| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article outlines a theory explaining why and how states open territorial frontiers, an inquiry overlooked by students of international relations because of assumptions that most territorial sovereignty issues had been decided following the Second World War-that territoriality was of declining relevance in international affairs, and that the state would be eclipsed by transnational political actors. States open frontiers for the same reason they acquire client states: additional territory offers additional power resources-strategic military position, access to natural resources, captive markets, and international prestige-which are important in an international environment characterized by anarchy. Assertion of sovereign claims to new territory is the precursor to economic development and perhaps settlement. The latter require the state to absorb unrecoverable costs as well as much of the economic risk for private firms and settlers.
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