Cultures of Border Control: Schengen and the Evolution of Europe's Frontiers

The dissertation examines one of the most remarkable and controversial developments in the recent history of European integration, namely the institutionalization of a regional policy regime to manage the continent’s frontiers. By adopting this regime (known in policy circles as ‘Schengen’), European governments have in fact relinquished part of their sovereign authority over the politically sensitive issue of border control, thereby challenging what for a long time was the dominant national approach to policy-making in this domain. In order to account for the regime’s emergence and success, a constructivist analytical framework centred on the notion of ‘cultures of border control’ is advanced. From this perspective, the adoption of a regional approach to govern Europe’s frontiers is the result of the evolution of a nationalist (‘Westphalian’) culture—or set of background assumptions and related practices about borders shared by a given policy community—into a post-nationalist one (‘Schengen’). The cultural evolutionary argument elaborated in the dissertation captures the unique political dynamics that have characterized border control in Europe in the last two decades and offers a more nuanced account of recent developments than those available in the existing European Studies literature. It can also shed light on current trends defining European politics beyond border control (e.g., Europe’s policy towards its neighbours) and on other attempts to regionalize border control outside Europe (e.g., the proposal for a North American security perimeter).

Department dc:contributor.department

Political Science

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Zaiotti, Ruben

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Adler, Emanuel
• Bernstein, Steven Franklin
• Hansen, Randall

• border control
• Schengen
• Europe
• evolution
• culture

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 2.5 Canada

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ca/

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/17311

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/17311