# Shifting Grounds: The Social Origins of Territorial Conflict - Hardcover

by **Burak Kadercan** (Author)

Territory has always played a key role in the origins, conduct, and consequences of armed conflict. For territories to exist in any meaningful sense, human groups need to think of them in the first place, and then act upon these thoughts: territory is what states and societies make of it.

In _Shifting Grounds_, Burak Kadercan draws upon a wide variety of cases, ranging from the Thirty Years War to ISIS, to examine the relationship between "territorial ideas" and armed conflict. He argues that states and societies have adhered to different forms of territoriality across time and space, and territory, as well as territorial control, has meant different things in different time periods and regions. Building on this premise, Kadercan makes two claims. First, how state elites conceive territory within and beyond their domains affects their military objectives as well as methods and strategies for waging war. Second, adherence to different forms of territoriality leads to different modes and patterns of war, and wars themselves may affect how state elites and societies conceive territories. Kadercan then turns to the transformative roles that wars can play in shaping dominant territorial ideas and geopolitical assumptions and how the impact of such wars differs in Western and non-Western regions.

Ranging broadly across different eras and world regions, _Shifting Grounds_ sheds light on the shifting nature of the relationship between territorial ideas and armed conflict not only in the context of the distant the past, but also in present-day global politics.

### Author Biography

**Burak Kadercan** is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and a Senior Associate at the Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups (CIWAG). Kadercan's research agenda lies at the intersection of International Relations Theory, strategic and security studies, political geography, and international history. His research has been published in outlets such as _International Security_; _International Theory_; _Review of International Studies_; _International Studies Review_; _Territory, Politics, Governance_; _Middle East Policy_; _Cambridge Review of International Affairs_; and _Global Studies Quarterly_. He is also the co-editor of _Territorial Designs and International Politics: Inside-out and Outside-in_ (2018).

**Number of Pages:** 320

**Dimensions:** 0.75 x 9 x 11 IN

**Publication Date:** August 25, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 150.48 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 150.48 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Shifting Grounds: The Social Origins of Territorial Conflict - Hardcover

---

> Source: [Smart supply deals](https://smartsupplydeals.com/products/shifting-grounds-the-social-origins-of-territorial-conflict-hardcover)
> Updated: 2026-07-22