Dr Kerry Goettlich
Contact details
About
Overview
Dr Kerry Goettlich is an International Relations scholar whose work draws on original historical research to reframe theoretical debates about international politics, particularly around issues of territory and borders. His current work deals with the history of the legal and moral prohibition of territorial conquest.
Dr Goettlich is the author of From Frontiers to Borders: How Colonial Technicians Created Modern Territoriality (Cambridge University Press, 2025), which examines the historical origins of modern territoriality. In contrast to most work on the topic, which begins with the European state ideal and claims or assumes that this was ‘exported’ to the rest of the world, it argues that the surveying and demarcation of linear borders has historically been a practice relatively separate from the sovereign state. Modern borderlines in most of the world emerged out of colonialism, and the book examines the particularly colonial circumstances that led to their origins.
Dr Goettlich received his PhD in 2019 from the London School of Economics, where he was co-editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies, vol. 46.
His work has won the following research awards:
- Mary Parker Follett Award, APSA Politics and History Section, 2023
- Merze Tate Prize for Best Article in Historical International Relations, ISA Historical International Relations Section, 2023
- Honourable Mention, Outstanding Article Award, APSA International History and Politics Section, 2023
- Best Dissertation Award, EISA, 2021
- Pre-PhD Paper Award, International Studies Association Theory Section, 2019
Publications
Publications by category
Book
- Goettlich, K. (2025). From Frontiers to Borders How Colonial Technicians Created Modern Territoriality. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009553018.
Chapters (5)
- Goettlich, K. (2025). Surveying in British North America: A Homology of Property and Territory. In Lobo-Guerrero, L., Lo Presti, L. and Dos Reis, F. (Eds.), Mapping, Connectivity, and the Making of European Empires Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781538199169.
- Goettlich, K. (2025). Borders. Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations (pp. 34-35). Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781035312276.
- Goettlich, K. (2022). Fishing for Territory: Historical IR and the Environment. In De Carvalho, B. and Leira, H. (Eds.), The Sea and International Relations Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526155108.
- Goettlich, K. and Branch, J. (2021). Borders and Boundaries: Making Visible What Divides. In De Carvalho, B., Costa Lopez, J. and Leira, H. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Historical International Relations Routledge. ISBN 9780815347644.
- Goettlich, K. (2020). The Rise of Linear Borders. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies Oxford University Press.
Journal articles (5)
- Goettlich, K. (2025). Introduction to CRIA Prize Forum. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 38(3), pp. 391-393. doi:10.1080/09557571.2025.2500142
- Goettlich, K. (2025). Territorial Integrity As an Etiquette of Thieves: Non-conquest in Nineteenth-Century Imperialism. International Organization, 79(4), pp. 712-738. doi:10.1017/s0020818325101124
- Goettlich, K. (2022). Connected Memories: The International Politics of Partition, from Poland to India. International Political Sociology, 16(4). doi:10.1093/ips/olac016
- GOETTLICH, K. (2022). The Colonial Origins of Modern Territoriality: Property Surveying in the Thirteen Colonies. American Political Science Review, 116(3), pp. 911-926. doi:10.1017/s0003055421001295
- Goettlich, K. (2019). The rise of linear borders in world politics. European Journal of International Relations, 25(1), pp. 203-228. doi:10.1177/1354066118760991