Towards a Multiplication of Specialised Assemblages of Territory, Authority, and Rights

Abstract

This is a time of epochal, even if partial, transformations. Some use the notion of globalisation to capture the change — a ‘national versus global contest’ view. Others focus on the ‘War on Terror’ and its aftermath, emphasising the ‘state of exception’ that gives governments legal authority to abuse its powers. There are several other interpretations and naming of the character of today’s major transformation. But this suffices to make the point that much of the commentary on the major changes of our time pivots on the notion that the national state is under attack, or at the minimum, that it is suffering the erosion of its territorial protections.¹