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The changing nature of national borders will be examined October 22 when Schar School Distinguished Visiting Professor Richard Kauzlarich discusses the book, The New Border Wars: The Conflicts That Will Define Our Future, with the author, Klaus Dodds.
The noon conversation is part of George Mason University’s annual Fall for the Book Festival. The virtual session is free and open to the public but registration is required: bit.ly/3AtHPZq
“I found this book intriguing because of my 40 years of experience in the Department of State and the intelligence community dealing with conflicts and borders,” said Kauzlarich, who, among other accomplishments, was U.S. ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Azerbaijan.
The book, Kauzlarich said, “provides a modern framework for looking at the concept of borders as activities that go far beyond lines drawn on a map. For Dodds, borders are physical, but they are also activities increasingly enabled by technology. Such activity alters the scope and nature of borders, and the orthodox conflicts surrounding them. He also describes the impacts of climate change on people and borders that affect them.”
The interviewer and the interviewee have much in common. At the Schar School, Kauzlarich teaches the geopolitics of energy security and directs the Center for Energy Science and Policy. Dodds is a professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has served in an advisory capacity at NATO.
Dodds’ book, the ambassador added, “addresses novel aspects of borders such as cyber, sub-sea, and outer space…The transdisciplinary approach of this book fits in well with Schar School’s future as a transdisciplinary institution that draws on different disciplines and faculty members to address the challenges and disruptions caused by the new border wars.”