When Borders Move: An agenda for historical research
When Borders Move: An agenda for historical research

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the external state borders, which represent the limits of state power and accountability in the territory within their confines. Within that area, the state establishes and enforces laws national laws, rules and regulations applicable to the inhabitants of the territory. Equally, within its borders, the state collects revenues through various instruments of its own devise and dispenses expenditures on objects of its choosing. Of course state power is exercised outside the border and of course territorial control is never absolute. In the past, state sovereignty has been limited through the exercise of suzerainty and other (semi-) imperialist constructions or been bent to the structural power of a hegemonic neighbour. More recently, state power has increasingly been “pooled” or “shared” in various transnational organisations, both intergovernmental and supranational. Concepts of sovereignty and territoriality have traditionally been used in this discourse.

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