The Borders of Responsibility

“A sophisticated and nuanced understanding of how migrants’ movements across the Central Mediterranean are conditioned and contained through the EU’s strategy of border externalization.” - Gregory Feldman, author of The Subject of Sovereignty: Relationality and the Pivot past Liberalism

“A fascinating and original discussion of pushbacks, pullbacks, coastguards, maritime rescue zones, legal gaps, political games, and humanitarian logistics. Santer’s experience on NGO rescue boats adds powerful insight, nuance, and affect to the account.” - William Walters, editor of Viapolitics: Borders, Migration, and the Power of Locomotion

"[Santer] draws a dynamic picture of how the fragmentation, and even dissolution, of EU and state responsibility is achieved in myriad ways." - Julia Eckert, AnthroTheory Commons

"Kiri Santer's book tells us a lot about the use of legal strategies within border struggles." - Lucia Gennari, AnthroTheory Commons

"A relevant read for those . . . who are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the relation of liberal governmentality and violence." - Leonie Felicitas Jegen, AnthroTheory Commons

"Borders of Responsibility is an important contribution to legal anthropology." - Insa Koch, AnthroTheory Commons

"One of the achievements of The Borders of Responsibility lies in its remarkable capacity to make visible relations that are, by definition, difficult to observe." - Camilla Alberti, AnthroTheory Commons

"Ethically engaged. . . . Worth reading, regardless of one’s position on migration." - Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs