APPROACHING THE BREAKING POINT: THE UNITED STATESCANADA BORDER IN THE 21ST CENTURY

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APPROACHING THE BREAKING POINT? THE UNITED
STATES-CANADA BORDER IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Arizona State University
• Victor Konrad, BPRI, WWU/Carleton University
• April, 2009

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Breaking Borders?

• Napolitanos Priority Canada Border Washington
  Times January 26, 2009
• Homeland Security chief says Canada-US border
  review misconstrued Vancouver Sun February 27,
  2009
• The thickening situation is getting worse
  Chairman, Blue Water Bridge Canada, Todays
  Trucking March, 2009
• Thickening of the border still a worry for
  local and national officials Brockville Recorder
  and Times April 7, 2009

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Broken Borders?

• Our economy and security only function as well
  as our borders function. North America Next,
  NACTS, ASU, February, 2009.
• Although border management processes relate to a
  range of policy areas, those related to
  cross-border trade and travel flows are
  particularly significant in the context of the
  recent economic crisis and the new post-election
  momentum to rethink Canada-US policy options. Our
  nations must aim to ensure adequate security
  while not compromising our shared economic future
  nor accepting cultural degradation in our
  borderlands. BPRI Border Policy Brief, Winter,
  2009.

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Mending Walls?

• A policy narrative on North American
  bordersrequires a discourse pattern that
  acknowledges asymmetries yet constructs
  components of effective interaction and
  alignment.-Konrad, 2009
• 1. Platform of trust 2. Brand 3. Convey and
  celebrate integrative process 4. Dimensional
  alignment articulate cross-border constructs
  with cross-border processes

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The Border

• The problems of the border negative discourse
• Priorities developed to deal with the problems
• Transition from security to insecurity border
• Dialectics of trade/security, trust/suspicion
  etc.
• Breaking points emerge in border policy
• Border policy responds to breaking points rather
  than to underlying problems
• Sustainable Security and Competitiveness?

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The future?
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The Past.
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Border Problems Abound

• Need to differentiate, not lump problems
• New, visible problems terrorism, guns
• Endemic problems environmental impacts
• Recurrent difficulties smuggling, immigration
• Structural issues exchange rate impacts
• Geography extent, variation, fluctuation,
  extremes. Most Canadians live in the borderlands
  most Americans do not.

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Insecurity Response Re-Bordering

• Congestion and wait times the paradox of waiting
  in an expedited world
• Barriers to trade/lost time and money billions
• Security-scapes the bristling border, walls
• Expense of re-bordering billions
• Firearms exploding concern crosses the border
• Drugs the constant battle of supply interdiction
• Illegal immigration the real problem?
• Disease the unpredictable killer

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Braking at the Border!
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Do we need this?
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Lemons and Drugs!
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New routes under the border.
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Are you carrying firearms?
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A very mad cow.
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Across the Canadian border?
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Thin line or Thick line?
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To understand the line between usThat is the
challenge.
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The Answer?
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Thin Line
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The 20th Century Border

• Multiple, convenient crossings
• Loosely defined hierarchy of crossings
• Port Authority
• Smooth, eventless operation
• Strong border regionalization
• Community across the border
• Borderlands culture
• Socialized border
• Layered border governance

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Thick Line
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The 21st Century Border

• Rationalized crossing system
• Defined hierarchy of crossings
• Variable thickness along the line
• Centralization and delocalization
• Mobilization and militarization
• Streaming and corridor development
• Chain of command enforcement
• Strained borderlands culture
• Breaking points in operation

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Thick Line Border Priorities

• Fighting terrorism initial DHS focus
• Identity verification WHTI
• Regulating immigration new DHS focus
• Sustaining trade flows Canadian emphasis
• Balancing security and trade both sides
• Enhancing corridors both sides
• Managing the border both sides

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The 9/11 Effect

• Blame Canada-A new US Army text says our border
  is no safer than Mexicos Macleans Dec. 1,
  2008, 24.
• 9/11 had a sustained impact on export trade
  (Globerman and Storer)
• Travel and tourism down in US lost 1.6 million
  jobs in 2002, Milken Institute
• Does the WHTI enhance identity verification?

