Debordering the world of states: New spaces in international relations

Abstract

What has changed as a result of the collapse of real socialism and the ending of the East-West conflict and whether these events signal epochal change still remain open questions. It is a dispute that extends far beyond the question of changing coalitions of interest and patterns of relations in the world of states but touches upon the change of states per se. What is required wrote Ashley in the wake of the upheavals is the audacity to admit that ... really do not know who we are (Ashley 1989: 31 1). In view of the simultaneous globalization and fragmentation of public life that are currently under way this conclusion would seem to be inescapable; and yet it is being resolutely resisted and accompanied by warnings not to throw away the concept of the state in too much haste (Krasner 1994). Respecting these warnings but more fascinated by the possibility and necessity of the new the following text will try to conceptualize change in international relations by thematizing the relation between territory and state. The formation of sharply defined mutually exclusive territories is one of the fundamental features of the modem statebased world.. More than anything else a change in the territorial order would challenge the modem international political order. It is therefore all the more astonishing as Ruggie observes that the concept of territoriality has been accorded so little interest for so long in international relations. (excerpt)