The new age of the nation state?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite concerns during the 1990s and 2000s to the contrary, the nation-state remains at the core of the world’s political system. Recent popular geography texts have connected the longevity of states to physical geography (that we are Prisoners of Geography (Marshall, 2015)) and to inherent divisions shaping conflict politics at all levels (that we are Divided (Marshall, 2018)). This article takes a different position, cautioning that such starting points risk reifying nations, states and landscapes as natural or innate, thereby overlooking how these entities are continually reimagined, recreated and given meaning through political practice. Instead of viewing conflict and division as apolitical, we turn our gaze to the inherently political nature of territory, borders and nation-building. In so doing, we highlight how political geography processes are continual and ongoing, deployed to give meaning to national borders and landscapes, as well as (re)imagining and narrating ideals of national identity and who does – and does not – belong in profoundly and inherently political ways.