Europe's Border Crisis - Biopolitical Security and Beyond

Develops distinctive and original readings of a range of texts in contemporary biopolitical theory Provides a new paradigm for critical thought, judgment, and action in response to Europe's border crisis Sets out new empirical and conceptual research, drawing upon NGO research, 'irregular' migrants' testimonies, and fieldwork Europe's Border Crisis investigates dynamics in EU border security and migration management and advances a path-breaking framework for thought, judgment, and action in this context. It argues that a crisis point has emerged whereby irregular migrants are treated as both a security threat to the EU and as a life that is threatened and in need of saving. This leads to paradoxical situations such that humanitarian policies and practices often expose irregular migrants to dehumanizing and lethal border security mechanisms. The dominant way of understanding these dynamics, one that blames a gap between policy and practice, fails to address the deeper political issues at stake and ends up perpetuating the terms of the crisis. Drawing on conceptual resources in biopolitical theory, particularly the work of Roberto Esposito, the book offers an alternative diagnosis of the problem in order to move beyond the present impasse. It argues that both negative and positive dimensions of EU border security are symptomatic of tensions within biopolitical techniques of government. While bordering practices are designed to play a defensive role they contain the potential for excessive security mechanisms that threaten the very values and lives they purport to protect. Each chapter draws on a different biopolitical key to both interrogate diverse technologies of power at a range of border sites and explore the insights and limits of the biopolitical paradigm. Must border security always result in dehumanization and death? Is a more affirmative approach to border politics possible? Europe's Border Crisis sets out a new horizon for addressing these and related questions. Readership: Scholars and students interested in International Relations, European Studies, Security Studies, and Migration Studies.

Part 1 Borders, crises, critique 1.: Europes border crisis 2.: European border security and the crisis of humanitarian critique 3.: Conceptual crises in critical border and migration studies 4.: Key themes and a map of the study Part 2. Biopolitical borders 5.: Introduction 6.: European border security and migration management: from Schengen to the Arab Spring 7.: Foucault and the biopolitical paradigm 8.: Biopolitical border security in Europe Part 3. Thanatopolitical borders 9.: Introduction 10.: The sovereign ban and thanatopolitical spaces 11.: Reassessing Agamben in critical border and migration studies 12.: Push-backs and abandonment in the European borderscape Part 4. Zoopolitical borders 13.: Introduction 14.: Borderwork and contemporary spaces of detention in Europe 15.: Critical infrastructure, dehumanization, animalization 16.: Derridas zoopolitics and the bestial potential of border security Part 5. Immunitary borders 17.: Introduction 18.: Life, politics, and immunity in Esposito 19.: The immunitary paradigm 20.: Reconceptualizing the border as an immune system Part 6. Affirmative borders 21.: Introduction 22.: Affirmative biopolitics 23.: Towards an affirmative biopolitical border imaginary 24.: Affirmative headings for European border security and migration management