The second edition of Global Politics: A New Introduction, edited by Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfuss, has now been published. There is also a companion website. My chapter in here is entitled ‘Why is the world divided territorially?’ All the chapters are answers to questions, derived from the kinds of things students frequently ask, and turns the standard way of writing/teaching around – instead of beginning with theories, or countries, it tries to provide answers to these questions, with ideas and examples brought in to illustrate and substantiate the argument. An innovative approach, but the chapters were difficult to write!