Leuprecht, Hataley and 17 other contributors to this edited volume demonstrate that the Canada–US border is dynamic—not static; that border policy, particularly since 9/11, reflects significantly different realities and priorities region-by-region; and that a pragmatic “will-to-make-the-border-work” has created space for experimentation and for non-federal government actors to make significant contributions to the development and implementation of border policy.
The editors challenge:
1) the proposition that central governments dominate in making border security policy;
2) the “monolithic conception of borders”— asserting that, in fact, there are “several Canada–US borders” and “not a single international dyad”;
3) the ongoing applicability of “much of the Canada–US border literature.”
The first of those challenges is highly ambitious. Documenting regional and sectoral inputs—as the authors exhaustively do—does not diminish the fact that the two national governments overwhelmingly enjoy jurisdictional primacy in setting and administering border policy, broadly defined. Federal responsiveness to policy innovation and embrace of flexible arrangements implies neither a surrendering of national authority nor policy “dominance” by any other actors.
The authors more successfully land the second challenge. The volume's multiple case studies persuasively document significant policy and administrative differentiation—including the effective creation of “new borders” (physically removed from the actual international border).
They likewise are convincing in their claim that this volume distinguishes itself from much border literature. In great detail, they illustrate both the extent to which the implementation of border policy is far from “uniform” region-by-region, and that market forces weigh much heavier in policy development than has previously been documented. In that, they successfully reorient the field.
Security. Cooperation. Governance is well-organized and exceptional in its textured portrayal of context, pressures, players and outcomes region-by-region. The case studies are the meat of the book. Anyone involved in the making or implementation of any aspect of border policy, at any level of government, should read it to understand that one-size-fits-all approaches can be counterproductive. Non-governmental actors, including Indigenous communities, will glean from the book a greater appreciation of scope to impact policy. Helpfully, all the chapters are written to an accessible standard and format. Teachers and researchers in Canada–US Relations, Security Studies, and Public Administration would all benefit from the data the book presents, as well as enhanced awareness of how the border has evolved, the impetus behind the panoply of programs and initiatives underpinning that evolution, and differential uptake/applicability across the country.
If considering an update, the editors might usefully add a chapter written from the federal government's perspective. Accepting the book's premise that much innovation has “come from below” (tantamount to a democratization of inputs), where have there been tensions? Have some federal government departments with jurisdiction been more responsive—and others less? Maybe, more importantly, could light be shed on how Canada has persuaded responsible US authorities to embrace innovative ideas, often of Canadian origin?
In making the valuable descriptive and analytical contributions it does, this is still a very Canadian book. Border policy, ultimately, is a function of agreement between the two national governments (to positively introduce new policies and regulations or, at minimum, to tolerate regional deviation). There is almost a need for a companion volume, detailing comparable regional or interests-based pressures on the US government—and how official reaction to such inputs may have calibrated to shifting assessments of vulnerability.
More specifically, greater attention could usefully be accorded to the advocacy efforts of large businesses (Canadian-, American-, or third country-owned) with major operations in one or both the US and Canada. Often, their business model depends on predictably efficient border crossings for their goods. They have invested millions (sometimes billions) of dollars, employing thousands of workers in one or both countries. Generally, they are more effective than many of the bodies enumerated in the book's chapters at impressing upon policy makers and legislators that state-of-the-art, flexible border arrangements are integral to their continued operations.
Canada is a decentralized federation heavily economically dependent on access to a market with which it shares the world's longest border (transposed elsewhere, it would run from Paris all the way to Seoul). It should surprise no one that Canada's regions have for some time been laboratories of creativity and problem solving, generating pragmatic solutions to seemingly intractable border challenges. Leuprecht, Hataley et al. systematically capture and illuminate those innovations for everyone interested in how border policy is developed and administered.