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Viewing the broken Border
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Priority clearing the flow
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Keep on trucking?
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Managing the Border!
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21st Century Canada-US Border

• Border crossing network is product of
  interdependencies
• Changes in traffic patterns, operations or
  procedures, compound, ripple through systems, and
  strike barriers
• Impacts of traffic shifts, intensified scrutiny,
  new technologies and rule changes often most
  intense at outset
• New procedures aimed at securing and streamlining
  the border may alter as well the way the border
  works within and between systems of security,
  transportation, trade, tourism, environment and
  other aspects of border structure and culture

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Breaking Point

• Limit, threshold, tipping point or critical level
  in re-bordering.
• The point at which physical, mental or emotional
  strength gives way under stress.
• The point at which a condition or situation
  becomes critical.
• The point at which something or someone gives way
  under strain.

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Breaking Point

• When the impact of changes within or between
  border systems is sufficient to disrupt or halt
  the use and operation of the systems, a breaking
  point may have occurred.
• Breaking points are significant thresholds in the
  operation of systems because they may severely
  damage a system, and its related systems, or shut
  it down.

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Breaking Points

• What leads to breaking points in re-bordering?
• Dissonance inconsistent messages
• Misinformation not true
• Delocalization taking authority from locale
• Centralization keeping power in DC
• Increased flows of people and goods
• Funneling, re-routing, corridor enhancement
• Sudden changes, revisions, reorientations

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Dissonance Destiny? Borders?
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Has Canada ever looked the other way?
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Betrayal
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Misinformation
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Fear
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Suspicion
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Entitlement
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Isolationism
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The ELT Fiasco
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Identifying Breaking Points

• WA-ID-MT/BC border area
• The border POE hierarchy
• Sectors of cross-border activity (eg. Transport)
• Survey research design interviews, mail survey,
  focus groups
• Policy makers and policy analysts
• Breaking point model

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Breaking Point Model
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From Corridor to Gateway 1. Delocalization and
Breaking Points

• Reduction of Port Authority
• Centralized, emergency governance
• Risk definition and assessment
• Expansion and complication of procedures
• Disruption of borderlands culture
• Crisis management
• Breaking points

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Breaking Points in the Cascade Gateway
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Anticipating Breaking Points

• Operation and management of the US-Canada border
  is a complex, evolving process that engages
  people, their identities, exchange activities,
  regulations and policies, interests and
  intentions, all at specific points along the
  border.
• Cross-sectoral analysis
• Spatial and temporal analysis
• Refining the predictive model
• Public policy implications

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From Corridor to Gateway 2.Socialization of the
Gateway

• Simplification of procedures
• Rationalization of infrastructure
• Move beyond risk management
• Reinstatement of trust
• Mediation of agency and structure (eg. IMTC)
• Respond to underlying causes of breaking points
• Institutionalization of the Gateway

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Border Possibilities

• Trust
• Identity
• Re-Localization
• Relocating security
• Sustainability
• Cost reduction
• Free trade
• Environmental concern
• Borderlands culture

• Trusted traveler program?
• Citizenship verification?
• Port authority?
• Perimeter light?
• Regulated flows?
• Managed flows?
• Superhighway/gateway?
• Natural corridors?
• Humanized border?

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Look Ma! No border wall!
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Small is good. Local is good.
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One card is enough.
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Technology needs to work, save time and save
money.
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Why not an EDL for everyone?
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Sub-national cooperation
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Are gateways the new normal?
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Acknowledge emerging systems
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Educate borders awareness throughout the U.S.
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25 of the borderlands are held in public
stewardship template for a new border design?
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Protected in the US Still dead outside Canadas
parks
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A resilient and adaptive borderlands culture
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Conclusions

• The border has become visible but it is being
  seen as a problem rather than as an opportunity.
• The image of a broken border, combined with
  priorities to fix it, have resulted in breaking
  points in border management.
• We need to rediscover and re-learn the border
  before we re-invent it. Need breakthroughs not
  breaking points.
• A positive discourse pattern is the key to
  developing a policy narrative on the border.

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Policy Implications

• Recognize that the border runs through most
  dimensions of Canada-US relations, and that
  policy development needs to acknowledge the
  border effect.
• The border has regional and local characteristics
  that impact policy.
• Large ports and corridors now dominate border
  visions, but small POEs can tell us much about
  how borders work well.
• The borderlands have deep culture to mediate
  policy.