What is the duration of the conference?

The conference spans several days, from a Wednesday to a Saturday.

What is the primary focus of this event?

The event focuses on the intersection of migration, logistics, and geopolitics in the context of cross-border mobility.

Cross-Border Mobility: Migration, Logistics and Geopolitics

Name: Cross-Border Mobility: Migration, Logistics and Geopolitics
Start: 2026-10-14T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-10-17T00:00:00Z
Location: Győr

Oct 14–17, 2026Győr, HungaryIn-person

Registration open

The conference "Cross-Border Mobility: Migration, Logistics and Geopolitics" will convene in Győr, HUN, to explore the multifaceted dynamics of cross-border movements. This event brings together scholars and practitioners to analyze how migration, logistics, and geopolitical factors intersect and influence global mobility patterns. Participants will delve into historical and contemporary perspectives, examining the complex interplay of these elements on national and international scales. The conference aims to foster a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by cross-border mobility. It will provide a platform for discussions on policy implications, societal impacts, and the evolving nature of borders in an interconnected world. The event is structured to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and the development of innovative approaches to managing and interpreting cross-border phenomena.

Committees & topics

Topics
Migration Systems and Population Movements · Imperial, State and Private Logistics: Infrastructure Histories and Futures · The Geopolitical Significance of Trade and Transit Routes · Military Mobility, Supply, and the Logistics of War · Forced Mobility: Deportations, Flight, Resettlement, and Climate Inequality · Mobility, Identity, and Border Regions · Historical and Current Shifts in Geopolitical Thinking and Spatial Perception · Socialist and Post-Socialist Mobilities

Why it matters

Understanding cross-border mobility is crucial in an era marked by significant global shifts. The movement of people and goods across national boundaries profoundly impacts economies, societies, and political landscapes. This conference addresses these critical issues by examining the intricate connections between migration, the logistical infrastructure that facilitates or hinders movement, and the overarching geopolitical forces that shape these processes.

The implications of cross-border mobility extend to various domains, including labor markets, cultural exchange, national security, and international relations. For instance, labor migration can alleviate skill shortages in some countries while creating brain drain in others. Similarly, disruptions in logistics, whether due to natural disasters or geopolitical tensions, can have cascading effects on global supply chains and economic stability. By exploring these interdependencies, the conference contributes to a more holistic understanding of global dynamics.

Furthermore, the event's focus on geopolitics highlights how state policies, international agreements, and regional conflicts directly influence mobility. Border controls, humanitarian aid, and trade routes are all subject to geopolitical considerations, often leading to complex ethical and practical dilemmas. The discussions at this conference are vital for policymakers, researchers, and anyone seeking to navigate the complexities of a world where borders are both physical and conceptual constructs, constantly being redefined by human movement and strategic interests.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the themes of cross-border mobility, participants should consider a multi-faceted preparatory approach. A foundational understanding of the historical evolution of migration patterns and logistical networks would be beneficial. This includes researching significant historical migrations, the development of international trade routes, and the impact of technological advancements on transportation and communication.

Given the geopolitical dimension, it is advisable to review current international relations and major geopolitical hotspots. Understanding the foreign policies of key nations, regional conflicts, and the role of international organizations in managing migration and logistics will provide valuable context. Familiarity with concepts such as sovereignty, international law, and humanitarian principles will also enhance participation.

For those interested in the policy aspects, exploring different national and international frameworks governing migration and trade would be useful. This could involve examining immigration laws, customs regulations, and international agreements related to human rights and trade facilitation. Considering the ethical implications of various mobility policies, such as those related to refugees or labor exploitation, will also enrich discussions. Engaging with the Model Diplomat lesson on "Mapping Relationships" or "Hidden Stakeholders" could provide frameworks for analyzing the diverse actors involved in cross-border movements, from state agencies to non-governmental organizations and individual migrants. Additionally, the "Dynamic Analysis" lesson can help in understanding the evolving nature of these complex systems.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Hungary

As a central European country, HUN experiences significant transit migration and has implemented various border policies.

Role in topic

HUN is a key transit country for migration flows within Europe and has been at the forefront of discussions regarding border management and national sovereignty in the context of cross-border mobility. Its geographical position and policy responses offer a unique case study for the conference themes.

Germany

A major destination for migrants and a significant player in European logistics, DEU's policies heavily influence regional mobility.

Role in topic

DEU is a primary destination for migrants and a critical economic hub in Europe, making it central to discussions on labor migration, integration policies, and the logistical infrastructure supporting continental trade. Its experiences with large-scale migration and its economic influence provide a crucial perspective.

United States

Faces complex challenges with both legal and irregular migration across its borders, particularly with MEX, and is a global logistical power.

Role in topic

The USA's extensive borders, particularly with MEX, present ongoing challenges related to migration, border security, and human rights. As a global economic power, its logistical networks are vast and impact international trade and mobility. Its policies and experiences offer a significant comparative perspective.

