The Security/Mobility Nexus as an Analytical Lens: The Cases of Counterterrorism and Infrastructure

Abstract

This chapter revisits the security/mobility nexus and explores what specific analytical benefits it can yield for the ways in which security and mobility are governed in an entwined fashion. To do so, it draws on two case studies that illustrate: (1) how foreign fighters and counterterrorism are politically conceived as a series of aligning movements and (2) how the European Union has set up a complex and multi-layered system of databases that provide the infrastructure to govern movement in differentiated forms. The chapter concludes with some reflections about how the problematization of governmental strategies in the security/mobility nexus can help capture historical continuities and disruptions.