LETTER FROM THE ADVISORY BOARD.

Ungoverned Spaces, the theme of this issue of the Journal of International Affairs, focuses on and highlights an overlooked, but critical, aspect of international relations. Ungoverned Spaces encompass both the traditional geographic, Westphalian concept of spaces, as well as more conceptual understandings of the word, including technological innovation and cyberspace, which by definition transcend country borders. Significant in this issue is that "Ungoverned Spaces," as a descriptive frame, is readily, and correctly, questioned by several of the authors. Jennifer Murtazashvili and Suzanne Levi-Sanchez, both political scientists, separately note that in developing or emerging countries informal structures are often culturally rooted and accordingly are the accepted, governing norm. Culture and the habits it fosters are, as the authors describe, the actual methods of governance, especially in spaces of conflict such as Afghanistan, whose culture dates back thousands of years. These authors thereby raise the tantalizing question of whether the concept of governance has become "too" synonymous with ever-increasing formality and rules set forth in written statutes and regulations to the exclusion of cultural norms and habits, which can be said to be the foundation of effective governance.

This critique, in essence, raises the unasked question of whether the concept of governance has in academia been too narrowly viewed and analyzed, and regularly so, from a procedural or formal lens. But the modern world is no longer simply a geographic world where states are the prime actors. The internet, as noted by Bharath Ganesh, has changed things for the simple reason that it...