Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T08:19:37.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Triangulating territory: a case for pragmatic interaction between political science, political geography, and critical IR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

Burak Kadercan
Burak Kadercan*
Affiliation:
Department of Strategy and Politics, United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
*
E-mail: burakadercan@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The relationship between the political and socially constructed nature of territory (or, territories’ ‘constitutive properties’) and international politics has recently attracted substantial attention from scholars hailing from political science as well as political geography and critical international relations. The conversations across these scholarly traditions, however, leave a lot to be desired. The question then becomes, how can we, if at all, facilitate further interaction and cross-fertilization across seemingly disparate literatures? This study proposes a strategy of ‘pragmatic interaction’, which entails three steps: (i) establishing a simple conceptual framework that would be both recognizable and agreeable to scholars hailing from different perspectives; (ii) emphasizing a number of research topics that are of relevance to these scholars; and (iii) examining some of the recent entries from the relative literatures in the light of the identified research topics. The analysis suggests that there is much potential for interdisciplinary cross-fertilization over two broad research areas – ‘territorial heterogeneity’ of the past and present global territorial orders and the relationship between territory and power – also driving attention to potential research venues such as territorial interpretations of the anarchy/hierarchy problematique and the interaction between identity and territoriality.

Keywords

territoryterritorial constitutionsterritorial heterogeneityIR theory
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 125 - 161
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-el-Haj, Rifaat A. 1969. “The Formal Closure of the Ottoman Frontier in Europe: 1699–1703.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 89(3):467–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, John. 1994. “The Territorial Trap: The Geographical Assumptions of International Relations Theory.” Review of International Political Economy 1(1):53–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, John. 2003. Geopolitics: Re-visioning World Politics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Agnew, John. 2009. Globalization and Sovereignty. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Agnew, John. 2010. “Still Trapped in Territory?” Geopolitics 15(4):779–784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albert, Mathias, Jacobson, David, and Lapid, Yosef. 2001. Identities, Borders, Orders: Rethinking International Relations Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict R. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Andreas, Peter. 2003. “Redrawing the Line: Borders and Security in Twenty-first Century.” International Security 28(2):78–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashley, Richard K. 1987. “The Geopolitics of Geopolitical Space: Toward a Critical Social Theory of International Politics.” Alternatives 12:403–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atzili, Boaz. 2012. Good Fences, Bad Neighbors: Border Fixity and International Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bakke, K., O’Loughlin, John, Toal, Gerard, and Ward, Michael D.. 2014. “Convincing State-builders; Disaggregating Internal Legitimacy in Abkhazia.” International Studies Quarterly 58(3):591–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banai, Ayelet, Moore, Margaret, Miller, David, Nine, Cara, and Dietrich, Frank. 2014. “Symposium: Theories of Territory beyond Westphalia.” International Theory 6(1):98–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barkin, Samuel J. 2003. “Realist Constructivism.” International Studies Review 5(3):325–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggs, Michael. 1999. “Putting the State on the Map: Cartography, Territory, and European State Formation.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 41(2):374–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blouet, Brian W. 2004. “The Imperial Vision of Halford Mackinder.” The Geographical Journal 170(4):322–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, Jordan. 2012. “Colonial Reflection’ and Territoriality: The Peripheral Origins of Sovereign Statehood.” European Journal of International Relations 18(2):277–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buzan, Barry. 2010. From International to World Society?: English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caporoso, James A. 2000. “Changes in the Westphalian Order: Territory, Public Authority, and Sovereignty.” International Studies Review 2(2):1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, David A., and Goemans, Hein. 2011. “The Making of the Territorial Order: New Borders and the Emergence of Interstate Conflict.” International Organization 65(2):275–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalby, Simon. 2010. “Recontextualizing Violence, Power and Nature: The Next Twenty Years of Critical Geopolitics?” Political Geography 29(5):380–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, Paul F., and Goertz, Gary. 1988. “Territorial Changes and Militarized Conflict.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 32(1):103–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodds, Klaus. 2001. “Political Geography III: Critical Geopolitics After Ten Years.” Progress in Human Geography 25(3):469–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodds, Klaus, and Atkinson, David. 2000. “Preface.” In Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought, edited by Klaus Dodds, and David Atkinson, xiv–xvi. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dodds, Klaus, Kuus, Merje, and Sharp, Joanne P.. 2013. The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Dodds, Klaus, and Sidaway, James. 2004. “Halford Mackinder and the Geographical Pivot of History: A Centennial Perspective.” The Geographical Journal 170(4):292–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elden, Stuart. 2009. Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Elden, Stuart. 2010. “Land, Terrain, Territory.” Progress in Human Geography 34(6):799–817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elden, Stuart. 2013. The Birth of Territory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elden, Stuart, Derek, Gregory, and Álvaro, Sevilla Buitrago. 2011. “Spaces of the Past, Histories of the Present: An Interview with Stuart Elden and Derek Gregory.” ACME: An International e-Journal For Critical Geographies 10(2):313–339.Google Scholar
