| ID | 192992 |
| Title Proper | Strange resilience of the UK e-borders programme |
| Other Title Information | technology hype, failure and lock-in in border control |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Boswell, Christina ; Besse, James |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The UK government’s e-Borders project presents an intriguing anomaly: despite repeated and acknowledged failings of the project over two decades, it has remained a core part of border strategy across successive administrations. This article seeks to explain the surprising resilience of this programme by developing the concept of political lock-in. We combine insights from critical security studies with science and technology studies concepts of ‘tech hype’ and lock-in. We apply these insights to trace how e-Borders was constructed as a compelling technological solution to pressing security issues. This created a form of political lock-in, whereby the project became impossible to abandon because of its political urgency, despite increasing awareness of its unfeasibility. With the project caught in a liminal state of non-completion, successive governments expanded the scope of the programme by attaching new security problems to it, thereby rendering it even more unviable. Our analysis thus throws up a paradox: rather than mobilizing resources to accomplish its tech vision, securitization created forms of lock-in and paralysis that made the programme more difficult to accomplish. |
| `In' analytical Note | Security Dialogue Vol. 54, No.4; Aug 2023: p.395–413 |
| Journal Source | Security Dialogue Vol: 54 No 4 |
| Key Words | Security ; European Union ; International Security ; Identity ; Securitization |