The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, the longest and most dramatic meeting point of a rich and poor country, and the site of intense confrontation between law enforcement and law evasion. Border control has changed in recent years from a low-maintenance and politically marginal activity to an intensive campaign focusing on drugs and migrant labor. Yet the unprecedented buildup of border policing has taken place in an era otherwise defined by the opening of the border, most notably through NAFTA. This contrast creates a borderless economy with a barricaded border.
In the updated and expanded second edition of his essential book on policing the U.S.-Mexico border, Peter Andreas places the continued sharp escalation of border policing in the context of a transformed post-September 11 security environment. As Andreas demonstrates, in some ways it is still the same old border game but more difficult to manage, with more players, played out on a bigger stage, and with higher stakes and collateral damage.
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Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide
The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, the longest and most dramatic meeting point of a rich and poor country, and the site of intense confrontation between law enforcement and law evasion. Border control has changed in recent years from a low-maintenance and politically marginal activity to an intensive campaign focusing on drugs and migrant labor. Yet the unprecedented buildup of border policing has taken place in an era otherwise defined by the opening of the border, most notably through NAFTA. This contrast creates a borderless economy with a barricaded border.
In the updated and expanded second edition of his essential book on policing the U.S.-Mexico border, Peter Andreas places the continued sharp escalation of border policing in the context of a transformed post-September 11 security environment. As Andreas demonstrates, in some ways it is still the same old border game but more difficult to manage, with more players, played out on a bigger stage, and with higher stakes and collateral damage.
The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, the longest and most dramatic meeting point of a rich and poor country, and the site of intense confrontation between law enforcement and law evasion. Border control has changed in recent years from a low-maintenance and politically marginal activity to an intensive campaign focusing on drugs and migrant labor. Yet the unprecedented buildup of border policing has taken place in an era otherwise defined by the opening of the border, most notably through NAFTA. This contrast creates a borderless economy with a barricaded border.
In the updated and expanded second edition of his essential book on policing the U.S.-Mexico border, Peter Andreas places the continued sharp escalation of border policing in the context of a transformed post-September 11 security environment. As Andreas demonstrates, in some ways it is still the same old border game but more difficult to manage, with more players, played out on a bigger stage, and with higher stakes and collateral damage.
Peter Andreas is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Brown University. He is the author of Blue Helmets and Black Markets, also from Cornell, coauthor of Drug War Politics and Policing the Globe, and the coeditor of The Rebordering of North America and The Wall Around the West.
Table of Contents
PART I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1. The Escalation of Border Policing 2. The Political Economy of Global SmugglingPART II. POLICING AND SMUGGLING ACROSS THEU.S.-MEXICO BORDER 3. Creating the Clandestine Side of the Border Economy 4. The Escalation of Drug Control 5. The Escalation of Immigration ControlPART III. EXTENSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 6. Policing the External Borders of the New Europe 7. Borders RestatedAfterword: Border Games in a New Security ContextIndex
What People are Saying About This
Douglas S. Massey
Border Games is a penetrating analysis that not only exposes the hypocrisy of U.S. border policy in devastating detail, but explains why border enforcement has become a political necessity in the core nations of a rapidly globalizing economy. It is required reading for any serious student of the politics of immigration.
John H. Coatsworth
This fascinating and thoughtful book should be read by every citizen, policymaker, scholar, and student seeking to understand how the United States has so artfully managed to import the illegal drugs and undocumented workers its consumers and employers demand, while its government gets credit for eye-catching but ineffective campaigns to control the U.S. border with Mexico. Peter Andreas has caught the underside of the NAFTA paradox perfectly.
Abraham F. Lowenthal
With analytical skill, political savvy, empirical rigor, comparative insight and a keen sense of paradox, Peter Andreas explores a fascinating aspect of U.S. relations with Mexico today: that while state control of legal trade has been greatly relaxed and the border opened, there has been a simultaneous effort to make the border seem more closed to illegal flows of narcotics and people.
