Categories
Coronavirus CSS Blog

Lifting Border-closures in Europe: More Coordination, Less National Go-it-Alones

Image courtesy of author

This blog belongs to the CSS’ coronavirus blog series, which forms a part of the center’s analysis of the security policy implications of the coronavirus crisis. See the CSS special theme page on the coronavirus for more.

Managing the supply of essential goods and the flow of seasonal workers during the corona crisis is challenging many European states.  A coordinated approach towards lifting border closures is required. At this stage, gradually opening borders between mildly affected neighboring regions could mean that Schengen could co-exist with the coronavirus.

Categories
CSS Blog

Air Passengers, Switzerland 2009-2018

This week’s featured graphic provides an overview of the number of air passengers flying to Switzerland, 2009-2018.

Last week, the Schengen Agreement’s 25th anniversary was marked by closing rather than open borders due to the coronavirus crisis. But when the crisis finally subsides, increasing mobility will again pose challenges for Swiss and European border agencies. For an analysis of what new technologies mean for border controls in Europe, read Julian Kamasa’s CSS Analyses in Security Policy here.

Categories
CSS Blog

Air Passengers, Switzerland 2009-2018

This week’s featured graphic provides an overview of the number of air passengers flying to Switzerland, 2009-2018. For an analysis of what new technologies mean for border controls in Europe, see Julian Kamasa’s recent CSS Analyses in Security Policy here.

Categories
Terrorism

Why Border Controls Won’t Protect Europe Against Terrorism

Courtesy of madabandon/Flickr. (CC BY-ND 2.0)

This article was published by the Institute for Strategic, Political, Security and Economic Consultancy (ISPSW) in February 2017.

In mid-December, people and families all over Europe and in many parts of the world were gearing up to cele­brate Christmas, one of the most important events in the Christian calendar. But on 19 December 2016 at 20:02 local time, a hijacked truck veered into a traditional Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memo­rial Church in Berlin, Germany. Twelve people were killed. Four days later, the suspected perpetrator was shot and killed by police on an Italian plaza in Sesto San Giovanni, a suburb north of central Milan, Italy.

On the same day, ISIS extremists released a video of the perpetrator, filmed recently in Berlin. His name was Anis Amri. Having pledged allegiance to the group, he suggested that the Berlin attack was vengeance for coali­tion airstrikes in Syria.

The Border Wall: Making Mexican Drug Cartels Great Again

Courtesy of torbakhopper/Flickr. (CC BY-ND 2.0)

This article was originally published by War on the Rocks on 2 February 2017.

After a campaign of “sending rapists,” “deportation force,” “whip out that Mexican thing again,” and “bad hombres,” the Trump administration has moved from the theatrical to the practical in its first steps to build a new wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Prior to the inauguration, President Donald Trump’s transition team approached the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department about a new physical border. In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order instructing the Department of Homeland Security to repair existing portions of the border fence and to build new sections as authorized by Congress in 2006. Although the new administration is clearly moving to fulfill its campaign promises, the results of a new physical barrier will likely have a counter-intuitive effect: Mexican drug cartels will grow stronger.

Since 2006, when the Mexican government declared war on the drug cartels, the United States has increased its law enforcement, military, and intelligence cooperation with its southern neighbor. With U.S. support, Mexican authorities have been able to kill or capture 33 out of the 37 most dangerous cartel leaders. The recent extradition of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States is a testament to the value of high-level cooperation between the two countries. As a result of these notable successes, several larger cartels have fractured and have descended into in-fighting.