Abstract

The discovery of space as an object and tool of research since the early 1990s is generally referred to as the “spatial turn.” Coinciding with this renewed focus on space was the political collapse of the bipolar global system in 1989, which had been predicated on a clear territorial division of the world and, at the same time, with the rapid intensification of global networks in the course of globalization. The purported novelty of globalization lies above all in the impression that the cycles of space-time compression have accelerated and the quality of networking has intensified. This is why the “global turn” and the “spatial turn” are strongly intertwined. As a political consequence of the “spatial turn,” Western states are increasingly abandoning the sole primacy of territory and are including new spatially relevant strategies for responding to threats triggered by globalization and for maintaining national sovereignty.