| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
The creation of an undivided Europe without borders raises questions about the present-day significance of political territoriality in Europe. The article presents a conceptualisation of political territoriality to indicate its significance. Political territoriality is defined here as an active strategy to control by controlling a geographical area. The implications of territorial control are labelled here the logic of territoriality, comprising geographical fixity, impersonality, geographical inclusion/exclusion and centrality. The more salient territorial control is, the more this logic of territoriality leaves its imprint on policies, politics and polities. This variable conceptualisation of political territoriality not only allows for more refined comparisons of time and place in Europe and elsewhere than a rigid Westphalian understanding of territoriality would. It also enables one to determine where and when making the fundamental distinction in the discipline of political science between Comparative Politics and International Relations is justified, providing a common vocabulary for both disciplines in analysing changing political territoriality.
|