Placing political geography -- Human territoriality, maps, and the division of space -- The idea of the state -- Making states work: the variety of local state systems -- The politics of difference -- Civil society, pressure groups, and political parties -- Electoral geographies -- Imagining natural divisions of global power -- Dreams into action: the making of national foreign policy -- Annexing the oceans -- Globalisation and the theory of world systems -- International government and the modern state -- Conclusion: the shape of things to come.