Fazal, Tanisha M. 2007. State Death: The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D. 2003. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97(1):75–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, Colin. 2006. Introduction to Geopolitics. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, Colin, Diehl, Paul, Scheffran, Juergen, Vasquez, John, and Chia, Sang-hyun. 2009. “Conceptualizing ConflictSpace: Toward a Geography of Relational Power and Embeddedness in the Analysis of Interstate Conflict.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 99(5):827–835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Thomas L. 2005. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Gartzke, Erik A. 2006. “Globalization, Economic Development, and Territorial Conflict.” In Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, edited by Miles Kahler, and Barbara F. Walter, 156–186. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, Stacie. 2006. “Uncommon Ground: Territorial Conflict and the Politics of Legitimacy.” International Organization 60(1):35–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottmann, Jean. 1973. The Significance of Territory. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Graham, Stephen. 2011. Cities under Siege: The New Military Urbanism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Grygiel, Jakub J. 2006. Great Powers and Geopolitical Change. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Hassner, Ron E. 2003. “To Halve and to Hold: Conflicts over Sacred Space and the Problem of Indivisibility.” Security Studies 12(4):1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassner, Ron E.. 2009. War on Sacred Grounds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey Ira. 2000. States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Herz, John H. 1957. “Rise and Demise of the Territorial State.” World Politics 9(4):473–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirst, Paul Q. 2005. Space and Power: Politics, War, and Architecture. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Huth, Paul K. 1996. Standing Your Guard: Territorial Disputes and International Conflict. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huth, Paul K., and Alee, Todd L.. 2003. The Democratic Peace and Territorial Conflict in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D.P., and Toft, Monica Duffy. 2013/14. “Grounds for War: The Evolution of Territorial Conflict.” International Security 38(3):7–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Robert D. 2009. “The Revenge of Geography.” Foreign Policy 172:96–105.Google Scholar
Kadercan, Burak. 2013. “Making Sense of Survival: Refining the Treatment of State Preferences in Neorealist Theory.” Review of International Studies 39(4):1015–1037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahler, Miles, and Walter, Barbara F., eds. 2006. Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearns, Gerry. 2004. “The Political Pivot of Geography.” The Geographical Journal 170(4):337–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearns, Gerry. 2009. Geopolitics and Empire: The Legacy of Halford Mackinder. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearns, Gerry. 2010. “Geography, Geopolitics, and Empire.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(2):187–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keene, Edward. 2002. Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolers, Avery. 2009. Land, Conflict and Justice: A Political Theory of Territory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich. 1986. “Of System, Boundaries, and Territoriality: An Inquiry into the Formation of State System.” World Politics 39(1):27–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David A. 2009. Hierarchy in International Relations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lake, David A, and O’Mahony, Angela. 2006. “Territory and War: State Size and Patterns of Interstate Conflict.” In Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, edited by Miles Kahler, and Barbara F. Walter, 133–155. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larkins, Jeremy. 2010. From Hierarchy to Anarchy: Territory and Politics before Westphalia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, Robert A., and Lemke, Jayme S.. 2012. “Travel Visas.” Public Choice 153(1–2): 17–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackinder, Halford J. 1904. “The Geographical Pivot of History.” The Geographical Journal 23(4):421–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackinder, Halford J. 1943. “Round World and the Winning of the Peace.” Foreign Affairs 21(4):595–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mamadouh, Virginie 1999. “Reclaiming Geopolitics: Geographers Strike Back.” Geopolitics 4(1):118–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Megoran, Nick. 2010. “Neoclassical Geopolitics.” Political Geography 29:187–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, David. 2012. “Territorial Rights: Concept and Justification.” Political Studies 60(2):252–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minca, Claudio, and Vaughan-Williams, Nick. 2012. “Carl Schmitt and the Concept of the Border.” Geopolitics 17(4):756–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Alexander B. 2002. “National Claims to Territory in the Modern State System: Geographical Considerations.” Geopolitics 7(2):193–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Alexander B.. 2010. “Identity and Territory.” Geopolitics 15(4):769–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Alexander B.. 2013. “Territory’s Continuing Allure.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103(5): 1212–1226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, David. 1999. “Real Spaces, Symbolic Spaces: Interrelated Notions of Territory in the Arab-Israli Conflict.” In A Road Map to War: Territorial Dimensions of International Conflict edited by Paul F. Diehl. