In North America and Europe, cross-border governance arrangements have provided formal and informal frameworks to support cross-border cooperation. Analysing how these frameworks have emerged, the ways in which they have become institutionalized, and the processes by which they change is fundamental. Moreover, these frameworks are increasingly challenged by border securitization, thus limiting or jeopardizing decades of cross-border cooperative governance and coordinated public policies. Agents and Structures in Cross-Border Governance offers a series of case studies that explore these complex dynamics.

To understand a range of cross-border governance frameworks, this collection addresses such topics as infrastructure development and management, resource sharing, regional politics, economics, security, human rights, the environment, culture, and community. The book explains how cross-border governance schemes have sought to mitigate some of the negative consequences of border security policies, allowing readers to discern how concrete national power struggles between federal/national and subnational governments unfold in border areas. In a world increasingly impacted by climate change and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic, Agents and Structures in Cross-Border Governance sheds light on the ongoing complexity of cross-border governance and offers lessons to help mitigate these challenges.

Revealing the complexity of cross-border governance in the present day, this collection offers analytical insight and original case studies of cross-border governance in Europe and North America.

Introduction

1. Cross-Border Governance: A Common Theoretical Framework and Comparative Approach
Bruno Dupeyron, Andrea Noferini, and Tony Payan

Part 1: Cross-Border Governance in North America: From Multipolar to Monocentric Governance

2. ‘Getting It:’ Business NGOs and Political Actors Talk about the US-Mexico Border
Kathleen Staudt and Pamela L. Cruz

3. The Structure of Cross-Border Governance on the US-Mexico Border
Tony Payan

4. Incumbent and Challenger Stakeholders in the San Diego-Tijuana Border Region: Economics and Migration
Eduardo Mendoza-Cota

5. Mexico’s “Drug War,” the Energy Sector, and an Emerging Strategic Action Field
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

6. Re-shaping Cross-Border Governance in the Pacific Northwest Borderlands
Victor Konrad

7. Revisiting “Paradiplomacy” in the Quebec-US-States Cross-Border Area
Bruno Dupeyron

Part 2: Cross-Border Governance in Europe: A Steady but Contested Multi-level Governance

8. Actors and Policy Outcomes in the Euroregion Pyrenees Mediterranean: From the Emergence to the Stabilization of the Field (1990–2018)
Andrea Noferini

9. Cross-Border Islands Governance: A Field Analysis of the Italy-Malta Interreg Program
Francesco Camonita

10. A Bird’s Eye-View of Cross-Border Governance Dynamics along the Pyrenees (France-Spain Border) 
Matteo Berzi

11. Cultural Policy within Euroregions: Dynamics of a Cross-Border Sectoral Field
Thomas Perrin

12. Galicia and the Region of North Portugal: An Experience of Cross-Border Cooperation in the Portugal-Spain Border
Celso Cancela Outeda

13. Cooperation and Cross-Border Conflicts in Cerdanya (Spain-France Border) in Early Twenty-First Century Environmental and Economic Crises
Xavier Oliveras

14. The Evolving Cross-Border Cooperation of Nouvelle Aquitaine–Euskadi–Navarre (Western Pyrenees Boundary): Multiple Actors and Aims of Cooperation
Antoni Durà-Guimerà

Conclusion

15. Comparing Cross-Border Governance in North America and Europe: Conclusions
Bruno Dupeyron, Andrea Noferini, and Tony Payan

“The editors have succeeded in putting together a coherent set of case studies on cross-border governance, comparing border regions in North America and the southwestern part of the European Union. Since there is no single general theoretical framework available in the field of border studies, using the theory of fields works very well as a common analytical lens. The comparative orientation of the volume makes it extremely useful for academics and professionals, not only in North America and Europe but worldwide.”“Thanks to a systematic usage of field theory, Dupeyron, Noferini, and Payan bring much light to cross-border governance: Their findings underscore that the singular origin of power in cross-border governance emerges from the relative social skills and entrepreneurship of governments, the private sector, and non-profit actors. A must-read for border professionals and students.”“Agents and Structures in Cross-Border Governance is an ambitious volume that aims to bring theoretical order to the study of border and transboundary governance, enabling and advancing the more systematic comparison of governance in global border regions. It is an original and valuable contribution to the borderlands literature that is sure to inspire further application of the field theory approach.”