Beyond State-Centricity: Geopolitics of Changing State Spaces

This paper scrutinizes the challenges which scholars face when examining the interconnections between the state and geopolitics in the purported “transnational world”. By discussing the relational perspective which “opens” the traditional state-as-a-monolith centric view of geopolitics, the paper sets a foundation for the present special section on the changing geopolitics of state spaces. The paper proceeds by first reflecting on the move from geopolitically “closed” to more open state territories, and then considers some of the ways the state has been examined in spatially sensitive research with respect to geopolitical scholarship. Finally, the paper maps out possible horizons for forthcoming studies on the geopolitics of state spaces.