The borderlands of a country say a lot about the society that makes it up. These sensitive edges let conflict take root easily, disguise insecurity, and facilitate the emergence of norms and rules outside state-provided citizenship. In the absence of the State, these spaces promote forms of organisation and relationships that are the heart of the logics of war and organised crime. Annette Idler has managed to understand the complexity of cross-border territories. Her original research provides an alternative to the overused center-periphery approach according to which these inhospitable places have little to say about our political and social realities.
With Fronteras Rojas, Idler opens a new dimension to understand war and seek peace.