In drawing up a map, we can somehow project dangers and fears outside our territories, to say that we have nothing to do with the problem of terrorism, the problem of instability in Libya, the problem of quagmire in Afghanistan, the problem of worldwide displacement owing to conflicts that often major Western powers have a part in creating. We can project all that onto other peoples in other territories. There's a political function, and a psychological function.

Anthropologist Ruben Andersson explains how Western border regimes and local insurgencies are remapping the globalized world in a series of conflicts over access and movement, creating contested 'danger zones' and drawing lines between the rich and poor through fear, uncertainty and force.

Ruben is author of No Go World: How Fear Is Redrawing Our Maps and Infecting Our Politics from University of California Press.