Borders, Walls and Security

Organisé par l'UQAM et l'Association for Borderlands Studies, un colloque passionnant sur les murs et les frontières, incluant des approches historiques et contemporaines :

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the question still remains "Do good fences still make good neighbours"? Since the Great Wall of China, construction of which began under the Qin dynasty, the Antonine Wall, built in Scotland to support Hadrian's Wall, the Roman "Limes" or the Danevirk fence, the "wall" has been a constant in the protection of defined entities claiming sovereignty, East and West. But is the wall more than an historical relict for the management of borders? In recent years the wall has been given renewed vigour all around the world, whether in North America, in Europe (with the Greek border fence), in Asia (for instance in India) or in Middle East. But the success of these new walls in the development of friendly and orderly relations between nations (or indeed, within nations) remains unclear. What role does the wall play in the development of security and insecurity? Do walls contribute to a sense of insecurity as much as they assuage fears and create a sense of security for those 'behind the line'? Exactly what kind of security is associated with border walls?

• Elisabeth Vallet, Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography and Research director of Geopolitics at the Raoul Dandurand Chair, UQAM
• Charles-Philippe David, Raoul-Dandurand Chair and Full Professor of Political Science, UQAM
• Heather Nicol, Professor of Geography, Trent University, President (2011-2012), Association for Borderlands Studies and associate researcher of the Center for Geopolitical Studies of the Raoul Dandurand Chair, UQAM

http://www.dandurand.uqam.ca/evenements/evenements-a-venir/1137-colloque-

Je tiens à la disposition de ceux que cela intéresserait la version non finalisée de ma communication sur le Saint Siège et l'Italie : les accords du Latran et les murs léonins, qui porte en fait sur les thèmes de la souveraineté au début du 20ième siècle. FM