Border Games - (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) 2nd Edition by Peter Andreas (Paperback)

About the Book

The second edition of this book places the continued sharp escalation of border policing in the context of a transformed post-September 11 security environment.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Border Games provides an in-depth and comparative analysis of the border policies.... Required reading for anyone with an interest in U.S.-Mexico relations and the American West.

An engaging and readable book.... This slim volume is recommended for all levels.

At a time when economic globalization is seen opening borders throughout the world, the boundary enforcement has intensified along the longest border between a rich and poor country, the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Andreas offers a broad overview of smuggling immigrants and drugs into the U.S. from Mexico and intensified enforcement efforts. On a broader scale, Andreas looks at international trends in smuggling and border enforcement in Europe.

The difficulty in policing a complex border like that between the United States and Mexico, specifically stemming the flow of illegal drugs and immigration, demonstrates, according to Peter Andreas's insightful and pathbreaking analysis, the challenge associated with globalization, diminished sovereignty, and economic integration between developed and developing countries.... Andreas's insightful and rigorous study is an important contribution to the literature on globalization and transnational illicit trade.

This outstanding book is a much-needed addition to the literature on the policing of international boundaries. Because it is so well written and concise, it fits beautifully into political geography curricula at the undergraduate as well as at the graduate level. Hopefully the book will inspire geographers to take up questions similar to those that Peter Andreas has so capably interrogated.

About the Author

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.