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11 Law & Bus. Rev. Am. 527 (2005)
Smart Borders, Virtual Borders or No Borders: Homeland Security Choices for the United States and Canada

handle is hein.journals/lbramrca11 and id is 535 raw text is: SMART BORDERS, VIRTUAL BORDERS OR No BORDERS: HOMELAND SECURITY CHOICES FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA* Rey Koslowski** I. INTRODUCTION N the wake of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States rapidly stiffened its border con- trols. Given the initial perception in the United States that the Cana- dian border was a sieve through which terrorists could easily pass, the United States redeployed Border Patrol officers to the U.S.-Canadian border. While the initial response to September 11 involved a massive increase of inspections at border crossings with Canada, this quickly led to traffic back-ups of fifteen hours at the border - delays that could not be economically sustained. In response to these conflicting security and economic imperatives, dis- cussions between the United States and Canada increasingly explored the possibility of building a North American Perimeter modeled after the European Union, whereby internal border controls are lifted as a com- mon external border is established. These talks shifted focus toward in- ternational cooperation that would leverage information technology, yielding an Action Plan for Creating a Secure and Smart Border, which was announced on December 12, 2001 (White House 2002a). The initia- tives to create a Smart Border of the future became a central feature of the subsequent National Homeland Security Strategy (White House 2002b). According to a White House statement: *This article is a revised version of a paper International Cooperation to Create Smart Borders, prepared for the conference on North American Integration: Migration, Trade and Security, organized by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Ottawa April 1-2, 2004. It incorporates insights and information from a May 2004 visit to Canada supported by the Canada Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The research for this paper was supported by a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. I am very grateful to the Wilson Center for its support. The paper also incorporates information gathered in November 2004 visit to the Detroit-Windsor area funded by the Migration Policy Institute to whom I am very grateful. ** Associate Professor of Political Science, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany (SUNY). He also holds a joint appointment in UAlbany's College of Computing and Information. He is also Director of the Center for Policy Research Program on Border Control and Homeland Security.

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