The New Border Wars: The Conflicts That Will Define Our Future

A thrilling insight into international geopolitics by one of the world’s leading experts, examining the past, future, and present meaning of borders from the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, Palestine to Pakistan, North Korea to Trump’s Wall, and beyond

What do the world’s best-known, most dangerous, and most unexpected border conflicts mean for our changing international relationships?

In The New Border Wars, border expert Klaus Dodds journeys into the geopolitical clashes of tomorrow in an eye-opening tour of border walls—literal and figurative—from the Gaza Strip to the space race. In the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere, the tension inherent to trying to divide the world into separate parcels has not gone away.

And with climate change shifting our natural borders, from mountains to glaciers to rivers, the question of how we live in a world that’s becoming warmer and wetter―and growing in population―looms large. Dodds answers why now more than ever we are likely to see more walls, barriers, and securitization in our daily lives.

The New Border Wars discovers just what borders truly mean in the modern world: How are they built; what do they signify for citizens and governments; and how do they help us understand our political past and, most importantly, our diplomatic future?

Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is a leading authority on geopolitics and is often invited to join panels at events and in the media (including on BBC TV and radio) on the subject of border issues. He has written a number of books for a variety of popular and academic audiences, including for Oxford University Press’ A Very Short Introduction series, and since 2006, he has written a monthly geopolitics column for Geographical Magazine.

Dodds is a recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize, awarded to “outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.”