The field of scholarly discourse on the United States' strategy to secure the common border with Mexico has been as barren as the endless miles of bleak terrain that lie within the frontier zone. Though the area of borderlands studies has emerged in recent years as a distinct and significant project within American history, few detailed investigations have been made into how border policy is constructed and the impact of policy on the border communities themselves. Payan's expressed goal is to examine the three separate border wars – against drugs, immigration, and terrorism. In particular, he is interested in demonstrating that the traditional US policy of “escalation,” reinforced by the post-9/11conflation of public security with national security, has been a failure. After a brief examination of the history of the border, Payan builds his argument by focussing on each conflictive issue in turn, and successfully interweaves the personal narratives of border residents and border-crossers with analysis of the evolution of US policy. The discussion concludes with the author's plea for a reconceptualization of the border. He argues for a guest-worker program, and proposes an integrated North American economic system along the lines of the European Community.

While unique in approach and subject matter, Payan's argument is weakened by broad generalizations based on uncited sources, and further diminished by insouciant editing. The Three U.S.–Mexico Border Wars vacillates in its findings. Payan argues that the increased flow of trans-border traffic due to NAFTA has made human smuggling easier because of less stringent controls of commercial vehicles. Yet he also asserts that increased policing of the border has had the same results. Though Payan claims that the “ultimate goal should not be to close the border but to keep it open, while keeping it secure”, he offers few clear theses about how this could be achieved outside of alleviating the economic disparities that lure the Mexican gaze northwards.

Nonetheless, Payan has made a compelling and timely contribution to the ongoing discussions on drugs, immigration, and national security. Discarding any scholarly pretension to objectivity, he gives voice to the individuals such as himself, whose lived experiences of the border challenge the misguided assumptions of policymakers and public alike.