Tectonic shifts in global geopolitical logics as well as current conflicts on European soil have occasioned critical re-examination of standard narratives within the fields of border studies and political geography. This paper makes three tentative geographical interventions to complement—and where appropriate, jumpstart—recent re-examinations of European (re)bordering processes. The first situates Europe’s bordering within the wider context of global geopolitical shifting sands. The second seeks to re-establish materiality at the center of discussions of border studies in Europe, with specific reference to the ongoing Ukraine war. The third attempts to think more expansively about recent shifts in the nature of cross-border mobilities globally with some speculation about what this means for the political geography of Europe in coming years.
Corey Johnson is professor of political geography and department head of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He serves as co-editor of the journal Geopolitics, is member of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Political Geography and of the scientific advisory board of the Leibniz Institute of Regional Geography (Germany). Corey holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (USA).
The lecture series is organized by the Cluster "Migration, Borders, and Mobilities in, around, and across Europe" of teh Field of Excellence "Dimensions of Europeanization".
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