ABSTRACT

Border security is a unilateral projection of sovereignty publicly represented as a communicated message. One of the most senior enforcement agents involved in the Tampa Affair recalls his involvement in this key point of border security's Australian emergence as being about 'sending the message'. 'Sending the message' of border security enacts a theory of communication; it also expresses the theory that border security is – or is about – communication. This chapter tracks the message of border security, noting a political consistency among these shifting addresses: all of these speech acts speak to the necessity of border security, and all of them involve their audiences in this 'necessity'. In varying ways they are about sending the message of border security, which includes the idea that border security is about sending the message. In order to better observe the publics for the message of border security, the chapter accepts Luhmann's invitation to emphasise communication's emergence.