Globalization and Decline of State

According to constructivism “The world of international relations is not just the world of material capabilities and materialistic opportunities it is also a social world”. Constructivists believe that actor states are occupied with both normative and material factors. They do not deny that the material world shapes their structure, but they believe that through reflections and discourse, actor states are malleable and influenced by each other. Constructivism thus deals with the process through which principled ideals become social norms. In being so, constructivism becomes a critical component for the international recognition of a state. This becomes crucial for actors, as the internationalization of social norms will ensure compliance over external pressure. Thus, democracy promotion can be subsumed under the socialization and internalization by actors. The persistence of democratic international institutions after the cold war as well as the mass identification of states as democracies and the absence of a strong alternative political ideology have contributed to a process of socialization promoting democratic cooperation. Therefore, after the Cold

The era of globalization has witnessed the growing influence of a number of unconventional international actors, from non-governmental organizations, to multi-national corporations, to global political movements. Traditional, state-centric definitions of foreign policy

The historical process of state and the modern state is compiled by the issues that arose in order to overthrow old rules and norms to then replace them with new ones better suited and accepted (O’neil 36). The state is a “monopoly of force over a given territory but also a set of political institutions that help create and implement policy to resolve conflict”

The influence of the desire of the “World State” to have stability among its members is

Realism has dominated international relations theory since emerging in the 1930’s. The era of state conflict lasting from the 1930’s to the end of the cold war in 1947, proved the perfect hostile environment to fit the largely pessimistic view of world politics. While many aspects of realism are still alive in International Relations today; including the dominant presence of states, intrinsic of war and the decentralised government. However, realism only reaches so far in explaining and creating a structure for international relations. Whilst the strengths of the theory lie in its pragmatic approach to power politics and conflict. However, the realist view is weakened by changes in the way that conflict is fought, the ineffectiveness of the balance of power model and the increasing global and interconnected world. Thus, using realism as a structure to explain international relations today is to some extent, a theory of the past.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the world's economies grew interconnected and entangled as trade, capital, investment, migration and technology thrived. This international integration forms the basis for globalization and arises from exchange and interbreeding of perspectives, ideas and aspects of culture. This modern economic and global point of view posits that globalization increases trade, raises wages, heightens living standards, and betters the market discipline. With its roots in free market capitalism, the critics of this perspective declare globalization to be detrimental to the vast majority of the working class and poor since most of the labor and work goes to the lowest bidder; proper regulation and working conditions are often

Kofi Annan, a UN diplomat, once said,“...that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.” He is undoubtedly correct in this assessment. Indeed, globalization is no longer something to be skeptical of, it is very real and is changing our world exponentially. The affects of globalization, however, continue to be a heated topic for debate. Proponents praise the overall economic lift provided by free trade, the diffusion of cultures, and the spread of democracy and capitalism. Critics cry foul at the loss of national identity, the accelerated and uncontrolled use of natural resources, and the redistribution of wealth into the hands of a few very powerful people and corporations. Globalization is a

Globalization is not a new idea at all. Many intellectuals including most social scientists agree of its deep origin by referring to it as a “phenomenon of long term historical process…” ⁶

Globalization is perhaps the single most important development in geopolitical affairs post-WWII, affecting the state in a forceful and wide ranging manner. These effects can be seen with the rise of populism in America and Europe, the proliferation of free trade agreements, and the progression of technologies such as the internet. With these long term trends, it is evident that the power of the state over its populace has weakened profoundly. There are numerous current or recent events that serve to confirm this.

In many aspects globalization is usually described as a process where due to an increase in trade, technology and cultural exchange the world is getting more interconnected making distances less and less which is giving rise to a capitalist economy. According to (Wallerstein 2004), “world economy has always been capitalist”. It’s like everyone is specialized to perform a certain task and that’s how the idea of division of labour is built within us which ties us to the system of capitalism. Competition and the will to earn more is ingrained which creates state subsidies and makes strong states to use their power to prevent weaker states from succeeding.

The creation of new modern-states saw hope for better international society, marked not only by economic exchange but also by political cooperation after the dilution of superpower deadlock. The collapse of Soviet Union led to the formation of modern states - states with liberal, representative democracy constituting the network of transnational development and interconnecting global society. Goods, Capital, People, Knowledge, communication, weapons, crime, beliefs rapidly moved across territorial boundaries (McGrew, 1992). As rightly said, “Today, these modern-states

‘Globalization: What’s new? What’s not? (And so what)’, portrays the speed in which globalism has increased through many different factors; economically, military, environmentally and socially. This is an idealist analytic approach, not set in stone. This leads on to

Globalization involves a variety of links expanding and tightening a web of political, economic and cultural inter-connections. Most attention has been devoted to merchandise trade as it has had the most immediate (or most visible) consequences, but capital, in and of itself, has come to play an arguably even larger role than the trade in material goods. Human movements also link previously separate communities. Finally, there is the cultural connection. All the individual data would indicate that we are undergoing a process of compression of international time and space and an intensification of international relations. The separation of production and consumption that is the heart of modern capitalism appears to have

The concept of globalization is a complex and peculiar one, failing to be definable by a single, precise definition. Centrally, globalization involves information and goods being exchanged amongst different countries. These interactions and interchanges among countries globally over time is due to an increase in communication and transport networks. Globalization is often divided into three main areas being economic globalization, cultural globalization and political globalization. All three are vital areas to one’s life and globalization is said to have a large impact on each. Although globalization is controversial in the aspect that it cannot be declared just how much of an influence the notion has in the world. Political scientists such as Muhammad Ijaz Latif, Anton Pelinka and Martin Wolf all discuss this issue in their respective pieces as well as differing aspects of globalization such as the role the European Union plays in relation to globalization, the different perspectives of globalization and the challenges of the nation-state in regards to globalization.

In today’s global system, democracy and political autonomy function as the institutional norm in the contemporary sovereign state. Although there are numerous outliers in the international society, generally, contemporary states endorse political autonomy by way of democracy as a means of securing international credibility and mutual recognition. Additionally, being that the global system generally endorses democracy and the core values associated with it, one often assumes that corresponding values in a society equate to a community. Although similar values assist in creating community, the perpetuity of sovereignty and state self-interest ultimately prohibit transnational interdependence and therefore, forbid the blossoming of any genuine and functioning international community.