Controlling Mobility: Embodying Borders

Abstract

The security function of borders is one of the oldest and most basic. Modern state borders were expected to provide security by facilitating the military defense of territory against external threats such as invasion from other states. The security of the nation was seen in territorially fixed terms as a primarily military and geopolitical issue that revolved around the protection of the institution of the state. To secure the nation was to defend the State’s territorial sovereignty. Then it was the task of the State to secure the daily life of the citizen. This division of work reflected the dual outside/inside distinction with which nation-states have long operated (Walker, 1993). National security was a matter of external concern and was assumed by the military, while personal security was a matter of domestic concern and was assumed by the police.