The rise of linear borders in world politics

Goettlich, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1225-1478 (2019) The rise of linear borders in world politics. European Journal of International Relations, 25 (1). pp. 203-228. ISSN 1460-3713 doi: 10.1177/1354066118760991

Abstract/Summary

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.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/86028
Identification Number/DOI	10.1177/1354066118760991
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Politics and International Relations
Publisher	Sage
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