Abstract
How do borderlands matter for upstream engagement, aiming to reduce threats to global stability and security that arise from the world’s increasing interconnectedness? I show that border areas in vulnerable regions are hubs of protracted conflict that undermine security not just locally, but across the globe. Violent non-state groups take advantage of these spaces to engage in cross-border operations through which they strengthen transnational networks. They also benefit from deficient state capacities in these zones to impose illicit governance structure. Borderlands thus host long-term drivers of instability: They are strategic corridors for transnational organised crime, sites of retreat for conflict actors and safe havens of terrorists. Employing a transnational borderland perspective, I conclude that upstream operations currently follow an approach that is ill-equipped to address the security threats that emanate from such regions: First, they are guided by state-centric concepts of security that focus on borderlines rather than borderlands; and second, they prioritise governance functions provided by the state, thereby neglecting how governance functions are taken over by violent non-state actors. The chapter draws on empirical data from a seven-year study including over a year of fieldwork in and on Colombia’s borderlands.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andreas, P. 2003. Redrawing the line: Borders and security in the twenty-first century. International Security 28, 78–111.
Andreas, P. 2009. Border games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide, 2nd ed. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Andreas, P., and Nadelmann, E.A. 2006. Policing the globe: Criminalization and crime control in international relations. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Army. 2013. Transforming the British Army. An update July 2013. Army Headquarters, Andover.
Baud, M., and van Schendel, W. 1997. Toward a comparative history of borderlands. Journal of World History 8, 211–242.
Boutros-Ghali, B. 1992. An agenda for peace: Preventative diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping. United Nations, New York.
Carter, D.B., and Goemans, H.E., 2011. The making of the territorial order: New borders and the emergence of interstate conflict. International Organization 65, 275–309.
Clawson, P., and Lee, R.W. 1996. The Andean cocaine industry. Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Clement, N.C., 2004. Economic forces shaping the borderlands, in: Morehouse, B.J., Pavlakovich-Kochi, V., Wastl-Walter, D. (Eds.), Challenged borderlands: Transcending political and cultural boundaries. Ashgate, Aldershot: 41–62.
Clunan, A.L., Trinkunas, H.A. (Eds.). 2010. Ungoverned spaces: Alternatives to state authority in an era of softened sovereignty. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Collier, P. 2008. The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Donnan, H., and Wilson, T.M. 1999. Borders: Frontiers of identity, nation and state. Berg, Oxford.
Federal Ministry of Defence. 2016. White Paper on German security policy and the future of the Bundeswehr. Federal Ministry of Defence, Berlin, Germany.
Fundación Progresar. 2010. Tantas Vidas Arrebatadas. La Desaparición Forzada de Personas: una Estrategia Sistemática de Guerra Sucia en Norte de Santander. Cúcuta, Colombia.
Goodhand, J., 2013. Epilogue: The view from the border, in: Korf, B., and Raeymaekers, T. (Eds.), Violence on the margins: States, conflict, and borderlands. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY: 247–264.
Idler, A., 2012. Arrangements of convenience in Colombia’s borderlands: An invisible threat to citizen security? St Antonys International Review 7, 93–119.
Idler, A., 2014a. Arrangements of convenience: Violent non-state actor relationships and citizen security in the shared borderlands of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela (Doctoral thesis). University of Oxford, Oxford.
Idler, A. 2014b. Espacios Invisibilizados: Actores Violentos No-estatales y “Ciudadanía de Sombra” en las Zonas Fronterizas de Colombia. Estud. Indiana.
Idler, A. 2014c. “The margins at the centre of the FARC’s future. A response to Ivan Briscoe’s piece on the transition of the FARC in Colombia.” DAG-3QD Online Symposia on Peace & Justice. 3 Quarks Dly.
Idler, A., and Forest, J.J.F. 2015. Behavioral patterns among (violent) non-state actors: A study of complementary governance. Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, 4.
Kaghram, S., and Levitt, P., 2008. Constructing transnational studies, in: Pries, L. (Ed.), Rethinking transnationalism: The meso-link of organisations. Routledge, London and New York: 21–39.
Kalyvas, S.N., Shapiro, I., and Masoud, T. (Eds.). 2008. Order, conflict, and violence. Cambridge University Press.
Klemencic, M., and Schofield, C.H. 2004. Contested boundaries and troubled borderlands, in: Morehouse, B.J., Pavlakovich-Kochi, V., and Wastl-Walter, D. (Eds.), Challenged borderlands: Transcending political and cultural boundaries. Ashgate, Aldershot: 63–74.
Mampilly, Z.C. 2011. Rebel rulers: Insurgent governance and civilian life during war. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Ministry of Defence. 2015. Joint Doctrine Note 1/15. Defence engagement. Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Ministry of Defence, Shrivenham.
Morehouse, B.J., Pavlakovich-Kochi, V., and Wastl-Walter, D. 2004. Introduction: Perspectives on borderlands, in: Morehouse, B.J., Pavlakovich-Kochi, V., and Wastl-Walter, D. (Eds.), Challenged borderlands: Transcending political and cultural boundaries. Ashgate, Aldershot: 3–11.
Muggah, R., Sisk, T.D., Piza-Lopez, E., Salmon, J., and Keuleers, P. 2012. Governance for peace. Securing the social contract. UNDP BCPR, New York.
Naím, M. 2007. Illicit. Arrow, London.
NATO. 2011. Active engagement in cooperative security: A more efficient and flexible partnership policy. NATO.
Neuman, W. 2012. Venezuela is cocaine hub despite its claims. New York Times.
Pécaut, D. 2001. Guerra Contra la Sociedad. Espasa, Bogotá, Colombia.
Picciotto, R. 2006. Why the world needs millennium security goals. Journal of Conflict, Security, and Development 6, 111–120.
Picciotto, R. 2007. Global development and human security. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick.
Ramírez, S. 2011. Civil society peacebuilding on Colombia’s borders, in: Zartman, W., and Ramsbotham, A. (Eds.), Accord. An international review of peace initiatives, building peace across borders, accord. Conciliation Resources, London: 60–61.
Schendel, W. van. 2005. Spaces of engagement. How borderlands, illegal flows, and territorial states interlock, in: Schendel, W. van, Abraham, I. (Eds.), Illicit flows and criminal things: States, borders, and the other side of globalization. Indiana University Press, Bloomington: 38–68.
Schendel, W. van, and Abraham, I. (Eds.). 2005. Illicit flows and criminal things: States, borders, and the other side of globalization. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Toft, M.D. 2014. Territory and war. Journal of Peace Research 51, 185–198.
UN. 2015. Sustainable development knowledge platform. Goal 16.
Williams, P., and Godson, R. 2002. Anticipating organized and transnational crime. Crime, Law and Social Change 37: 311–355.
Zartman, I.W. 2010. Understanding life in the borderlands: Boundaries in depth and in motion. University of Georgia Press, Athens.
Zeller, W. 2013. Get it while you can: Building business and bureaucracy between wars in the Uganda-Sudan borderland, in: Korf, B., and Raeymaekers, T. (Eds.), Violence on the margins: States, conflict, and borderlands. Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 193–218.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Idler, A. (2019). Improving Responses to Protracted Conflict: Why Borderlands Matter for Upstream Engagement. In: Clack, T., Johnson, R. (eds) Before Military Intervention. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98437-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98437-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98436-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98437-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)