Living through the amplification of differentiation: borders and the international in the twenty-first century

Benjamin J. Muller

Chapter 12 in Border Studies, 2025, pp 225-240 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The discourses surrounding borders, borderlands, and the international in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries reflect a complex interplay of contradictory forces that is characterized here as an ‘amplification of differentiation’. Despite notions of a borderless world, exemplified by events like the Schengen Agreement and the fall of the Berlin Wall, empirical evidence reveals the persistence of physical and virtual borders. This persistence intersects with colonial legacies, ecological concerns, and capitalist interests, which shape contemporary debates and practices surrounding borders. The contrast between the world's wealthiest, as representatives for free-flowing capitalism, and the ecological crisis and Indigenous peoples around the world, are some of the sharpest differentiations. As such, the chapter considers how borders continue to serve as instruments of exclusion and precarity, exacerbating tensions between open-border advocacy and nationalist agendas, leading to deeply differential border experiences, examined through the experiences of capitalism, ecology, and Indigeneity. The relationship between borders and international relations reflects a dynamic interplay of territorial demarcations, political interactions, and socioeconomic factors, influencing power dynamics and identities on a global scale. Ultimately, the chapter exposes the extent to which the contemporary narrative of borders and the international is characterized by an amplification of differentiation, manifest in paradoxes, contradictions, and persistent struggles for decolonization and social justice amidst the forces of globalization and nationalism.

Keywords: International relations; Capitalism; Indigenous peoples; Ecology; Social justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781800375383
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