The “Summer of Love”
Edward Alden, Laurie Trautman · 2025
Abstract This introductory chapter starts in a special place—Peace Arch Park along the western border of the United States and Canada. This was the only place in North America where families, friends, and couples could meet freely across a national border despite the severe travel restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. That rare breach in the world’s Covid border walls opens the larger story of how governments across the world closed their borders—despite little evidence of their effectiveness and long-standing international agreements not to do so. At the height of the restrictions, there were few countries in the world that were not affected by some sort of travel ban or restriction; some 220 countries and territories had imposed more than 70,000 different restrictions. The chapter introduces the argument that the expanded use of border restrictions has set a precedent and that, left unchecked, governments will do the same in future crises.