Virtual Territories - Technology, Representation, and the State in a Digital Age

Virtual Territories examines the ways in which new digital technologies are changing international politics around cybersecurity, mapping, and drone warfare. The book focuses on the mechanism of representation, which encompasses both how technologies and their capabilities are represented and how technologies produce or alter representations of the world. The analysis reveals implications for the core features of international relations, including the future of the territorial state and the international system itself.

List of contents

• Introduction: Technology, Politics, and Representation


• Information Technology, State-Building, and Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century


• From Dayton to Google: Digital Mapping and Negotiation


• Metaphors and the Internet: The Cyberspace Domain


• Drone Warfare: Representing Remote Operations


• Conclusion: Representing the State

About the author

Jordan Branch is Associate Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He was a fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies, and has held positions at Brown University and the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the origins, features, and consequences of the territorial state and the role of technology and technological change in international politics. His publications include The Cartographic State: Maps, Territory, and the Origins of Sovereignty (2014) and articles in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, the European Journal of International Relations, International Theory, Dialogues in Human Geography, and Territory, Politics, Governance.

Product details

• Authors: Jordan Branch, Jordan (Associate Professor of Government Branch, Branch Jordan
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 13.10.2025
• EAN: 9780190063627
• ISBN: 978-0-19-006362-7
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Security (National & International), POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / Diplomacy, International Relations, Diplomacy, Espionage & secret services, Espionage and secret services