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The Importance Of Nation-State Policy

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Along with the twenty-first century tagged an interconnected and globalized world, consociated by instantaneous worldwide communication and the free dissemination of information. With this new era of technology, economic policies of nation-states have become so interdependent that most nation-state economies would be crippled without their respective international trading partners. As such, one may wonder if an introspective national policy is appropriate, as argued for by the source. For example, one may contend that international cooperation inevitably results in unequitable compromise, with the more powerful nation-states forcing developing countries into partisan trade-deals. This argument, however, does not take into account the …show more content…

Furthermore, by stating that individuals, in general, do not appreciate others “telling [them] how to deal with ... the seal hunt”, the speaker alludes to the fact that each nation-state understands its own eccentricities best, and that others cannot empathize because they simply do not have such resources, such as seals. A nation-state that chooses to remain isolated from the world suffers technologically. A prominent example of the detrimental effects of isolationism and the beneficial effects of international trade can be observed through the period and abolition of Sakoku, better known as the isolationist foreign policy of Japan. During isolation, the Japanese were only scarcely aware of the technological advances in Western technology. As such, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry’s “black ships” arrived, the Japanese were shocked at just how advanced the technology was, especially in shipbuilding and weaponry. Rather than closing off its borders and potentially suffering the same fate as China, the Meiji government decided to rapidly Westernize the nation, in terms of technology and in things like clothing and eating habits, in an attempt to convince the Western powers that the Japanese were their equals. By the time the Meiji rule concluded, Japan had a highly educated population and an established and rapidly growing

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