ABSTRACT

Building on the preceding contextualization of the international order, the second chapter first deconstructs the principle of territorial-sovereignty as an analytical concept. It particularly elucidates the role of European imperialism in this process, while exposing how, even in empire, the notion of sovereignty was never more than an imaginary narrative used to impose a certain form of order. By exposing the inherent tension between de jure sovereignty and de facto territorial control, this chapter therefore illustrates how sovereignty has always been essentially contested – both empirically and as an analytical concept. Jettisoning the more common vantage of weak, failed, and fragile states, the first section seeks to pry open the door for territorial analyses. Building on understandings of the global and local dimensions of space, the second section proposes territory as an analytical concept distinct from the principle of territoriality – an approach more conducive to understanding and explaining micro-level processes giving rise to governance and order in delimited spatial zones. Drawing on sociological institutionalism, the third section ultimately offers an alternative conceptual approach derived from sociological processes of boundary-making that deborder local territories from state territoriality. The conclusion reaffirms how, by lifting the veil of territorial-sovereignty, we can arrive at a conceptual framework rooted in territory and sociological debordering that could be more conducive for subsequently analyzing the constitution of illicit authority and the institutionalization of social order in global context.