As other journals issue their statements, special issues and editorials (e.g., Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2020; Political Geography, 2020; The Lancet, 2020), our contribution is designed to engage with the readers of Territory, Politics, Governance and ignite exchanges around the rapidly evolving concerns brought about by what is now deemed by many to be a global crisis. Over the last decade, this journal has sought out authors and commentators interested in the intersection of three terms: territory, politics and governance. We have not assumed that the three terms are self-evident or hermetically sealed individually and collectively. All three are slippery in the sense that they are constructed, contested and contestable at any moment in time and across space. But at a moment of crisis and long-term discombobulation, what can our key terms tell us about the contemporary and possible future state of the world? And how does the crisis sharpen or challenge our understanding of these concepts in a changing world?