Political Geography, New Regionalism, and Rescaling Identity

Scholars of international relations and the general public alike often take the nation-state for granted as the fundamental unit of territorially divided space, around which socio-spatial identities are constructed. Political geography offers a critical perspective on the nation-state, demonstrating that its command of geopolitical imagination is a contingent historical development, and that alternative territorial constructs—such as the regional and the supranational—are also significant in processes of identity formation. This paper argues increased attention should be paid to the processes of institutionalization and identity formation that take place at territorial scales above, below, and across the nation-state. Moreover, because of political geography’s critical focus on the historical trajectory of the nation-state and its contingent geopolitical role, the paper advocates for the consideration and inclusion of political geographic theory in any critical assessment of nationalism and the rescaling of identities.