Territory

Studies of secession and nationalism typically treat territory as the site upon which these movements take place rather than the object of their politics This chapter focuses on the one form of identity politics that is common in all of these cases: islandness. By examining how leaders of small states in the Caribbean and the Pacific claim a unique connection to territory I show that islandness occupies an especially prominent place in how they imagine the purpose of statehood. Narratives of islandness are expressed legally, culturally, politically, and economically. Each highlights the desire for autonomy and the vulnerabilities that threaten viability. The lesson is in the absence of other factors—ethnic, religious, or linguistic—a politics of difference that foregrounds territory seems easier to imagine.