A Wall of Words: Representing Border Securitisation in Contemporary Fiction

Abstract

Since the financial crisis of 2007-2008 it has been commonplace to argue that globalisation is in retreat. The period following the Cold War saw decades of international integration of the world economy, represented by streamlined trade logistics, a growing financial and immaterial economy and the formation of trading blocs tailored to ease the free movement of goods, services and, in the right circumstances, of people. However, in the last decade, these twentieth-century verities have come under increasing tension. During a long period of economic stagnation, successive populist governments have turned to nationalist rhetoric in order to justify protectionist solutions to the problems of stalled growth. Alongside the noise of tariffs and trading wars the most visible signal of this development has been a substantial rhetorical investment in the power of the securitised border to cure the political ills of the nation state. This rhetoric is not wholly empty and has been accompanied by a new fashion for border fortification, which has involved substantial investment in physical barriers and technological securitisation of the national frontier. Nevertheless, this trend for building walls should not disguise the fact that the vocal advocacy of border fortification has been far more conspicuous than the construction of physical barriers. A clear illustration of this can be found in the case of the United States, where Donald Trump made the building of a wall the touchstone policy of his presidency and the enduring issue of his campaign for re-election. Notwithstanding the fact that border fortification has been a part of US politics since the Clinton administration, the promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico was the defining policy of the 2016 and 2020 Republican candidate. After his election in 2016, the President continued to campaign and to berate Congress for funds to support this construction. However, as of September 2019 it was reported that only a ‘total of 57 miles of replacement barrier and nine miles of new secondary barrier have been constructed,’ and ‘no “new wall” [... ] has yet been completed’. This lack of progress was in stark contrast to the continued rhetorical salience of ‘the Wall’ to the President’s mode of governing.