“We need a fence!”

The spectacle of border militarization in Israel and in the USA

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-85852503880006409

Palavras-chave:

border, militarization, performativity, spectacle, securitization

Resumo

This article presents an analysis of the contemporary phenomenon commonly referred to as the “multiplication of walls”, namely the militarization of borderlands. It considers border enforcement as a policy solution about mobility portrayed as “undesirable”, propounded by politicians, security professionals and citizens’ groups for their own political benefit and interest. The “wall” is thus apprehended through a political spectacle intended for fenced-in citizens. To dissect the wall spectacle, the article resorts to an international comparison in two different geopolitical cases. The comparison specifically focuses on mobilizations in favor of “border/security fences” in Israel from 2001 and Arizona (USA) from 2010. It identifies three analogous political operations led by these actors (problematization of mobility, securitization into a military response and publicization of pro-fence narratives), and thus characterizes the manufacture of border militarization from a bottom-up perspective, while illustrating their national variations.

Biografia do Autor

Damien Simonneau, INALCO

Associate Professor in political science at Institut National des Langues et des Civilisations
Orientales – INALCO (Paris). Paris, France. E-mail: damien.simonneau@inalco.fr.

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Publicado

2022-05-13

Como Citar

Simonneau, D. (2022). “We need a fence!” : The spectacle of border militarization in Israel and in the USA . REMHU, Revista Interdisciplinar Da Mobilidade Humana, 30(64), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-85852503880006409