(iPoster) Border Barriers as an Issue in International Politics

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Formal Political Theory & Foreign Policy II – Alliances, Coercion, and Foreign Policy Decision-Making
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Foreign Policy II – Alliances, Coercion, and Foreign Policy Decision-Making

Abstract

Border barriers are an increasingly common foreign policy tool for states to address concerns about migration flows and economic disparities. Most studies on barriers focus on their causes or how they affect migration flows, but less is known about how these barriers influence future interstate relations between the builder and target state. In this paper, I borrow from the issue approach to international politics and argue that border barriers can become a salient issue between states that can be dealt with in a variety of ways. To address this theory, I collect original data on border barriers and claims around the world and the foreign policy responses by the target state, classifying them into four distinct categories of nothing, negotiation, denunciation, and militarization. I find that states have many different tools to address barrier claims that range from peaceful to conflictual, with more salient barriers experiencing a higher risk of militarized dispute onset after their construction. These findings indicate barriers have become a contentious issue between states and that the issue approach to international politics readily explains this phenomenon.

Author

• Adam Lappe, University of Iowa