Shifting Grounds
About This Book
Land becomes territory only when people first imagine it as such and then act on that idea. Kadercan starts from this point, treating territory as whatever states and societies make of it. Drawing on cases as varied as the Thirty Years War and ISIS, he traces how the ideas behind control of land have shaped the origins, conduct, and consequences of armed conflict. His central observation is that the forms of territoriality societies have held differ across eras and regions, so the meaning of territory and territorial control has changed over time. Kadercan advances two linked claims. The first is that the way a state's leaders conceive of land, both within their domain and beyond it, influences their military goals, methods, and strategies. The second is that different territorial outlooks produce different kinds and patterns of war, and that wars can in turn alter how leaders and societies think about territory. The later chapters examine how wars can transform dominant territorial ideas and the geopolitical assumptions that accompany them, and how these effects differ between Western and non-Western regions. Ranging across many periods and parts of the world, the book shows how the relationship between territorial thinking and armed conflict has shifted over time, while also speaking to present-day global politics.
ISBN: 9780197686690
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