ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to suggest that a second element of the modern geopolitical imagination has involved translating time into space. In other words, the blocks of space identified in Chapter 2 have been understood in terms of the essential attributes of different time periods relative to the idealized historical experience of one of the blocks: Europe or, more broadly, the West. Hence, territories are named as primitive versus advanced or backward versus modern in relation to an idealized version of European experience.
