This lecture outlined a longer project on the history of the concept of territory. The first part suggests that territory needs to be related to, yet not reduced to, "land" and "terrain", which are political-economic and political-strategic relations. Territory needs to be additionally understood in terms of its relation to space, a calculative category that is dependent on the existence of a range of techniques, and political-legal questions. Territory then can be understood as a political technology: it comprises techniques for measuring land and controlling terrain, and we must therefore think measure and control-the technical and the legal-alongside the economic and strategic. The second part offers an account of a particular moment in the emergence of this concept; focusing on the bringing together of Greek political theory, Roman law, and German political practice, especially around the notion of Landeshoheit.

This lecture outlined a longer project on the history of the concept of territory. The first part suggests that territory needs to be related to, yet not reduced to, "land" and "terrain", which are political-economic and political-strategic relations. Territory needs to be additionally understood in terms of its relation to space, a calculative category that is dependent on the existence of a range of techniques, and political-legal questions. Territory then can be understood as a political technology: it comprises techniques for measuring land and controlling terrain, and we must therefore think measure and control-the technical and the legal-alongside the economic and strategic. The second part offers an account of a particular moment in the emergence of this concept; focusing on the bringing together of Greek political theory, Roman law, and German political practice, especially around the notion of Landeshoheit.