Off-shoring and out-sourcing the borders of EUrope: Libya and EU border work in the Mediterranean

The article examines some of the novel ways in which the European Union carries out its ‘border-work’- border-work that stretches far beyond the external borders of the current Union. It highlights, in particular, the role of EUrope's neighbours in new strategies of securitisation, drawing attention to some of the actors, sites and mechanisms that make the Union's border-work possible. The emphasis in the paper is on the Mediterranean, long the premier laboratory for creative solutions to the policing of EU borders. The discussion focuses predominantly on a difficult neighbour turned ‘friend’ - Libya - and its role in the EUropean archipelago of border-work.