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“Landlocked” is a key spatial category. However, the term is so overused that its validity is in doubt. There is therefore a need to redefine it clearly. This theoretical work is a preliminary to the study of so-called landlocked countries, generally defined by their remoteness from dynamic networks. This investigation finds fertile ground in West Africa. “Landlocked”, cited as the reason for numerous development problems, is not a spatial attribute that identifies the territories in question in terms of inland location only. It is a relative concept based on discontinuities caused mainly by historical mechanisms that have led to territorial inversions. Landlocked is a condition generated by the strategies of private and public players’ strategies that are reversible.