Constructing the EU’s high-tech borders: FRONTEX and dual-use drones for border management

ABSTRACT

FRONTEX has highlighted Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) as affordable and efficient capabilities for securing the EU’s vast frontiers in order to further upgrade them into smart technological borders. In this regard, this article examines the EU’s strategy and rationalisations to develop dual-use technologies such as aerial surveillance drones for border management. By drawing on critical security and technology studies and by focusing on their functional technological efficiency, the article argues that drones are being normalised in a technological regime of exclusion at the border-zone. It further contends that high-end technologies such as drones introduce a military bias as security enablers in border surveillance and as a panacea for the consequences of failed policies to manage irregular migration. A closer examination of several EU-endorsed drone projects reveals a pragmatic and industry-driven approach to border security, underlining the evolving homogenisation between internal and external security and the imminent “dronisation” of European borders.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• FRONTEX
• drones
• border security
• technological efficiency

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Daniel Fiott and the other participants at the EUIA 2018 panel for their helpful feedback. The author is also grateful to Chantal Lavallée and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Raluca Csernatoni is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer with the Institute of Political Studies (IPS), the Department of International Relations, at Charles University in Prague. She completed her PhD at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. Her research interests focus on the European security architecture, the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), critical security and technology studies, and the development of emerging technologies such as dual-use drones and artificial intelligence (AI).

ORCID

Raluca Csernatoni http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1412-582X