Identities, Borderscapes, Orders: (In)Security, (Im)Mobility and Crisis in the EU and Ukraine (Frontiers in International Relations)

This book provides a pre-history of Russia's war on Ukraine and Europe’s relations to it, illuminating the deep roots of the EU’s neighbourhood crisis as well as the migration crises the Union created in the last decade. To do so, the book employs a new and innovative framework that allows for a comprehensive, yet nuanced analysis of borders and a more cogent interpretation of their socio-political consequences. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship the book analytically examines the key common elements of borderscapes and links them in related arrays to allow for nuanced evaluation of both their particular and cumulative effects, as well as interpretation of their overall consequences, particularly for issues of identities and orders. The book offers a significant conceptual and theoretical advance, providing a transferable conceptualization of borderscapes to guide research, analysis, and interpretation. Drawing on the author’s experience in policy, practice and academia, it also makes a methodological contribution by pushing the boundaries of reflexivity in interpretive International Relations (IR) research. Analyzing three main sites in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the book challenges conventional critical wisdom on EU bordering in the Schengen zone, at its external frontiers, and in its Eastern neighborhood. In so doing, it sheds new light on the politics of post-communist transitions as well as the contemporary politics of CEE. It also shows how EU bordering and its relations to identities and orders created great benefits for many Europeans, but also hindered the lives of many others and became self-defeating. This book is a must-read for scholars, students, and policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of Critical Border Studies (CBS) in particular, and International Relations in general. It will also appeal to anyone interested in CEE or wishing to get a deeper understanding of Russia’s war and the fight for Europe’s future. Preface 7 Contents 9 Chapter 1: Introduction: Identities, Borders and Orders in Central and Eastern Europe 13 1.1 Research Questions 17 1.1.1 Main Questions 18 1.1.2 Subsidiary Questions 18 1.2 Book Contributions and Chapter Outline 18 1.3 Chapter Outline 21 References 24 Chapter 2: Conceptualising the Borderscape 26 2.1 Over-generalisation and Over-specification 28 2.1.1 Conceptualising the Borderscape 30 2.2 Constituting the Borderscape: A Framework for Analysis (& Representation) 31 2.2.1 Features, Discourses and Practices 33 2.3 Distinguishing and Contextualising the Borderscape: An Interpretive Framework 37 2.3.1 Distinguishing a Borderscape: The Intersection of (In)Security and (Im)Mobility 37 2.3.2 Contextualising the Borderscape: Identities-Borderscapes-Orders 39 2.4 Socio-political Underpinnings of the Borderscape 43 2.4.1 Mobilising Security in Word and Deed 43 2.4.2 Power, Resistance and the Limits of the Social 47 2.5 Spatialities of the Borderscape 49 2.5.1 Space and Subjectivity 49 2.5.2 Performative Placemaking 51 2.5.3 Territory and Materiality 52 2.5.4 Space/Power/Knowledge 54 2.6 Temporalities and Particularities of the CEE Borderscape 55 2.6.1 A Particular Europe 56 2.6.2 Historicism at the End of History 57 2.6.3 Histories ́ Ends 59 2.6.4 Memory Contra History? 61 2.7 The Conceptualised Borderscape: Analysable, Interpretable, Researchable 62 References 63 Chapter 3: Interpretively Researching the CEE Borderscape 72 3.1 Elements of an Interpretive Methodology 73 3.2 A Particular Research Journey 75 3.2.1 From Dissatisfied Practitioner to Critical Academic 76 3.2.2 From Critical Academic to Post-critical Researcher 78 3.3 Mapping the Borderscape 81 3.3.1 Mapping an Emerging Concept 81 3.3.2 Mapping Sites, Actors and Settings 83 3.3.3 Conducting Interpretive Research 84 3.3.4 Research Skills, Phases and Sensibilities 85 3.3.5 Deskwork Methods 86 3.3.6 Fieldwork Methods 86 3.4 Reflexive, Post-critical Interpretive Research 89 3.4.1 Negotiating Access, Negotiating Proximity 90 3.4.2 Sense(s) of Doubt 93 References 96 Chapter 4: A Diverse Archipelago: Borderscape Features 99 4.1 Firewalls: Internal Control in a Schengen State 101 4.1.1 Mobile Police Controls 102 4.1.2 Inconvenient, But Not Oppressive Bureaucracy 104 4.2 Shadows: Bordering Between Schengen States 106 4.2.1 Shadow Policing at Intra-Schengen Frontiers 107 4.2.2 Twilight Zones 109 4.3 A Filter (Not a Fortress) 112 4.3.1 Border Constructions 113 4.3.2 Local Border Traffic 115 4.4 The Visa `Curtain-Wall ́ 117 4.4.1 Consular Remote-Control 118 4.4.2 Behind the Curtain-Wall: 2nd Class Europe 120 4.5 Twisted Mirrors: EU Bordering in Ukraine 123 4.5.1 Externalised Border Mirrors 123 4.5.2 Twisted Mirrors in an Uncanny Borderland 126 4.6 A Diverse Archipelago of Border Features 128 References 132 Chapter 5: Euro-renovations: Borderscape Discourses 136 5.1 An Area of Freedom, Security and Justice 138 5.1.1 Freedom: Mobility in Security 139 5.1.2 Justice: Ruling and Bounding 141 5.2 From Hierarchy to Belonging 144 5.2.1 Hierarchy: EU Members but Non-core Europeans? 