International Departures: Radical Relational Lessons from Cross-Border Migration Corridors for Peace

The rise of borders’ securitization has had established effects on the societal, security, and economic relations between states worldwide. In this paper, though, we argue that the usual level of analysis regarding border spaces is insufficient, as a state-based or neo-liberal approach ignores important realities and stakeholders that must be considered in these regions’ peacebuilding and governance. Using the illustrative cases of flagship species – pollinators (Monarch butterflies, hummingbirds) at the US/Mexico border and Megafauna (wolves, bears, reindeer) at the Finnish/Russian border, we show that non-human migratory corridors must be included as part of a more complex and radical relational understanding of securitized borders. Traditional use by humans in these spaces similarly needs to be incorporated into any sustainable governance approaches. Critical, decolonial, and feminist peace and conflict studies, as well as radical relational approaches, invite us to include local and Indigenous voices in bordering policies, to fight epistemological violence, inequalities, and discrimination, and to better address the challenges that borders entail, especially within the context of climate change. Radical relational understandings (including human relations with non-human migratory actors) offer a holistic understanding of these issues, especially as climate change increases pressure on human and non-human cross-border migration around the world.