Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ceived inferiors or others (the “Barbarians”) in both the East and the South (Anderson
and Armstrong 2007; Boedeltje 2007; Tunander 1997; Walters 2002, 2004; Zielonka
2001). For some, this latter neocolonial, empire style is most visible in one of the most
striking extraterritorial development plans of the EU of the recent years; that is, the de-
velopment of a New Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument destined to implement
the Commission's European Neighbourhood Policy as laid down in the Wider Europe
Communication and the Strategy document on this European Neighbourhood Policy
(ENP). The goal of the ENP is, according to the EU, to share the advantages of the
2004 enlargement of the EU by fostering stability, security, and prosperity among all
parties. The Neighbourhood Policy is said to be developed to prevent new lines of divi-
sionbetweentheenlargedEUanditsneighboursandtooffernewpossibilitiestoengage
in the diverse activities of the EU by means of enlarged political, security, economical,
and cultural cooperation (see also Emerson 2004). The EU Commission sees the border
“management” as one of the core goals of the ENP:
BordermanagementislikelytobeapriorityinmostActionPlansasitisonlyby
working together that the EU and its neighbours can manage common borders
more efficiently in order to facilitate legitimate movements. The Action Plans
should thus include measures to improve the efficiency of border management,
such as support for the creation and training corps of professional non-military
border guards and measures to make travel documents more secure. The goal
should be to facilitate movement of persons, whilst maintaining or improving
a high level of security. (European Commission 2004, 16f; see also Apap and
Tchorbadjiyska 2004)
For some, in contrast to nation-states and ideological blocs, adjoining empires are
imagined to have blurred and underenergised borders at the frontiers in the periphery
where their power “fades out” (Waever 1997; Zielonka 2001). These peripheral “grey,”
intermediate,ortransitzonesbetweenempiressuchasRussiaandtheUnitedStatesthen
would rub against each other and would be the new potential zones of global conflict.
The recent conflict in Georgia is often mentioned as a case in point. Convincing as this
may be, at the same time such euphemisms of fading grey zones, transition zones, and
neighbourhood policies fail to capture the rather fierce and increasingly militaristic in-
clusionary-exclusionary logic of the current external border regime of the EU that is
alsoincreasingly apparent. Morethanacrossingborderpolicy,theENPclearly isabor-
der policy—since when one defines their
neighbours
, one defines one's own borders. It
is a hegemonic
buffer zone geopolitics
, the installation of a
cordon sanitaire
. For, al-
though the neighbourhood policies may be a clear sign of politics of good intentions,
they are also an unambiguous form of excluding some countries from the arbitrary and
