Ingolf Vogeler, Types of International Borders along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Hard Fortified Borders
Fortified borders were created for military and, sometimes, violent encounters with other countries or cultural groups (Hadrian's Wall, Korean DMZ, Israel-Palestine Wall, Western Sahara Berm), but more commonly for immigration and economic reasons (e.g., U.S.-Mexico, India-Bangladesh, Iron Curtain -- although initially for military purposes). Of the about 195 international land borders, only 42 were/are fortified, from wired fences to militarized. And 57 percent of these fortified borders today are used exclusively for border control of illegal immigration, smuggling products, drug trafficking, and terrorists, rather than for military purposes.
         The landscapes of these most exclusionary borders represent a particularly interesting display of nation-state power and their relationships with their neighboring states in a world where more commonly borders are largely symbolic, such as on the U.S.-Canada line, or the non-existent borders between the countries of the European Union. In the past, fortified borders, such as the Roman and Chinese empires, identified and delineated “barbarians” and restricted them to beyond “civilized” places. Modern states with fortified borders resemble ancient versions, albeit with different rationales.
        The Cold War created another set of conditions and different kinds of fortified borders. They were used for the first time to keep national populations within, rather than out of, particularly nation-states in Eastern Europe and the Korean peninsula. The most recent forms of globalization, particularly international terrorism, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration, have again challenged the power of states within and at the edges of their control. Perceived or actual illegalities, and even hostilities beyond borders, frequently lead to fortified, even militarized, international borders, e.g., the highly fortified U.S.-Mexico border.

Fortified borders are by their very nature symptomatic of extreme hegemonic powers, when societies maintain their dominance, through exclusion, over other countries or peoples, by whatever means (political, economic, security, and military).

           These hard fortified borders come in four sub-types:

   Select the border type:
Fenced Borders
 Fenced and Walled Borders
 Walled Borders
 Militarized Borders

Forty-two fortified border were identified but information on the types of materials used to fortify borders was only available for 35 cases (see table). International fortified borders in the past were built of earth, turf, stones, and bricks (14 percent), such as Hardin’s Wall and the Great Wall of China, but also the modern-day Morocco Wall.
         The most common fortified borders today are built of wire fences (72 percent), often electrified (17 percent). Concrete walls, often in combination with wire fences, were/are used in 20 (14.3 plus 5.7) percent of international fortified borders, such as the Berlin Wall, Israeli-Palestine Walls, and the U.S.-Mexico Wall.