Borders are a fascinating social phenomenon. They separate political entities from each other and can be subject to violent struggles. However, at other times, they also stimulate ideas about how divisions can be bridged. At close look, then, borders reveal ambiguities about polities and social processes that are sometimes paradoxical or contradictory in nature. Particularly in Europe, borders have played and continue to play a central role in everyday life – in the politics of Brexit, the refugee crisis, or in relation to Covid-19.

In this light, the module addresses the questions of how European borders change over time and how they can be bridged. Particularly, the module will analyse how borders “work” in order to better understand obstacles to cross-border cooperation. In addition, it will explore how networks of trust can and have been established within the European Union (EU), and how the democratic governance of cooperation might be achieved. The module draws on an interdisciplinary perspective bringing together Politics and International Relations. Empirical cases, such as the Euroregion straddling the Germany-Poland border; cooperation across the Irish Sea and the Alpine Macro-region, will be employed throughout to illustrate how border-regions are formed and how border-crossing processes work or have been disrupted by major challenges over time, such as the Brexit process and the European refugee crisis.

Module Aims

1. To introduce students to the origins and development of European and state borders, processes of border regions formation, and border crossing practices within the EU.
2. To familiarise students with interdisciplinary theoretical underpinnings of cross-border cooperation.
3. To investigate specific case studies of strategic regionalism and cooperation across EU borders, with the appropriate empirical knowledge and understanding.
4. To critically analyse the economic basis of borders in Europe and evaluate how they could be regulated cooperatively and democratically.
5. To critically assess and evaluate issues and policy-oriented debates within the field.

• Critically engage with the appropriate interdisciplinary literature on borders and cross-border cooperation in Europe.
• Choose and critically apply various theoretical approaches in Politics and IR to the study of contemporary borders and cross-border cooperation.
• Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of key issues of cross-border cooperation in contemporary European politics.
• Assess the role of and the challenges to cross-border cooperation in the politics and economy of selected case studies across Europe, using various primary and secondary sources in writing and speaking tasks.
• Assess the role of cooperation in the future of EU politics and demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast various cases of cross-border cooperation across Europe.
• Exhibit research and analytical skills – through independent research, textual analysis and interpretation – and apply these at an advanced academic level.
• To communicate effectively both orally and in written material.

The module will be delivered through a mix of large group and small group sessions, as well as online teaching and learning activities and materials – including, where relevant, asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings. Full details on the delivery mode of this module will be available on Learning Central at the start of the academic year – and may be, in part, determined by Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance relating to COVID-19.  

Subject-specific skills

1. Managing & Prioritising Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner.
2. Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments.
3. Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field.

Professional and career development skills

1. Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing.
2. Presentational and Advocacy Skills: ability to present your ideas and arguments before a group of peers and respond to questions in a convincing fashion.
3. Teamwork: ability to work with others in a team, negotiate conflicts and recognize different ways of learning.
4. Diversity: ability to acknowledge and be sensitive to the range of cultural differences present in the learning environment.
5. Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures and cope with stress.

Organizational skills

1. Preparatory Skills: always being well prepared for seminars (e.g., completing required reading).
2. Time Management: effective use of study time, meeting coursework deadlines.
3. Independent Research: making good use of the library and the materials available.

The module will be assessed by:

Policy brief (40 %)

Essay (60%)

Re-assessment: where required, students will repeat failed/absent assessments

In the introductory session, this module will discuss the reasons for the upsurge of interest in borders and cross-border cooperation and the different theoretical approaches employed into this field of research. The second lecture will explore the changing in the historical significance of borders in Europe and the initiatives aimed at fostering cross-border cooperation. The remainder of the sessions is divided into three blocks, each tackling different aspects of cross-border politics in Europe. The module will engage with each of these facets of cooperation and the challenges it presents, to let students critically assess the roles of cross-border cooperation in contemporary EU politics. The case studies explored may range from the Euroregion straddling the Germany-Poland border; the Alpine Macro-region; Ireland-Wales cross-border cooperation across the Irish Sea; a study of the multiple borders and borderlands of the Baltic Sea region and the Upper Adriatic; the evolution of cooperation between police forces across the borders between south-east England and the adjacent countries of continental Europe and the disruption to the existing system entailed by Brexit and a study of cross-border cooperation as part of conflict resolution in the case of the Irish border.

Introduction

New borders in a changing EU.

Block 1. Economic, social and political cross-border cooperation in Europe.

Block 2. Cross-border security cooperation.

Block 3. Cross-border cooperation with neighbouring countries of the EU.