Hardened/Open Border Paradox

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Please respond to the Forum questions listed below. You are expected to give complete answers using MORE than simply what you read in class. This course requires outside research and this is a critical element of your grade.

Instructions: Your initial post should be at least 350 words. When addressing the topic questions, you are to state the question followed by your response. Do this for each question posed.

1) Define pay riding. What is free riding? Over time, can the unilateral solution likely turn into a multilateral one? This will require outside research.

2) What is the "Hardened Border Paradox? What is the "Open Border Paradox? How can both be overcome? This is a COMPARE AND CONTRAST requirement.

Lesson Topic: GATT, NAFTA, and the Hardened/Open Paradox

" The popular notion that the U.S.- Mexico border is out of control falsely assumes that there was once a time when it was truly under control"...Peter Andreas, Border Games.

Course Objective - Explain the concept of Open Markets and Closed Borders.

As we continue our focus on the open markets, closed border concept, it is important to know that smuggling has been an integral and historical economic exchange since the nineteenth century. In the Forum this week we discuss how the U.S.- Mexico economic relationship was founded on smuggling. You will learn about two important treaties that were signed between the two nations. One being the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the other the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Additionally, we will identify "pay riding and free riding", discuss whether it is cost effective to spend millions to stop a few that may threaten homeland security, and explain the "Hardened and Open Border Paradox".

References

Andreas, P. (2009). Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide, 2nd ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.