On the 8th of July 2015 as part of RECOURSE we had pleasure to host dr Tamar Arieli from Tel Hai Academic Collage. Tamar delivered a presentation about cross-border cooperation (CBC) between Israel and Jordan during 20 years of peace. The shy symptom of the peace between those countries is not white dove, but white barn owl.

According to the main thesis of the presentation, on the border area between two different nations and religions, the dynamics of opening and closing borders is a circular, rather than a linear process determinated by the relationship climate on the national level. The further away from the capitals of the two countries, the better cooperation is, what is evident in the case of outstanding contacts between local authorities in Eilat and Akaba (near the Red Sea). But on the rest of borderland, only local and ephemeral in nature co-operation initiatives connected with the environment and agriculture dominate, sometimes strongly relying on the external funds.

During discussion, participants of the seminary emphasized many analogies between Jordan-Israel border and some European ones. It can be seen that on the one hand CBC is hindered by the return towards national states after economic crisis. On the other hand, it is supported by the initiatives of young people who stronger identify with the whole border region.

We would like to thank Tamar once again for excellent presentation!

• dr Tamar Arieli – Dilemmas of Securitization and Borders (presentation)