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Newman, David. 2006. “The Resilience of Territorial Conflict In An Era of Globalization.” In Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, edited by Miles Kahler, and Barbara F. Walter, 85–110. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, David. 2010. “Territory, Compartments and Borders: Avoiding the Trap of the Territorial Trap.” Geopolitics 15(4):773–778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, David, and Paasi, Anssi. 1998. “Fences and Neighbours in the Postmodern World: Boundary Narratives in Political Geography.” Progress in Human Geography 22(2):186–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nine, Cara. 2008. “A Lockean Theory of Territory.” Political Studies 56(1):148–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Richard. 1992. Global Financial Integration: The End of Geography. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.Google Scholar
Ohmae, Ken’ichi. 1995. The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies. New York: Free.Google Scholar
Paasi, Annsi. 2003. “Territory.” In A Companion to Political Geography, edited by John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, and Gerard Toal, 109–122. Malden, MA: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paasi, Annsi. 2009. “Bounded Spaces In A ‘Borderless World’: Border Studies, Power And The Anatomy Of Territory.” Journal of Power 2(2): 213–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, Geoffrey. 1998. Geopolitics: Past, Present and Future. London: Pinter.Google Scholar
Penrose, Jan. 2002. “Nations, States and Homelands: Territory and Territoriality in Nationalist Thought.” Nations and Nationalism 8(3):277–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollini, Gabriele. 2005. “Socio-Territorial Belonging in a Changing Society.” International Review of Sociology: Revue Internationale de Sociologie 15(3):493–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, Marcus, and Campbell, David. 2010. “The State of Critical Geopolitics.” Political Geography 29(5):243–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosecrance, Richard. 1996. “The Rise of the Virtual State: Territory Becomes Passé.” Foreign Affairs 75(4):45–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1983. “Continuity and Transformation in the World Polity: Toward a Neorealist Synthesis.” World Politics 5(2):261–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1993. “Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations.” International Organization 47(1):139–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sack, Robert David. 1986. Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Salter, Mark B. 2006. “The Global Visa Regime and the Political Technologies of the International Self: Borders, Bodies, Biopolitics.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 31(2):167–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Sebastian. 2011. “To Order the Minds of Scholars: The Discourse of the Peace of Westphalia in International Relations Literature.” International Studies Quarterly 55(3):601–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 2001. “On the Territorial Rights of States.” Noûs 35(issue supplement s1):300–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soja, Edward W. 1971. The Political Organization of Space. Washington: Association of American Geographers, Commission on College Geography.Google Scholar
Spruyt, Hendrik. 1994. The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starr, Harvey. 2005. “Territory, Proximity, and Spatiality: The Geography of International Conflict.” International Studies Review 7(3):387–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stilz, Anna. 2009. “Why do States have Territorial Rights?” International Theory 1(2):185–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stilz, Anna. 2011. “Nations, States, and Territory.” Ethics 121(3):572–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storey, David. 2012. Territories. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teschke, Benno. 1998. “Geopolitical Relations in the European Middle Ages: History and Theory.” International Organization 52(2):325–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1990. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1990. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Toft, Monica. 2002/03. “Indivisible Territory, Geographic Concentration, and Ethnic War.” Security Studies 12(2):82–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toft, Peter. 2005. “John J. Mearsheimer: An Offensive Realist Between Geopolitics and Power.” Journal of International Relations and Development 8(4):381–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ó Tuathail, Gearóid. 1996. Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ó Tuathail, Gearóid, and Agnew, John. 1992. “Geopolitics and Discourse: Practical Reasoning in American Foreign Policy.” Political Geography 11(2):190–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasquez, John. 1993. The War Puzzle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasquez, John, and Henehan, Marie T.. 2001. “Territorial Disputes and the Probability of War, 1816–1992.” Journal of Peace Research 38(2):123–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughan-Williams, Nick. 2009a. Border Politics: The Limits of Sovereign Power. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughan-Williams, Nick. 2009b. The Generalised Biopolitical Border? Reconceptualising the Limits of Sovereign Power.” Review of International Studies 35(4):729–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vollaard, Hans. 2009. “The Logic of Political Territoriality.” Geopolitics 14(4):687–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, Barbara F. 2006. “Conclusion.” In Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, edited by Miles Kahler, and Barbara F. Walter, 288–296. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth N. 1979. Theory of International Politics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.Google Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, John. 2006. The Ethics of Territorial Borders: Drawing Lines in the Shifting Sand. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zacher, Mark. 2001. “The Territorial Integrity Norm.” International Organization 55(2):215–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar