ABSTRACT
In political theory definitions of the state have two main aspects. One involves the exercise of power through a set of central political institutions. The other entails the clear spatial demarcation of the territory within which the state exercises its power. The former has been uppermost in discussions of state-society relations and the ‘relative autonomy’ of the state in relation to other putative causes of social life. In international relations theory, however, the second aspect has been crucial. It has been the geographical division of the world into mutually exclusive territorial states that has served to define the field of study. Indeed, the term ‘international relations’ implies an emphasis on the relations between territorial states in contradistinction to processes going on within state territorial boundaries. State and society are thus related within the boundaries, but anything outside relates only to other states.
