Border Politics in a Global Era

Kathleen Staudt, Professor of Political Science and Endowed Professor of Western Hemispheric Trade Policy Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, has been teaching and researching in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands for over thirty years. Among her various books, ten focus on borders, the last of which (with Zulma Méndez) is titled Courage, Resistance, and Women in Ciudad Juárez: Challenges to Militarization (University of Texas Press, 2015). Staudt founded UTEP’s Center for Civic Engagement and is active in many non-governmental organizations.

• 1. Border Politics in a Global Era2. Geography, Maps, and the ‘Other’ in History”3. Global Inequalities and Local Borderlands: Laying the Conceptual Foundations”4. The Americas: An Interdependent US-Mexico Borderlands5. From Borderlessness to the Scars of Partition in Post-Colonial South Asia6. European Integration (Under Threat): Mobility in a Superstructure7. Maritime and Riverine Borders8. Securities: Environment, Safety, and Survival9. Citizenship, Migration, and People’s Movement across Borders10. Freer and Fairer Trade in Borderlands11. Borderlands in Films12. Toward Solutions in Policy Change, Institutions and Democracy: Global to Borderlands13. Conclusions: Answering Questions, Asking More while Advancing Border Theories

This is a fascinating book on borders and borderlands. International in scope and drawn from years of fieldwork and firsthand experience, Kathleen Staudt analyzes the ways that the border and enforcement powers of the state shape and distort the lives of those caught within its spheres of influence. Multi-disciplinary in its methodology, Staudt presents a lucid portrayal of border politics through the lens of nationality, gender, security, culture, race and economics. It is an outstanding achievement that combines accessibility with a deep social science analysis.