A Border Laboratory? The Mexican-US Border as a Reference

Abstract

Within the context of the new settings of the world’s borders, the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain,¹ the clash between East and West has often been replaced by a simplistic North-South division. In accordance with this division, Foucher speaks of an extensive 18,000 km line that extends from Tijuana to Tumen, passing through the Rio Bravo-Rio Grande, Thrace, the Southern Caucasus, Araxe, Atrek, Amou Darya, the Sayan Mountain region and the Amur River. It represents nine per cent of the world’s frontiers and not only forms a new equator but also a vast demographic, economic and, above all, cultural dividing line (Foucher 1991: 16).