China

A global manufacturing and logistics powerhouse, CHN's Belt and Road Initiative significantly impacts cross-border infrastructure and trade.

Role in topic

CHN's role as a manufacturing hub and its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative have profound implications for global logistics and cross-border trade. While its internal migration is substantial, its external influence on infrastructure development and economic corridors directly relates to the conference's themes.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Migration Systems and Population Movements

Human migration has been a constant feature of world history, but the modern international system of regulated, documented, and often restricted movement is a product of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The consolidation of nation-states, the introduction of passports during and after the First World War, and the postwar refugee regime codified in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol created the legal architecture that still governs cross-border movement. Parallel labor migration systems — from European guest-worker programs to Gulf kafala arrangements and intra-Asian corridors — have shaped both sending and receiving societies, generating large diasporas and remittance economies. Today roughly 281 million people live outside their country of birth, according to the IOM World Migration Report, and more than 110 million are forcibly displaced, according to UNHCR. The core disputes concern the balance between state sovereignty over borders and individual rights to asylum and family unity; the responsibility-sharing gap that leaves frontline states (Turkey, Colombia, Bangladesh, Uganda) hosting the bulk of refugees; and the politicization of migration in destination democracies. The 2018 Global Compact for Migration and Global Compact on Refugees offered nonbinding frameworks, but implementation remains uneven and contested.

Key players

Imperial, State and Private Logistics: Infrastructure Histories and Futures

Modern logistics networks were forged in the age of empire. British, French, Dutch, Ottoman, Russian, and later Japanese imperial projects built ports, railways, and telegraph lines designed to extract resources and project power — from the Suez and Panama Canals to the Trans-Siberian, the Berlin–Baghdad, and the Cape-to-Cairo schemes. Decolonization inherited this skewed geography: many postcolonial economies remained structured around coastal export nodes, while interior connectivity lagged. State-led infrastructure pushes during the Cold War (Soviet rail and pipeline systems, US interstate highways, Chinese Third Front industrialization) layered new logics atop imperial ones. Since the 1980s, containerization, just-in-time manufacturing, and the privatization of ports and rail have shifted control toward global operators such as Maersk, MSC, DP World, Hutchison, and COSCO, while sovereign and private capital underwrite megaprojects like China's Belt and Road Initiative, the EU's Global Gateway, and the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor. The contemporary debate centers on resilience after the COVID-19 supply-chain shock and Red Sea disruptions, the heritage status of colonial-era infrastructure, the decarbonization of shipping and freight under IMO 2023 targets, and questions of who bears the social and environmental costs of warehouse sprawl, port expansion, and last-mile delivery economies.

Key players

The Geopolitical Significance of Trade and Transit Routes

Control of chokepoints and corridors has been a central concern of grand strategy since Mahan and Mackinder. The Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, the Suez and Panama Canals, the Turkish Straits, and the Malacca Strait each carry a disproportionate share of global energy or container traffic, making them recurring flashpoints. Land corridors — the Eurasian rail bridge, the North–South Transport Corridor through Iran, trans-Caucasus routes, and the Lobito and Mombasa corridors in Africa — have likewise become instruments of influence, with competing financing offers tying infrastructure to political alignment. Recent years have sharpened these stakes. Houthi attacks in the Red Sea since late 2023 have rerouted much Asia–Europe shipping around the Cape of Good Hope; drought has cut Panama Canal throughput; sanctions on Russia have reshaped Eurasian rail and pipeline flows; and Arctic routes are opening as ice retreats. The core dispute is whether transit infrastructure should be governed as a global commons under UNCLOS and WTO rules, or whether it is a legitimate field of strategic competition, with states using tariffs, sanctions, naval deployments, and corridor diplomacy (BRI, IMEC, Global Gateway, Middle Corridor) to shape flows in their favor.

Key players

Military Mobility, Supply, and the Logistics of War

Logistics has decided wars at least since Roman road-building, but industrial warfare made supply the central problem of strategy. The railway timetables of 1914, the Red Ball Express and Lend-Lease in the Second World War, the Berlin Airlift, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail each illustrated how movement of fuel, ammunition, and personnel determined operational reach. The Cold War institutionalized forward basing, prepositioned stocks, and alliance logistics frameworks such as NATO's standardization agreements. Contemporary conflicts have brought these questions back to the foreground. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine exposed acute logistical weaknesses and made Western military aid pipelines — through Poland and Romania — a strategic target. NATO has revived 'military mobility' as a formal policy area, harmonizing rail gauges, bridge load limits, and customs procedures so forces can move rapidly across Europe. In the Indo-Pacific, the US, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines are expanding access agreements and prepositioning to address the 'tyranny of distance.' Debates concern dual-use infrastructure, host-nation consent, the militarization of commercial shipping and space launch, and how international humanitarian law applies to attacks on logistical nodes.

