Élisabeth Vallet

Introduction: The (Re)Building of the Wall in International Relations

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the emergence of a new international landscape ushered in an era of globalization in which states appeared irrevocably condemned to obsolescence, a world without borders. The advent of an international system in which the state was relegated to secondary importance in international relations, coupled with the disappearance of physical borders, left little reason to expect a return of the wall. However, borders, walls and barriers, symbols that were thought to have perished with decolonization and the disappearance of the bipolar world, made a comeback in the aftermath of 9/11. The wall as object embraces a heterogeneous range of structures built with diverse motivations on a variety of borders. Meanwhile, the wall as phenomenon has proliferated over the past 10 years, encircling both democratic and authoritarian states, failed states and healthy ones. This special issue investigates both the empirical and symbolic facets of the erection of structures designed to keep away (and keep away from) the Other, from the “near abroad.”

Good Fences for Good Neighbours? States, Couples and Walls

Since the Great Wall of China, King Gudfred of Denmark’s Danevirke, the Mede Wall built by Nebuchadnezzar II, the Antonine Wall and Hadrian’s Wall built by the Romans in Scotland, the Limes Germaniae and the Limes Rhetiae, the wall has been a central feature of international relations (Quetel, 2012). Indeed, one wall was emblematic of the international system of the second half of the 20th century, and when the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, observers thought that the world had been forever transformed; today, it appears that history is merely repeating itself (Paasi, 2009, p. 216). It was believed that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reconfiguration of international relations (Badie, 1999) would open up an age of globalization in which states would become obsolete, ushering in a world without borders (Galli, 2001; Zolo, 2004; Schroer, 2006; Brunet Jailly, 2005), a world that would have to be reconceptualized outside the territorial trap (Agnew, 1994). In the wake of 9/11, however, borders came back with a vengeance and new borders were created (Weber, 2008, p. 48). With them came border barriers and walls, symbols that were thought to have disappeared with the collapse of the bipolar international system.