When the Berlin Wall fell in the autumn of 1989, it felt like the beginning of a sea change in global geopolitics. Borders were beginning to fade, globalization was starting to take root. The concrete barrier had snaked around one of Europe’s most historic capitals for decades, cleaving a city in two and separating thousands of families, friends, and loved ones basically overnight. When the wall came down, Germany was suddenly on its way toward reunification–and it felt like the rest of the globe couldn’t be far behind.

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That movement never came to pass. When the Berlin Wall crumbled that November night three decades ago, there were only 15 border walls in the world. Today there are 70, with 7 more proposed or in progress. Border walls have gone up in places like Hungary, Kenya, and Morocco. And, as you might have heard, Donald Trump’s proposed budget for a 1,600-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has shut down the American government, as politicians argue over whether spending $5 billion on “steel slats” is a worthy use of taxpayer money while crucial infrastructure like bridges and highways crumble. Far from heralding the end of borders, the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in a golden era of walls and created a booming industry that specializes in keeping citizens of neighboring countries separated. Walls, by themselves, don’t do much of anything. They’re easily circumvented and are bulwarks blocking the road less taken; illegal immigration is done mainly through borders that are already heavily guarded. But they’re effective symbols, and politicians understand that there is power in physical metaphor. “When India was building their border fence with Bangladesh, there was someone who said, ‘You know, a wall is the best way to do nothing while looking like you’re doing something,'” Élisabeth Vallet told Fast Company. “If we had to deal with the root problem driving migration, it would have to be addressed by the international community–which doesn’t work well together. Walls are like trying to slap a Band-Aid on cancer.” Vallet is a professor of geography at the University of Quebec-Montreal, where she studies the impact of physical border walls around the world and the growth of wall construction over the past three decades. She says the beginning of the burgeoning border security market can be traced back to the beginning of a new geopolitical era. “At the end of the Cold War, the military and different defense industries found their markets short, and they have to rethink their business,” says Vallet. “The Boeings and Thales of the world had huge transformations. They knew they wouldn’t be able to build big weapons like they used to, so they kind of slid gradually towards something that was less about war and more about security.” Border walls and the companies that build them were born out of peace dividends. If the military-industrial complex was going to be wound down, then it was up to the defense contractors of the world to create a border-industrial complex to take its place.

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“Israel has been a huge producer and exporter of security technologies and security expertise,” Vallet told Fast Company. “They’ve been working with Saudi Arabia, for instance, to transfer the expertise on building border fences and border security. It’s a globalized market.” The stateside boom in border security doesn’t show any signs of slowing either. Congress has already authorized $20 million for wall prototypes in advance of the potential $5 billion earmark currently being deliberated in Washington. (The United States government has spent nearly $10 billion on border security since 2007.) “This is a good time to be in the border security business because we don’t make war as much,” says Vallet. “It’s not direct conflict anymore. It’s about risks and how you sell those risks.” Highlighting and marketing those dangers–whether they’re real or imagined–are why countries like Argentina have floated the idea of building a border wall with Bolivia and Peru, or why India has continued to erect barriers between itself and its myriad northern neighbors. Saudi Arabia has even proposed the idea of digging a canal on its border with Qatar in the shadow of their recent bilateral fracas. The proposed canal would effectively make Qatar into an island nation, a feat of engineering that is sure to be as complex as it is lucrative. The future of foreign policy is being shaped out of of razor wire and concrete, and the businesses that specialize in segmenting the world are poised to thrive.