Geopolitics of fragmentation: a theoretical proposal on co-sovereignties and criminal governance based on the Latin American instrumental case

Abstract

Classical geopolitical theory inherently assumes that the nation-state exercises homogeneous and exclusive control over its formal territory. However, across wide geographies of the global periphery, the gap between nominal and material sovereignty has radically widened. This article addresses this cognitive gap by proposing an explanatory conceptual framework termed the "geopolitics of fragmentation" to analyze how space and power are reconfigured when the state monopoly on violence dissolves, giving rise to alternative local orders rather than ungovernable territorial anarchy. Adopting the methodological approach of an instrumental case study (Stake, 2007), the contemporary reality of Latin America is utilized as an ideal empirical laboratory—rather than as a descriptive end in itself—to illustrate and test the validity of two fundamental analytical categories: spatial co-sovereignties and criminal governance. The manuscript posits that the retreat of uniform statehood yields a new political configuration of a neomedieval nature, characterized by a polyphony of authorities, local technological vassalage, and shifting territorial overlaps. It concludes that this conceptual framework offers analytical tools of global scope, capable of deciphering the new geographies of illegal and hybrid power within a decoupled world order.