Does globalisation undermine the nation-state and national identities?

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Does globalisation undermine the nation-state and national identities?

‘The nation-state is just about through as an economic unit’.

Charles P. Kindleberger, 1969

It has been over half a century since Charles P. Kindleberger’s statement triggered a debate as to what the future held for the nation-state and national identities in a globalising world, yet there is little to suggest that either’s entire existence will be entirely eradicated in the near future.  Few would question that globalisation is to some extent eroding the nation-state and national identities, and few would be as cavalier as to suggest they have both been entirely wiped out.  Instead, we must determine degrees of relative causality and significance.  In the case of the nation-state, many of the state’s traditional roles have been removed.  Yet we should not expect them to wither away altogether; indeed, in some ways it has and will continue to expand and develop its tasks, roles and activities in place of those that have been removed.  One of these new roles is the preservation of the state’s national identity.  This has proved to be an increasingly difficult task in light of the rapidly increasing rates of population movement across the globe.  Consequently, many have moved away from identifying with the nation, a trend which has often led to the formation of competing subnational identities.  The future of both nation-states and the national identities that accompany them is uncertain, yet if developments continue down the same path it will be crucial for nation-states to modify their roles in order to prevent them slipping towards becoming obsolete.

        An examination into how the nature of the nation-state has changed as a result of globalisation demonstrates that it has been undermined in a number of regards.  Globalisation has advanced in almost every respect – economically, technologically, culturally, even linguistically – yet this has not proved to be the case politically and militarily to the extent that ‘territorial states remain the only effective authorities’.  Nonetheless, the suggestion that the central dynamics of economic life now transcend national borders and so have become uncontrollable for national governments somewhat overstates the lack of economic power which remains with nation-states. Their ability to control has now declined to the point where they are unable to dictate economic developments in the majority of cases, yet they are still able to influence and promote their agendas.  Only a very small minority of countries are economically powerful enough to hold any real sway over the globalised economy, and so nation-states are left to try and create favourable conditions for them to operate within.  Fortunately for the survival of the nation-state as an entity, this process has developed to the stage where, although the system is ‘economically efficient’, it is ‘incapable of giving meaning to people’s lives’.  The nation-state is therefore required to act in much the same way as municipalities within states traditionally had to.  For the nation to prosper, it is essential for the state to continue to provide the infrastructure and public goods that businesses need in as efficient way as possible.  Nation-states have also had to accept further erosion into their traditional role by surrendering a degree of their autonomy in order to join international organisations, thus enabling their nation’s businesses to operate within the global framework.  As much as this has resulted in the loss of some of the nation-state’s powers, the nature of organisations such as the United Nations means that there is little chance of undesired shifts of power away from the nation-state.  These organisations have no independent authority or power and are entirely dependent on the collective decisions of states.  Since national and inter-national networks are ‘constituted or fundamentally constrained by the nation-state’, it is unsurprising that the majority of power ceded to international organisations is economic, with nation-states remaining essential to all other forms of co-operation within the global framework.  Without effective institutions of complete global governance, and with little prospect of this issue being addressed in the near future if at all, the nation-state will still play an important, if substantially eroded, role in the globalising world.

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        As much as the nation-state has seen this undermining of its traditional roles through globalisation, the new international system has brought with it a number of new functions for the nation-state.  Globalisation by definition requires increased international interdependence, and the nation-state is the means through which this co-operation across borders can be achieved.  Through its constraint of the nation-state’s ability to control individual policies, globalisation has shifted its role to building the political arena for these global policies to be formulated and then influencing their outcome.  The nation-state’s economic success and therefore its ability to influence such outcomes will be ...

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