When do we think global politics began?

Abstract

This chapter questions the idea that global politics has an identifiable beginning, showing that such a claim assumes that we know what counts – and what does not count – as global politics. The chapter uses Mesopotamia – a historical area located around the Tigris-Euphrates river system – in the fourth to second millennium BCE as an illustrative example to re-examine debates about the emergence of the state as a political entity in the international system. The chapter shows how the ‘city-states’ in Mesopotamia were far more fluid spaces than is often imagined, blurring simplistic divisions between the inside and the outside. The chapter then connects this to broader issues about how we think about the past and go about identifying beginnings.