The paper consists in a discourse/concept-oriented analysis of three major historical processes: monopolization of violence, ‘borderization’ of the political community, and the conduct of government, and their ongoing transformations. More specifically, it explores and interrogates the ways in which ‘terrorism’, understood as a discourse on and about violence, jointly developed with growing controversies about the very nature and image of the border and, consequently with what a political community is supposed to be and where it is supposed to be located. Because these transformations also deeply affect the conduct of government (with the state and territorial sovereignty gradually running out of steam as major markers of the modern conduct of government) the paper also highlights their impact on the institutionalization and the legitimation of power.