Middle region phenomena and globalization

The objective of this article is to apply the theoretical framework of Joshua Meyrowitz's No Sense of Place to the domain of contemporary world politics. In the first section, several of Meyrowitz's main theses are reviewed and the notions of middle region and sidestage are defined. In the second section, Meyrowitz's conceptualization is shown to be applicable to the contemporary global political system, and in the third section the notions of middle region and sidestage are used to analyse several types of phenomena in the world political arena. Among the examples discussed are: political expression that addresses distinct audiences at the same time, the manoeuvring of local representatives of international NGOs between the intra- and international arenas, and the 'War against Terrorism' as a hybrid exertion of force.