Guest lecture: Security & extraterritoriality at Canada-US Border

11 May 2022

The Canada-US border has been described as the longest undefended border in the world. And yet, in the last two decades, this border has become increasingly securitized. Some of this is through overt forms of security: more border patrols, more weapons, more surveillance technology, etc. But perhaps even more interesting are the extensive extra-territorial measures that have been enacted through bilateral agreements that fly under the public radar.

This lecture will focus on two of these: the expansion of customs pre-clearance facilities and the turn towards cross-border policing. As I will detail, these measures are reconfiguring territoriality in ways that have significant consequences for sovereignty and legal jurisdiction, with troubling implications for human rights and accountability. I will then invite us to ask: how can we mobilize our critique of these new configurations in ways that do not simply appeal to traditional forms of territoriality and state sovereignty, but envision new political formations?

Emily Gilbert is Vice-Principal of University College, and a Professor in Geography & Planning and Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto. She has published extensively in books and journals such as Society and Space, Politics and Place, Antipode, Critical Military Studies, and Critical Studies on Terrorism, and is the co-editor of two books, Nation-States and Money and War, Citizenship, Territory. She is also an editor at Security Dialogue.

Registration is not necessary.

Guest lecture 'Beyond the Border: Security and Extra-territoriality at the Canada-US Border'

Wednesday 18 May 2022, 15:30-17:00 CET

Main building VU, HG-2A33