Critical border studies

![CDATA[In the aftermath of the Second World War, the study of borders in the West was confined to the traditional disciplines of geopolitics and political geography. Consequently, “the border” was not acknowledged as a basic concept of political theory and political science. Instead, the border was taken for granted, and considered as a kind of neutral institution, insofar as borders appeared to be comparatively stable. Elsewhere in the world, however, the situation was quite different. In the context of the struggles and turmoil of decolonization, the establishment of new borders led to bloody conflicts, which in a way were foreshadowed by the catastrophe of the partition of the Indian sub-continent. The end of the Cold War substantially changed this situation and in Europe, in particular, the wars that spelled the end of Yugoslavia were a dramatic warning regarding the new relevance of borders. While mainstream authors were celebrating the emergence of a “borderless world” driven by a market economy and liberal democracy, there was a pronounced awareness among critical thinkers in the early 1990s that what was discussed as “globalization” was in fact characterized by the proliferation of borders and, at the same time, a profound transformation of borders. The work of Étienne Balibar (1992) can be considered as symptomatic in this regard.]]