Faculty presentation of my sabbatical research

International Borders: Canada-U.S.-Mexico Examples

DefinitionsBoundaries differentiate places from each other, e.g. Roman Catholic areas from Lutheran ones in the United States; Alpine from Mediterranean climates in Europe; or cities from surrounding rural areas. Boundaries lack nation-state enforcements.

Borders separate places from each other, creating barriers between places, and are established and maintained by nation-state enforcements. In their earliest forms, borders were the edges of highly organized political empires; later, they became the expressions of centrally-organized nation-states. In all cases, the police power of states were/are critical to the creation and maintenance of borders. Throughout history, borders ranged from controlled but otherwise open to restricted to highly fortified and even militarized and, thus borders effectively close off areas in one way or another. Regardless of which types of borders, borders are exclusionary, whereas boundaries fundamentally only differentiate.

With the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, political systems emerged as nation states with fixed territories defined by borders, sovereignty, and citizenship, which characterize the countries of the world today.

The treaty ended the Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire and the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Netherlands and created a new political order in Central Europe which for the first time established and recognized state sovereignty over specific spatial territories.

International Borders: Types and Consequences

International Borders: Types and Consequences

International borders are both the end of one cultural-political system (leaving one country) and the start of another cultural-political system (entering another country) on either side of borders.

International Borders: Types and Consequences

International Borders: Types and Consequences

International Borders: Types and Consequences

The European Union is debordering its member country borders, an example of postmodern cooperation.

International Borders: Types and Consequences

I want to use the borders of the United States with Canada and Mexico to illustrate

the types of international borders.

Canada-U.S. Border

Source: National Film Board of Canada, 1941

U.S.-Canada Border

Manitoba border

Quebec border(http://scrapetv.com/News)

U.S.-Canada BorderIn the towns of Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, two streets that cross the international line without any checkpoints. Technically, any time anyone crosses the international line, they are subject to having to report, in person, to a port of entry inspection station for the country they are entering. Pedestrians on the sidewalk are also technically required to report as soon as they cross the line. Visiting someone on the other side of the line, even if the building is next door, means walking around to the inspection station first, or risk being an outlaw. Playing catch on Maple Street/Rue Ball would be an international event, and would break no laws presumably, so long as each time the ball was caught, the recipient marched over to customs to declare the ball.

U.S.-Canada BorderWhen the international line crosses through a building, such as the small apartment building in Derby Line/Stanstead, residents do not need to report if they cross the line inside the building. They only need to report if they leave out the side of the building that opens on to a different country than the one they entered the building from.

The building’s interior ends up being an international space, surrounded by Canada and the U.S. on either side.

Photos: http://www.daylife.com

The most prominent building on the line is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, built intentionally on the border in 1901, as a symbol of international harmony. The entrances, one leading into the library, and the other heading up the stairs to the opera house-theater, however, are in the United States.

The line painted on the floor inside the library and opera house is more than just a novelty. Apparently it was required in order to show which portions of the structure and furnishings would be covered by the separate Canadian and U.S. insurance policies.

Greater Mexico, past and present -- based on vodka!?

Would a map showing the former British/U.S. territorial claims in Canada be used for an advertisement?

U.S.-Mexico BorderThe United States is rebordering its border with Mexico. A once open border is increasing been turned into a highly restricted, fenced, even walled, and most recently militarized border.

2,000 mile border: The longest border between a rich country and a poor one in the world; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the USA was $ 47,422; in Mexico, $14,932 in 2009.

Current U.S.-Mexico Border

Current U.S.-Mexico BorderArticle 12 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights says “Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his [sic] own,” but it does not assure the right of people to enter another country! Only the rights of individuals within existing nation-states are recognized but not the universal human right of the free movement of people regardless of nation borders. Hence, “evil” governments, as the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies and North Korea have been called, were/are shamed by this declaration, but all the countries that keep people out are acting legally, if not morally!

International laws does not prohibit using propaganda and financial incentives to lure people to leave their own countries, as the West German governments did with people in “Communist” East Germany, the Israeli governments did with Jews in “Communist” Soviet Union, and the USA governments has done with people from “Communist” Cuba.

Source: Based on information from Daniel D. Arreola, “The Fence and Gates of Ambos Nogales: A Postcard Landscape Exploration,” pp. 43-79, in On the Border, edited by Andrew Grant Wood (Lanham, MD: SR Books, 2001).

Canada-U.S.-Mexico BorderIn 1979 Mexicans and U.S. residences were playing volleyball in Naco, Arizona, using the border fence between Mexico and Arizona as a net.Source: The High Definite, http://www.thehighdefinite.com/?s=mexican+border, accessed 9/17/2010.

Source: National Geographic, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/us-mexican-border/bowden-field-notes, accessed 9/17/2010.

The Arizona-Mexico border between Douglas and Naco, Arizona in 2010!

Canada-U.S.-Mexico Border Trade

Future of U.S Bordersclosed borders?

These U.S. government signs appear on a grassy trail (shown by the orange arrow) which goes into Manitoba, Canada. But local people just drive around the sign! Canadian governments have not put up such signs on their side of the border.

or open borders?