by Haley Ritchie

Globalization has made it easier than ever to communicate with people all over the world. But when it comes to meeting face to face, things can get complicated.

According Victor Konrad, the co-head of a new research network that aims to explore modern borders, the lines that divide us are more militarized now than at any other time in history.

Every day the Canada-U.S. boundary sees over a $1 billion in trade, meaning that even a few hours hold-up can mean millions of dollars lost.

Numbers like these makes borders and globalization a high stakes area of study set to get even more important in the next decade.

A new partnership between Carleton and the University of Victoria will be leading the way in a massive project that aims to explore 21st century borders.

The seven-year “Borders in Globalization” collaboration will be funded with a $2.3-million Partnership Grant from the Sciences and Humanities Research Council as well as $1.4-million from other partners.

It will also bring together 22 international universities and over 30 other community partners, with plans to host multiple round-tables, summer schools and international conferences. The network plans to publish 110 studies as well as policy briefs and books.

Much of the funding will be used to expand the field of study by supporting graduate student research on a variety of border-related topics such as policy, immigration, environmentalism and terrorism.

The subject spans diverse disciplines like geography, public policy and economics, but the current academic community is small and the subject not well recognized.

The borders project will help to change that, according to Victor Konrad, the project’s lead at Carleton.

“We’re making more and more borders, we’re making the borders tougher to get across, but at the same time information is flowing around the world a lot quicker,” he explains, adding that in the post 9-11 world, more money has been put towards new technologies that can secure borders.

“It’s a bit of a paradox. You’re putting on barriers, but on the other hand you’re trying to cross barriers,” he says.

The members are especially interested in the conflicts facing North Americans who are directly impacted by borders that control trade and travel.

Sometimes the effects of borders are even more direct. In Sanstead, Quebec, for example, the local library has an American side and a Canadian side, a result of a border that cuts through the centre of town.

As the lines between nations continue to blur and sharpen in new and confusing ways, the B.I.G network will examine new ways of dealing with complex borders and new models that can reach beyond current outdated definitions.

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