ABSTRACT
As we move deeper into the twenty-first century, the forces of globalisation continue to transform both the spaces around international borders and the social processes and political dynamics within and between these spaces. The future of international border regions and societies is now a critical area of scholarly inquiry.1 The geographies of border regions have undergone a dramatic transformation over the last half century; nation-state boundaries grow ever more porous in many (though not all) areas of the planet. Global trade has become an accepted norm in business transactions almost everywhere. Coupled with the revolution in digital technology, the era of globalisation promises to continue to challenge old ideas with new approaches to understanding international boundaries and the regions they impact. Scholarly debates about globalising borders began heating up in the 1980s and
1990s, when the first wave of the “deterritorialisation discourse” flourished. Where borders had previously been viewed as barriers, emerging phenomena such as global manufacturing and transnational trade, combined with seasonal or permanent cross-border labour migration, led to an outpouring of fresh debates and novel perspectives. Borders were viewed as becoming “softer” as global processes transcended them, bringing societies on either side into closer socio-economic contact. The new discourse on borders was highlighted by studies of cross-border change in North America and Europe.2
