Rebuilding bridges: a critical geopolitics of Iberian transfrontier cooperation in a European context

In the context of approaches to understanding the European Union(EU) and ʹcritical geopoliticsʹ which traces the construction of geopolitical narratives, the author writes about the imaginations of European society and space as harmonised and networked which are associated with visions of governance for ʹan ever closer unionʹ. This is done through a critical examination of the European Commissionʹs project of sponsoring cross-border cooperation. Drawing on a case study from the Portuguese - Spanish frontier, he examines contradictions that have arisen and are mediated through an unresolved dispute concerning the demarcation of a short section of what is the longest, poorest (in terms of material underdevelopment), and oldest (in terms of relative stability) border between two EU member states. Focusing on the EU-funded (re)construction of a ruined bridge across the border, he examines the way in which the boundary dispute (and attendant Portuguese irredentism) has become enfolded within and disrupts the strategic visions of the EU. Working with a mixture of historical and contemporary documents, media accounts, archival records, and interviews relating to this case study, the author reflects on and elaborates broader understandings of the spatiality of power in the EU.