Heading to Copenhagen early tomorrow to give a talk at a workshop on Sovereignty, Territory and Emerging Geopolitics.

My talk is entitled ‘Towards a History of the State of Territory’. It begins with some general comments about the project behind a book on the topic, and then focuses on a specific strand of that work: the uses and meanings of the Latin word territorium. Territorium is a very rare word in classical Latin; becomes a little more frequent in the later classical period (Ammianus Marcellinus, for example); is used by some technical writers (lawyers and surveyors); and then is more common in the Middle Ages (the example I will use is Gregory of Tours). But it’s not until the 14th century, in the commentators on Roman law, that it becomes a term that has the kinds of connotations ‘territory’ has today. Territorium – in the writings of people like Bartolus of Sassoferrato – becomes not simply the possession of those who rule (effectively much the same as ‘land’), but the thing that the rule is over, and the very extent of that power. This is a crucial shift in Western political thought, or, at least, so I will try to argue.

The other speaker on the first morning is Friedrich Kratochwil. I’ve never met him so looking forward to that. The two opening talks will be followed by a closed workshop with eight other presentations which cover a wide range of theoretical ground and focus on specific sites (El Salvador, the Arctic, the sea, microstates in Europe and DR Congo). Should be interesting.

I’ll be giving versions of my talk over the next few months in Durham, London, Pisa, and Milton Keynes. It had its first outing in Toronto last month.