Ian Volner
The Right Wall
Ian Volner
In 2021, researchers in the Baltic Sea happened upon a submerged stone embankment built by neolithic trappers for the purpose of corralling and slaughtering reindeer. Dating from ten thousand years ago, it is perhaps the world’s oldest freestanding wall, built around the same time as one of the common claimants of that title: the storied walls of the ancient city of Jericho, constructed in the ninth century B.C.E. and mythologized...
A Failure of Imagination | On Borders and the Nation-State
Ian Volner
In 1990, there were fifteen international border walls, according to the political geographer Reece Jones. Today, that figure has more than quintupled — and it doesn’t account for the vast surveillance apparatuses that track and criminalize migration even in the absence of brick-and-mortar (and chain-link, and steel) barriers. By 2025, the global border-security market is expected to generate more than $65 billion in revenue. These structures and systems haven’t stopped...
