The Privatisation of Border Controls and the Limits of State Sovereignty

Abstract

AbstractThis afterword outlines the complexities that the privatisation of border controls poses in relation to state sovereignty, as richly developed throughout this book, and reflects on how studying such processes of privatisation might shed new light on our understanding of the nature of contemporary state sovereignty and governance. In charting and subjecting to critical scrutiny the many practices through which state power is outsourced, shared, and abdicated, this volume sheds as much light on the plurality of actors involved in the exercise of state power as on the state itself. The relationship between privatisation and state sovereignty is made much more complex when the question of border controls is added to the mix, because this exposes the distinct moral, political, and legal dilemmas of state power in a transnational world order. Privatisation has been interpreted as an irregularity and a deviation from a normative idea of the state as the main provider of security. Such analytical frames, this chapter suggests, have stymied theories and concepts that better reflect contemporary dynamics and flows of power, and have often served imperialist projects. Examining these practices in all their complexities and diversity, and laying them open to empirical and normative scrutiny, is essential for rethinking the place and function of the state in society.