The geopolitics of laughter and forgetting: A world‐systems interpretation of the post‐modern geopolitical condition1

Apologies to Milan Kundera

Scholars have noted a recent transition from modern to post‐modern geopolitics. Deterritorialisation is the defining feature of the new geopolitical condition. The purpose of this article is to outline a world‐systems theory interpretation of the processes of deterritorialisation. World‐systems makes three contributions: the core/periphery of the world‐economy explains the geographic pattern of deterritorialisation, hegemonic cycles explain the timing of deterritorialisation, and the institutions of the world‐economy provide an understanding of the politics that underlie contemporary geopolitical processes. The core/periphery structure of the world‐economy provokes two responses, the geopolitics of laughter and forgetting.

Notes

Apologies to Milan Kundera