Beyond Walls: Re-inventing the Canada-United States Borderlands

September 11, 2001 marked the beginning of a new era of security imperatives for many countries where previously terrorist threats were perceived as distant and overseas rather than arising in the homeland. The border between Canada and the United States suddenly emerged from relative obscurity to become a focus of constant attention by media, federal and state/provincial governments on both sides of the boundary, and the public at large. People who once took for granted the 'longest undefended border in the world' became concerned about passports, barriers to tourism, secure goods transfer, and many more issues that now make the border very real indeed for millions of Americans and Canadians.This book provides a comprehensive examination of the Canada-USA Border in its 21st Century form, placing it within the context of border and borderlands theory, globalization and the changing geopolitical dialogue. It argues that this border has been reinvented as a 'state of the art', technology-steeped crossing system, while the image of the border has been engineered to appear consistent with the 'friendly' border of the past. It shows how a border can evolve to a heightened level of security and yet continue to function well, sustaining the massive flow of trade. It suggests that, in doing so, the US-Canada border offers a model for future borderlands, not only for North America, but also in conflict border zones, the meshed border regions of the EU, Africa's artificial line boundaries, and other global situations.