Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science SECURING BORDERS IN WEST AFRICA Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science SECURING BORDERS IN WEST AFRICA: TRANSNATIONAL ACTORS, PRACTICES, AND KNOWLEDGES By PHILIPPE MAMADOU FROWD, B.SOC.SCI., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Philippe M. Frowd, 2015 Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2015) Department of Political Science McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Securing Borders in West Africa: Transnational Actors, Practices, and Knowledges AUTHOR: Philippe Mamadou Frowd, B.A., M.A. (University of Ottawa) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Peter Nyers Number of pages: xiii, 150 ii Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science LAY ABSTRACT This dissertation examines efforts to boost border security in Senegal and Mauritania—two states on the Atlantic coast of West Africa—with emphasis on the international cooperation and knowledge transmission that emerges as part of these efforts. The dissertation argues that borders are not only lines on a map, but institutions in which security professionals compete and cooperate over questions such as who should carry out border control and how. It also argues that with security framed as a question of development and state capacity, securing borders becomes a question of statebuilding. To show this, the dissertation draws on data from interviews in law enforcement and national security agencies, embassies, and international organizations to provide a mapping of actors in the field of border security and their relations. Its empirical cases focus on joint migration patrols, border post construction, and the use of biometric identification iii Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science ABSTRACT This dissertation examines border security practices in West Africa, with emphasis on the effects of practices of international intervention. The dissertation advances an understanding of borders as institutional spaces, eschewing a view of borders as geographical features alone. It leverages this view of borders to examine the everyday practices of border control, focusing in particular on the security professionals who cooperate and compete over the meaning and enactment of border security. The dissertation draws from ethnographic fieldwork in Senegal and Mauritania to advance three case studies. First, it examines Spanish police cooperation with Senegal and Mauritania on the prevention of irregular migration by sea and land routes. Second, it analyzes Mauritania’s construction of new border posts in response to migration and terrorism. Third, it looks into the adoption of biometric identification at airports and in official documents in Senegal and Mauritania. In each of these cases, the dissertation argues, everyday border security practices are framed in terms of capacity, with border control taking on the practical characteristics of statebuilding. This dissertation makes three key contributions to knowledge. First, by focusing on the quotidian social and technical aspects of borders, it provides a view into the concrete knowledge practices and organizational politics that drive border control, even if they are of complex causality. Second, this dissertation contributes to security studies a theorization of the movement of security practices and understandings between global contexts. Third, by relying on fieldwork in closed and rarely accessible contexts, it provides a view into the functioning and social relations of West African fields of security. iv Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the belief, encouragement, investment, and sacrifice on the part of colleagues, friends, and family. I would like to thank my supervisor Peter Nyers for his consistent support for this dissertation and his enthusiasm for all my scholarly endeavours. Peter’s composed assurance and belief have been infectious, and have given me the confidence needed to see through the various projects I’ve taken on while working with him. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, J. Marshall Beier has profoundly shaped my thinking about the discipline of International Relations, while Diane Enns has been a refreshing voice from outside it. I am also grateful to colleagues such as Mark Salter, who has tirelessly encouraged my ambitions and been a source of sage advice, and Michelle Dion, whose advice on academic practice has been tremendously helpful. I am grateful for the institutional and financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), from which I was awarded a Doctoral Award, and the Government of Ontario, from which I was awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. I am also grateful for the administrative support from Manuela Dozzi and Kathleen Hannan in the Department of Political Science at McMaster University. My desire to carry out fieldwork came with considerable costs, and I am particularly thankful to Privacy International for helping to cover a large part of them. I am very grateful to the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster University, which provided me financial support to go on research leave during the academic year. The fieldwork I carried out for this dissertation would not have been impossible without the help of key contacts. For my fieldwork in Mauritania, I would like to thank Saleh Cheikh, Amadou Sall, Cheikh Saad Bouh Camara, Mohamedou Moktar, and Martin Ewi. In Senegal, the help of Ababacar Diop, Abdoulaye Niang, and Fallou Kebe was essential. I am also greatly indebted to all of my interviewees for having shared their stories with me. I could not have come this far without friends and family. I am truly privileged to have be surrounded by a truly great set of friends across the world, in particular Can Mutlu, Christopher Leite, Adam Sandor, Amrit Ahluwalia, Mike Di Gregorio, Liam Stockdale, Jennifer Mustapha-Vanderkooy, Mark Busser, Jessica Merolli, Heather Johnson, and Meagan Kinsella. I am thankful to my father Andrew, and my mother Yacine, for always stressing the value and dignity of education. Finally, this project is dedicated to my wife, Rabya, who missed me on too many evenings and weekends, and without whose love and patience this work could not have been completed. v Ph.D. Thesis – P.M. Frowd; McMaster University – Political Science TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................1 1.1 A study of borderwork and security in West Africa ..........................1 1.2 Theorizing borders .................................................................................4 1.2.1 Thinking beyond lines in the sand .......................................................4 1.2.2 A socio-technical perspective on border control .................................5 1.3 Logics of security and development .....................................................6 1.3.1 Security knowledge on the move .........................................................6 1.3.2 Security as care and control .................................................................7 1.4 Research approach .................................................................................7 1.4.1 International political sociology ..........................................................8 1.4.2 Case selection and multi-sited ethnography ........................................8 1.4.3 Gathering the evidence ......................................................................10 1.4.4 Data analysis ......................................................................................11 1.5 Précis of the dissertation .....................................................................12 2 Borderwork assemblages .............................................................................15 2.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................15 2.2 Borderwork ..........................................................................................16 2.2.1 More than just a line in the sand ........................................................17 2.2.2 Four theses on borderwork .................................................................18 2.3 Who does West Africa’s borderwork? ...............................................21 2.4 Thinking with assemblage ...................................................................26 2.4.1 Heterogeneity of the social ................................................................28 2.4.2 Association .........................................................................................29 2.5 Borders, order, and security ...............................................................31 3 Security knowledge in motion .....................................................................33 3.1 Borderwork and knowledge ................................................................33 3.2 International political sociology and security....................................35 3.2.1 International political sociology ........................................................35 3.2.2 Security as process .............................................................................36