Throughout history, walls have been constructed as a simple way to stem the flow of goods and people. Few of history’s great walls, however, ultimately succeeded in carrying out this mandate. Take the Berlin Wall, which came crashing down with communism, or the many walls that snake along the Mexico border that have failed to deter the steady flow of undocumented migrants into the United States.
Now, the Tunisians are going to build an “anti terror” wall along their porous border with Libya. After declaring a state of emergency following last month’s attack on foreign tourists in Sousse on the Gulf of Hammamet, the Tunisian government has announced plans for a wall that is projected to stretch 160km inland from the coast. It is forecast to be completed by the end of this year.
While this ambitious project will certainly create a number of sorely needed jobs in Tunisia, it remains to be seen whether the wall will succeed in its stated goal of providing protection against the militant threat from Libya. After all, the gunman responsible for the Sousse attack was Tunisian and was able to fly to and from Libya for training. Even so, regardless of how much (or little) it manages to limit the movement of extremists, the wall may provide something deeper and more effective on a psychological level for the Tunisian people because walls are extraordinary statements of purpose. They create a physical line in the sand demarcating those on the inside and those who are firmly on the outside.
If we look at it from another perspective, the world is witnessing one of the greatest migrations in human history. From economic migrants to political refugees, people are flooding across borders in unprecedented numbers. Hungary has responded to this crisis by announcing it will build a wall along its border with Serbia to keep the migrants out. Few believe that a wall will do much to stop the flow of migrants but the push to build it fits nicely with the ruling government’s aggressive nationalism. In essence, the wall may almost be seen as a message that Hungary will not tolerate outsiders rather than as an effective means of actually keeping migrants out. Israel’s West Bank separation wall works on much the same principle with regard to the Palestinians.
The continuing relevance of walls may contrast with our increasingly borderless world. But nationalism and security still strike a chord with most people everywhere and often, there may seem no better way to reinforce them than by physically building a wall.
