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Abstract

This article argues that the dominance of precise, linear borders as an ideal in the demarcation of territory is an outcome of a relatively recent and ongoing historical process, and that this process has had important effects on international politics since circa 1900. Existing accounts of the origins of territorial sovereignty are in wide disagreement largely because they fail to specify the relationship between territory and borders, often conflating the two concepts. I outline a history of the linearization of borders, which is separate from that of territorial sovereignty, having a very different timeline and featuring different actors, and offer an explanation for the dominance of this universalizing system of managing and demarcating space, based on the concept of rationalization. Finally, I describe two broad ways in which linearizing borders has affected international politics: by making space divisible in new ways; and underpinning hierarchies by altering the distribution of geographical knowledge resources.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Re-use is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by SAGE in European Journal of International Relations.
Publisher Keywords:	Historical sociology, international history, rationality, sovereignty, territoriality, territorial state
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of International Politics
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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