Sea Borders between Domestic and International Definitions of Spaces: Italian-Libyan Cooperation on Border Management

This chapter examines the evolution of Italian-Libyan cooperation in border management and challenges the understanding of these practices exclusively in terms of externalization or crisis-led interventions. By looking at the partnerships between Italy and Libya since the early 2000s, the chapter argues that the two countries are engaged in multiple kinds of cooperation to produce a sea border that entails more than the externalization of border and migration control. Both countries have actively nurtured this cooperation and profit from the longer-term political consequences of such processes, including gaps in jurisdiction and power vacuums. An investigation based on the space of the sea between the two countries makes it possible to unravel the complex processes behind such relationships and borderwork.