Key players

Forced Mobility: Deportations, Flight, Resettlement, and Climate Inequality

Forced movement has taken many forms across the modern era: the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades, Ottoman and Tsarist population transfers, the partition of British India, Soviet deportations of Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans and others, the Nakba of 1948, Cold War expulsions across Central and Eastern Europe, and Khmer Rouge displacements. The 1951 Refugee Convention, the 1948 Genocide Convention, and the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement emerged in response, but enforcement has been selective and state practice often diverges sharply from norms. Today UNHCR records more than 110 million forcibly displaced people, driven by conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria, the DRC, and Gaza, and by the expulsions of Rohingya and Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Climate and environmental drivers — sea-level rise in the Pacific and Bay of Bengal, Sahelian drought, Central American 'dry corridor' crop failures — increasingly compound conflict displacement, even though 'climate refugees' lack a clear legal status. The core disputes concern responsibility-sharing for resettlement, the legality of pushbacks and externalization deals, accountability for ethnic cleansing and deportation as war crimes under the Rome Statute, and whether wealthy emitters owe migration pathways or compensation to climate-vulnerable states.

Key players

Mobility, Identity, and Border Regions

Borders are not merely lines but zones in which states perform sovereignty and populations negotiate belonging. Many modern borders were drawn by imperial powers — at Berlin in 1884–85, at Versailles, at Sykes–Picot, and through Radcliffe's partition of India — cutting across linguistic, ethnic, and kinship networks. Border regions such as Alsace, Kashmir, the Donbas, the Korean DMZ, the US–Mexico borderlands, the Sahel frontier zones, and the Mekong uplands have developed hybrid identities and economies shaped by smuggling, cross-border kinship, and selective state presence. The contemporary picture mixes hardening and softening. Schengen, ECOWAS free movement, and Mercosur protocols enable mobility for some, while border walls have proliferated from the West Bank to the US–Mexico line, Hungary–Serbia, Iran–Pakistan, and India–Bangladesh. Biometric controls, visa regimes, and externalized processing reshape who can cross and on what terms. Core disputes involve the rights of indigenous and pastoralist communities split by borders, the status of contested zones (Western Sahara, Kashmir, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh), and the recognition of border-region languages and citizenships.

Key players

Historical and Current Shifts in Geopolitical Thinking and Spatial Perception

Geopolitical thought has cycled through distinct paradigms. Mahan's sea-power doctrine and Mackinder's 'Heartland' thesis framed the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Haushofer's Geopolitik was discredited by its Nazi association; Cold War containment, Brzezinski's 'Grand Chessboard,' and Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' shaped late-twentieth-century debates. In parallel, critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail, Agnew), world-systems analysis (Wallerstein), and postcolonial scholarship questioned the state-centric and Eurocentric assumptions of mainstream strategy, while area studies redrew mental maps of regions like 'the Middle East' or 'Eurasia.' Today spatial perception is being reorganized again. China's 'community of common destiny' and BRI imaginaries, Russia's Eurasianism, Indo-Pacific framings advanced by the US, Japan, India, and Australia, the rediscovery of the Arctic and outer space as strategic theaters, and the rise of cyber and data as 'territories' all compete with — and sometimes displace — older land/sea binaries. Climate change is folding planetary systems into security thinking. The debate is whether a multipolar order requires genuinely pluralist geopolitical concepts, or whether emerging vocabularies simply repackage great-power competition in new spatial language.

Key players

Socialist and Post-Socialist Mobilities

The socialist bloc generated distinctive mobility regimes. Internally, the USSR's propiska residence-permit system and China's hukou regulated rural–urban movement; major projects relied on organized labor migration, from Virgin Lands campaigns to BAM railway construction. Internationally, Comecon coordinated guest-worker exchanges — Vietnamese and Mozambican workers in the GDR, Cubans across Africa, North Koreans in Siberia — while solidarity scholarships brought students from the Global South to Moscow, Prague, Sofia, and Havana. Emigration was tightly restricted, producing both defection narratives and managed exit channels such as the Soviet Jewish emigration of the 1970s–90s. The 1989–91 collapse triggered enormous new flows: westward labor migration from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltics, and later Ukraine; return and onward migration of Aussiedler and Soviet Jews; circular migration between Central Asia and Russia; and Chinese outward mobility under reform and opening. Post-2014 and especially post-2022, Russia's war in Ukraine has produced both the largest European refugee movement since 1945 and a substantial emigration of Russians to Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Serbia. Current debates concern the legacies of socialist-era infrastructures and diasporas, the rights of post-socialist labor migrants in the EU and Russia, and how to interpret 'illiberal' mobility regimes that combine open labor markets with restrictive politics.

Key players