Securing Geneva After Napoleon

Abstract This article reconceptualized the integration of Geneva into the Swiss Confederation between 1813 and 1816 as a multiscalar process in which the Great Powers transformed a fragmented border region into a cornerstone of post-Napoleonic European security. Using Geneva as a case study, the article argues that Swiss neutrality emerged not as a national tradition but as a spatial and legal regime imposed from above, engineered through territorial redesign, collective guarantees, and the reorganization of mobility, commerce, and jurisdiction along the Franco-Swiss frontier. By tracing how borders, trade, capital, and labour were reorganized as instruments of collective security, this article shows that Geneva was not only admitted into the Swiss Confederation but it was also engineered into Europe’s emerging security culture. This case illustrates how the post-1815 order relied on the construction of regulated spaces, anticipating later European regimes of mobility and border governance.