Borders in a changing Europe: an analysis of recent trends

European borders are characterized by alternating hard and soft forms on one axis and open and closed forms on another. The border is a networked and fluid process rather than a fixed line; it is constituted in new and changing relations between cores and peripheries, and is the site of political contestations where power and culture interact. Europe's internal national borders are not merely modified by the growing significance of a European external frontier, but both internal and external borders are influenced by the wider global context. This dimension has so far been missing from the existing literature on Europeanization and borders. Borders exist not on the edge of the territory of the state, but in numerous points within and beyond it. The changing nature of the border has implications for identity, since the system of classifications the border establishes provides identities with a means of distinguishing insiders from outsiders. The emerging networked border challenges existing notions of a European identity defined by the closed borders of culture or territory. The result is that Europe's external border will be post-imperial.