US-Canadian Border

Abstract

This article examines the politics of border management in North America, particularly the United States' northern border with Canada, as a by-product of competing and overlapping domestic political discourses. It considers these perspectives in the context of US state-society relations and cross-border relations with Canada, focusing particularly on a case study on expanded requirements for personal identification for domestic and international travellers by Americans and their North American neighbours under the “Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative” (WHTI). It demonstrates the capacity of domestic and cross-border interest groups to mobilize political and bureaucratic support through American political processes to modify US domestic security rules, and the factors which contributed to these policy shifts.