Room for Progress: Reinventing Euro-Atlantic Borders for a New Strategic Environment

In an era when states and their populations are increasingly subject to opportunities and risks associated with the global movement of people, states are rethinking border management.

This report is the product of two workshops held on border management in Brussels and Laredo, Texas in the United States. It addresses three arenas of significant change shared by the United States and the European Union: 1) new government organizations for controlling borders; 2) the use of information technology to secure borders; and 3) visa‐free travel policies.

Many factors—trade, geography, and history among them—are furthering the economic and political integration of the European Union and bringing Canada, Mexico, and the United States together into deeper economic and security partnerships. These transformations alone are driving change in border management.