Study Group on Globalization and the Future of Border Control

Study Group

Study Group on Globalization and the Future of Border Control

Chair:	Charles G. Boyd
Staff:	Stephen E. Flynn, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies

September 1, 2001 - January 1, 2004

The post-Cold War momentum towards open societies, liberalized economies, and new technologies have accentuated an important new reality-that despite the prerogatives of sovereignty, the capacity of the United States and other nations to police the movement of people and goods across its national frontiers and through its ports of entry are frail and getting weaker.

The explosive growth in international trade and travel provides criminal and terrorists with ample opportunities to enter a nation undetected. In the United States, people and goods arrive daily at more than 3,700 terminals in 301 ports of entry. In 2000, 489 million people, 138.5 million trucks and vehicles, 5.8 million maritime containers, and 829,000 commercial planes passed through the U.S. cross-border inspection program. Not only is this volume projected to grow dramatically in the years ahead, but the economic pressures for greater openness are on the rise as well.

The logic of the global marketplace is to topple borders, not to fortify them. Modern businesses intent on outsourcing and adopting "just-in-time" delivery systems want unfettered access to international markets and they want to lower the national barriers to moving people and goods reliably and affordably around the planet. Nonetheless, as the prevalence of transnational threats such as WMD proliferation, terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal migration, biohazards and disease rise, so to do the pressures on border control agents to identify and intercept illegitimate activities within this tidal wave of commerce.

Accordingly, absent creative thinking security, law enforcement, and regulatory authorities will find themselves increasingly at odds with free trade protagonists who seek to accelerate the integration of the global economy by reducing or eliminating many of the border control processes that they perceive as creating costly commercial barriers to international trade, travel, and commerce.

Publications
Meetings

Publications

July 1, 2001

Rethinking the U.S.-Canadian Border

Author:	Stephen E. Flynn, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies

November/December 2000

A Transportation Security Strategy for the 21st Century

Author:	Stephen E. Flynn, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies

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Meetings

New Border Management Strategies for the Post-NAFTA World

National Program Meeting

August 24, 2001

Panelist:	John E. Berndt, (Host) Former President, Sprint International
Speaker:	Stephen E. Flynn

Stephen Flynn will discuss why traditional border control cannot keep pace with globalization and recommend a more rational public-private approach using new technologies and changes within the global transportation and logistics industries to manage transnational threats. He will focus specifically on problems and prescriptions for border control between Texas and Mexico.

Beyond Border Control: New Approaches to Policing Global Commerce for Migrants, Thugs, and Terrorists

National Program Meeting

March 21, 2001

Panelist:	John E. Rielly, President, Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
Speaker:	Stephen E. Flynn, Senior Fellow, National Security, Council on Foreign Relations

Beyond Border Control: Policing Global Trade and Travel

National Program Meeting

October 24, 2000

Panelist:	Ray Waldmann, Washington Council on International Trade
Speaker:	Stephen E. Flynn, Senior Fellow, National Security, Council on Foreign Relations

Policing Global Commerce for Migrants, Thugs, and Terrorists

Study Group Meeting

April 26, 2000

Panelist:	Judith Hicks Stiehm, Professor, Florida International University
Speaker:	Stephen E. Flynn, Senior Fellow, National Security, Council on Foreign Relations

Drugs, Thugs, and Trade: Border Control in an Era of Hemispheric Economic Integration

Study Group Meeting

February 7, 2000

Panelist:	Richard J. Stoll, Associate Director, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University
Speaker:	Stephen E. Flynn, Senior Fellow, National Security, Council on Foreign Relations

Texas members of the National Study Group will convene with Stephen Flynn to examine the southwest land border issue. Flynn will lead a discussion on how best to respond to the growing incidence of crime without undermining both the flow of commerce and the agenda for greater trade liberalization within the hemisphere.

Developing a New U.S.—Caribbean Regime to Meet the Challenge

Study Group Meeting

November 17, 1999

Panelist:	Ambler H. Moss Jr., Director, Dante B. Fascell North-South Center at the University of Miami
Speaker:	Stephen E. Flynn, Senior Fellow, National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

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New Council Special Reports

Climate Change and National Security

Climate change poses threats to national security in a number of ways. In this report, sponsored by the Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Joshua W. Busby offers specific recommendations for confronting this important issue, including a list of "no-regrets" policies.

Planning for Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe

This report, by International Affairs Fellow Michelle D. Gavin and sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, surveys the current situation in Zimbabwe and proposes steps that can increase the likelihood that regime change, when it comes, will bring constructive reform instead of conflict and state collapse.

Complete list of Council Special Reports.

David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:

Gary Samore
Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1-212-434-9627
gsamore@cfr.org

Sebastian Mallaby
Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics
smallaby@cfr.org

Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1-212-434-9753
jhill@cfr.org
The Think Tank
The David Rockefeller Studies Program

The David Rockefeller Studies Program is the Council’s “think tank.” Its work is integral to achieving the Council’s goal of contributing to the foreign policy debate. Fellows in the Studies Program do this by researching, writing, and commenting on the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.
- Experts
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Study Group

Study Group on Globalization and the Future of Border Control

Rethinking the U.S.-Canadian Border

A Transportation Security Strategy for the 21st Century

New Council Special Reports

Climate Change and National Security

Planning for Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe

David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

The Think Tank

The David Rockefeller Studies Program