Closed Borders: Nationalism and the Closed Economy

In my interactive assignment for this module, I leveraged this week’s readings to make a case to incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to resist urges within his country to close its borders and to avoid limiting interaction with the international economy.  While the economic theories from the readings were the focus of my paper, I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the causes of this inclination to close borders as well, which is what I intend to explore briefly in this week’s post.  Specifically, I want to address a similar urge popping up within the United States and Europe, which seem to be directly linked to nationalism and this constructed sets of identities that establish the principles of “us” and “them”.

As President of the United States, Donald Trump has been one of the most vocal advocates for adjusting U.S. trade policy to focus on “America First” as he and his supporters would have it.  This ideology calls for an increase in tariffs on imported goods and penalizes international trading partners.  While the idea appears to be purely economic in nature, there are also other forces at work. 

In addition to being known for their nationalistic economic approach, team “Make America Great Again” is also known for its somewhat extreme (and discriminatory) immigration policies.  The Trump Administration has been in the news quite a bit for its child separation policies, its ‘Muslim Ban’ and of course, the premise of building a “big, beautiful wall” along our southern border.  The wall (in very Game of Thrones-like fashion) is a great metaphor for the nationalist tendencies exhibited by the administration.  What exactly is the wall designed to keep out?

Harkening back to Hobbes, I remember being particularly intrigued by his remarks in Chapter 13, which read:   “What opinion he has of his fellow subjects, when he rides armed; of his fellow citizens, when he locks his doors; and of his children, and servants, when he locks his chests” (p. 58).  This question could just as easily be posed concerning the Trump administrations regard for immigrants (legal or otherwise).  What regard does the administration have for immigrants that it wants to construct a wall to keep them out?

Constructivists might suggest that this leads to the establishment of identities that enable us to determine the “us” and the “them” among us.  The “us” needs to stay out and in a zero sum, Hobbesian way, if the “thems” gain; it is to the loss of the “us”.  In assessing the relationship between this desire to close borders in conjunction with a desire to close international trade, a case can be made that the tendency to close borders may well coincide with nationalist upswings within nation-states.

A similar example exists in the European Union, where the Great Britain recently chose to withdraw due to similar nationalist tendencies.  Even in France, with the candidacy of Marine Le Pen, who identified a large a growing nationalistic movement within that country’s borders.

It appears as though there is a relationship between nationalism and the idea of shifting to a more closed economy.  Closed borders and a closed economy tend to lend themselves well to the constructed identities that nationalists often identify with, promoting the idea that ‘what is best for us is all that matters’.  In reality, however, as nearly all of the authors we read for this module pointed out, doing so often has a negative impact on the economy.

Hobbes, T. (2000). Leviathan. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com