The role of Advanced Border Controls at Canadian airports

• Globalization drove public-private Advanced Border Control program partnerships.
• An interdependent ‘Trade with Security’ policy strategy emerged in Canada.
• Study contributed to understanding why state-firm border control cooperation.
• Advanced Border Control innovations contribute to Canada – U.S. ‘security perimeter’.

Within the context of debates about globalization, a ‘borderless’ world and ‘aeromobile’ travelers, this paper examines how Advanced Border Control (ABC) programs influenced relations between Canada’s airlines and airports, together with government between 1985 and 2010 and how this contributed to a balance between trade and national security imperatives. We also argue that the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks on the U.S. enhanced ABC program importance rather than impeded system development, and we challenge the post-9/11 view, encapsulated by the then U.S. Ambassador to Canada, (the late) Paul Cellucci, that ‘security trumps trade’. Based on interviews with airlines, airports, government agencies, and other influential actors, the analysis contributes to understanding the multi-decade symbiotic relationships between the public and private sectors that overcame political, business and technical challenges to support a ‘Trade with Security’ strategy.