Border Politics: The Limits of Sovereign Power

In this distinctive theoretical approach to the problem of borders in the study of global politics, Nick Vaughan-Williams considers the possibility that the concept of the border is being reconfigured in contemporary political life. He taps into the critical resources of poststructuralist thought to recast the relationship between borders, security, and sovereign power, drawing on a range of thinkers including Agamben, Derrida, and Foucault. He emphasizes a more pluralized and radicalized view of the nature of borders and where they might be drawn, and he uses the problem of borders to critically explore the innovations and limits of poststructuralist scholarship.