145 5.2.2 Belonging: Enacting Political Subjectivity in the EU 146 5.3 Shared Values and Shared Interests in the EU ́s Eastern Neighbourhood 149 5.3.1 Shared Values Among a `Ring of Friends ́ 150 5.3.2 Shared Interests: Friends with Benefits? 152 5.4 Justifying Division Through Divergent Values and Interests 154 5.4.1 Different Standards, Different Values 155 5.4.2 Divergent Interests: Justifying Bordering, Delineating Belonging 158 5.5 Threats and Fears: Discursively Securitising Ukraine 160 5.5.1 Threats of Difference: Organised Crime and Disorganised Migration 160 5.5.2 Fears of the East: The Devils in Western Minds 162 5.6 Discursive `Euro-Renovations ́ in EU-Ukraine Relations 165 References 169 Chapter 6: Limiting Europe: Borderscape Practices 174 6.1 Europeanising: Capacity Without Community 176 6.1.1 Europeanising National Frontiers 177 6.1.2 Limits to Europeanisation 179 6.2 Knowing: Risk Analysis and the Distortion of EU Bordering 182 6.2.1 Risk Analysis as Dominant Mode of Border Knowledge 182 6.2.2 Opportunity Cost: Limitations of Risk Analysis 184 6.3 Protecting: Borders and Migrants 187 6.3.1 Protecting the Border 188 6.3.2 Protecting Migrants, Limiting Mobilities 190 6.4 Facilitating: Formal and Informal Ways In 193 6.4.1 Formal Facilitations: Privileges 193 6.4.2 Informal Facilitations: Negotiations 196 6.5 Moving: CEE Mobilities Within and Without the EU 198 6.5.1 Movement Within the EU and the Schengen Zone 199 6.5.2 Movement Between the EU and Ukraine 201 6.6 Border Practices as Limits to European Potential 204 References 207 Chapter 7: Conclusion: A Moveable East and the EU ́s Unfulfilled Potential 210 7.1 EU Borderings, Identities and (Dis)Orders in CEE 211 7.1.1 EU-European Order and Identity 212 7.1.2 Eastern-European Order and Identity 214 7.1.3 (In)Security, (Im)mobilty and (Dis)Order: The EU ́s Multiple Crises 216 7.2 From Crises to Opportunities: Future (Research) Directions 219 References 223 Chapter 8: Epilogue: Europe Through the Prism of Russia ́s War on Ukraine 225 8.1 Epilogue 228 8.2 Mobility: A Tale of Two Crises (and a Visa Liberalisation) 229 8.2.1 Crisis: 2013-2016 229 8.2.2 Freer Movement, for Some: 2016-2021 231 8.2.3 A Different Crisis, a Different Response: 2022 233 8.3 EU Dis-Ordering: Forsaking Creative Geopolitics, Transformative Power and Progressive Security 235 8.3.1 Losing Their Religion: A Less Inspired, Less Clear-Eyed, Less Capable EU 237 8.3.2 The Rise of Protective Security and the Fall of Progressive EU Ordering 239 8.4 (Non-core) Europe: CEE as the EU ́s (Re-)Moveable East? 241 8.4.1 The Return of Non-core Europe? 242 8.4.2 The EU ́s Core Problem 245 8.5 Twilight at Dawn: Neo-Idealism, Embracing Ukraine and UnCancelling EUrope ́s Future 249 8.5.1 The New, Hard-Edged Idealism and Its Opponents 249 8.5.2 EUrope ́s Identities, Borderscapes and Orders 253 8.5.3 UnCancelling the Future: The EU Can Rise Again Its East 257 References 259 Appendix A: List of Fieldwork Activities and Fieldwork Reference Key 269 Fieldwork Activities: Czech Site 270 Fieldwork Activities: Polish Site 271 Fieldwork Activities: Ukrainian Site 273 Appendix B: List of Acronyms 274 This book provides a pre-history of Russia's war on Ukraine and Europe’s relations to it, illuminating the deep roots of the EU’s neighbourhood crisis as well as the migration crises it created in the last decade. To do so, the book employs a new and innovative framework that allows for a comprehensive, yet nuanced analysis of borders and a more cogent interpretation of their socio-political consequences. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship the book analytically examines the key common elements of borderscapes and links them in related arrays to allow for nuanced evaluation of both their particular and cumulative effects, as well as interpretation of their overall consequences, particularly for issues of identities and orders. The book offers a significant conceptual and theoretical advance, providing a transferable conceptualization of borderscape to guide research, analysis, and interpretation. Drawing on the author’s experience in policy, practice and academia, it also makes a methodological contribution by pushing the boundaries of reflexivity in interpretive International Relations (IR) research. Analyzing three main sites in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the book challenges conventional critical wisdom on EU bordering in the Schengen zone, at its external frontiers, and in its Eastern neighborhood. In so doing, it sheds new light on the post-communist transitions as well as the contemporary politics of CEE. It also shows how European Union bordering and its relations to identities and orders created great benefits for many Europeans, but also hindered the lives of many others and became self-defeating. This book is a must-read for scholars, students, and policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of Critical Border Studies (CBS) in particular, and International Relations in general. It will also appeal to anyone interested in CEE or wishing to get a deeper understanding of Russia’s war and the fight for Europe’s future.