This timely book explores the central role that borders play in shaping the contemporary world. Building on a discussion of border thinking and making from antiquity to the present, Gabriel Popescu applies a critical eye to current border-making concepts, processes, and contexts. Throughout, he offers a balanced understanding of borders, explaining why and how interstate borders have emerged, whose interest they serve, who is involved in border making, and how border-making practices affect societies. Assessing the latest theoretical approaches to border studies, the author deftly incorporates a range of disciplinary perspectives, including geography, international relations, sociology, history, security studies, and anthropology. Popescu explores recent world events, discussing how current issues such as migration, terrorism, global warming, pandemics, the international human rights regime, outsourcing, the economic crisis, supranational integration, regionalization, and digital technology relate to borders and influence our lives. Written with a clear eye and voice, this book makes a complex subject accessible to a wide readership.

"Clearly written, extremely informative and well structured, Gabriel Popescu’s work provides a theoretical insight into the changing nature of borders, particularly in the past two decades and, at the same time, can serve as a useful guide through the maze of multidisciplinary border studies. It can be recommended to students of geography, political science and international relations, to social scientists interested in borders, transnationality, mobility and geopolitics, and to experts dealing with cross-border cooperation and migration in government, business, international organizations and NGOs." - Journal Of Borderlands Studies

"A very readable account of contemporary theoretical approaches in border studies across a range of disciplines. It emphasizes how borders are and will remain central factors in contemporary international affairs and directly affect our daily lives. The bibliography is also a valuable tool for further reading." - Oxford Bibliographies