The EU’s Internal and External Borders in a World Torn by Conflict

In the last chapter, the authors take stock of the challenges which are besetting the European Union’s (EU) internal and external borders from the perspective of contemporary events and crises, and evaluate them in the context of a changing international environment. They consider what can be learned from past experiences concerning the internal borders which in the last decades were lifted only to be reinstated again, and the hardening of the EU’s external borders in order to keep unwanted pressure from irregular immigration at bay while facing off hybrid security threats, terrorism and organized crime. The chapter analyzes the geopolitical shift from the perspective of the EU’s quest to protect internal policy progress, such as the greening of the economy, against political actors which challenge the principles of the rules-based international order. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the war in Ukraine on the European security architecture, and the prospect of a future enlargement to Ukraine, Moldova, and the candidate countries on the Balkan Peninsula.