Research Program on Border Control and Homeland Security

Research Program on Border Control and Homeland Security
Director: Rey Koslowski

Associated Faculty: Victor Asal

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon starkly revealed a dark side of globalization. Global flows of information over the internet, increasing international business travel, tourism, and foreign study provided convenient cover for the terrorists as they carefully planned their attacks. The freight transportation revolution made possible by intermodal shipping containers enabled a vast expansion of international trade and an acceleration of globalization but these shipping containers are all too susceptible to use as delivery vehicles for weapons of mass destruction. This research program examines the increasing trade, travel, migration that is part and parcel of globalization in light of new demands on border control required to provide homeland security.

Director Rey Koslowski's current research examines the impact of the information revolution on international migration and vice versa in order to gain a better understanding of the long-term challenges of border control and homeland security in a world transformed by the 9/11 attacks. It focuses on efforts to selectively control migration using new information technologies (IT) in order to shape flows of human capital to the needs of technology-driven, globalizing economies, the security consequences of this selective migration strategy and intensified border control IT deployment for homeland security. This research was supported during 2003-2004 with a Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and in 2006 with a Research and Writing Grant from Global Security and Sustainablity Program of the MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Koslowski's research on border control and homeland security is also supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Digital Government program for a collaborative project on "Secure Agency Interoperation for Effective Data Mining in Border Control and Homeland Security Applications"

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