Political

dimension
 POLITICAL DIMENSION
•Political globalization refers to the intensification and
expansion of political interrelations across the globe.
•IMPORTANT POLITICAL ISSUES:
•principle of state sovereignty
•growing impact of intergovernmental organizations
•future prospects for regional and global governance
•global migration flows
•environmental policies affecting our planet
 POLITICAL DIMENSION

• Humans have organized their political differences

along territorial lines that generated a sense of
‘belonging’ to a particular nation-state.

•This artificial division of planetary social space into

‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ spheres corresponds to
people’s collective identities based on the creation
of a common ‘us’ and an unfamiliar ‘them’.
 POLITICAL DIMENSION
• 3 fundamental questions that probe the extent of
political globalization:

• Is it really true that the power of the nation-state has been

curtailed by massive flows of capital, people, and technology
across territorial boundaries?

• Are the primary causes of these flows to be found in politics or in

economics?

• Are we witnessing the emergence of new global governance

structures?
 MODERN NATION-STATE SYSTEM

•The origins of the modern nation-state system

can be traced back to 17th century political
developments in Europe

•In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia concluded a

lengthy period of religious wars among the
main European powers
 MODERN NATION-STATE SYSTEM

•CHANGES IN THE ENSUING CENTURIES:

• further centralization of political power

• expansion of state administration
• development of professional diplomacy
• successful monopolization of the means of coercion in the
hands of the state
• nation-states provided the military means required for the
expansion of commerce
 MODERN NATION-STATE SYSTEM

•The modern nation-state system found its mature

expression at the end of the First World War in US
President Woodrow Wilson’s famous ‘Fourteen Points’
based on the principle of national self-determination.

• Wilson’s assumption that all forms of national identity

should be given their territorial expression in a sovereign
‘nation-state’ proved to be extremely difficult to enforce
in practice.
 POLITICAL DIMENSION
• Summarized 14 POINTS

1. Open diplomacy without secret treaties

2. Economic free trade on the seas during war and peace
3. Equal trade conditions
4. Decrease armaments among all nations
5. Adjust colonial claims
6. Evacuation of all Central Powers from Russia and allow it to
define its own independence
7. Belgium to be evacuated and restored
 POLITICAL DIMENSION
• Summarized 14 POINTS
8. Return of Alsace-Lorraine region and all French territories
9. Readjust Italian borders
10. Austria-Hungary to be provided an opportunity for self-
determination
11. Redraw the borders of the Balkan region creating Romania,
Serbia and Montenegro
12. Creation of a Turkish state with guaranteed free trade in
the Dardanelles
13. Creation of an independent Polish state
14. Creation of the League of Nations
 POLITICAL DIMENSION
• Wilson’s other idea of a ‘League of Nations’ that would give
international cooperation an institutional expression was
eventually realized with the founding of the United Nations in
1945

• The UN and other fledgling intergovernmental organizations

also served as catalysts for the gradual extension of political
activities across national boundaries, thus simultaneously
affirming and undermining the principle of national sovereignty
 POLITICAL DIMENSION
• During the 1970s and 1980s, it became clear that the
international society of separate states was rapidly turning into
a global web of political interdependencies that challenged
conventional forms of national sovereignty.

• In 1990, at the outset of the First Gulf War, US President

George H. W. Bush announced the birth of a ‘new world order’
whose leaders no longer respected the idea that cross-border
wrongful acts were a matter concerning only those states
affected.
 1. DEMISE of the NATION-STATE
• The arguments of both globalizers and sceptics remain entangled in a particularly
vexing version of the chicken-and-the-egg problem.
GLOBALIZERS SCEPTICS
Rise of a “BORDERLESS WORLD”
Highlight the central role of politics in
- globalization inevitably involves the decline of bounded unleashing the forces of globalization,
territory as a meaningful concept for understanding political
and social change
especially through the successful
mobilization of political power
Political globalization a mere secondary phenomenon driven
by more fundamental economic and technological forces
Insist on the continued relevance of
conventional political units, operating
- politics has been rendered almost powerless by an
unstoppable techno economic juggernaut that will crush all
in the form of either modern nation-
governmental attempts to reintroduce restrictive policies and states or global cities linked to national
regulations
units
 2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
MIGRATION

• The relative decline of the nation-state does not necessarily mean that
governments have become impotent bystanders to the workings of
global forces.

• The intensifying population movements in the era of globalization

have challenged some of the most crucial powers of nation-states:
• immigration control
• population registration
• security protocols
 2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
MIGRATION

A. Immigration control has become a central issue in most advanced nations.

• Many governments seek to restrict population flows, particularly those
originating in the poor countries of the global South.

• EXAMPLE:
• Syrian refugee crisis
• massive refugee flows pouring out of Syria strained the available material
resources of host communities
• created significant cultural tensions with domestic populations who saw these
‘outsiders’ as a drain on their country’s economic resources
 2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
MIGRATION

B. Inadequate institutional immigration arrangements based

on national preferences
• arbitrary limits on the number of refugees they were willing to
process and refused to consider a more coordinated approach
• show deep political divisions over migration policy among
member states
• the Syrian refugee crisis also made visible existing cultural
fissures and biases
 2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
MIGRATION

C. Intensifying global migration dynamics coupled

with the activities of global terrorist networks

-globalization of terrorist and crime networks

has forced national governments to engage in new
forms of international cooperation
 2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
MIGRATION

• SEEMINGLY PARADOXICAL EFFECT OF

POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION:

• states still matter, but at the same time they

are increasingly forced into transnational
dynamics that undermine their old claims to
national sovereignty and non-interference
 2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
MIGRATION
• SUMMARY:

• reject premature pronouncements of the impending demise of

the nation-state, while also acknowledging its increasing
difficulties in performing some of its traditional functions

• people around the world will become more conscious of the

fact that they live in a transitional era moving from the modern
nation-state system to postmodern forms of global governance
 3. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

• Political globalization is perhaps most visible in the rise of supraterritorial

institutions and associations held together by common norms and interests
 3. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

• eclectic network of interrelated power centers

such as:

• municipal and provincial authorities

•regional blocs
•international organizations
• national and international private-sector
associations
 3. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

• On the municipal and provincial level, there has been a

remarkable growth in the number of policy initiatives and
trans-border links between various sub-state authorities.

• EXAMPLES:
• Chinese provinces and US federal states
• ‘Global cities’ such as Hong Kong, London, New York, Shanghai,
Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo
 3. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

•On the regional level, there has been an extraordinary

proliferation of multilateral organizations and
agreements.

•Regional clubs and agencies such as APEC or ASEAN have

sprung up across the world, leading some observers to
speculate that they will eventually replace nation-states
as the basic unit of governance.
 3. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

•On a global level, governments have formed a

number of international organizations, including
the UN, NATO, WTO, and OECD.

•Full legal membership of these organizations is

open to states only, and the decision-making
authority lies with representatives from national
governments.
 3. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

• The emerging structure of global governance has been shaped

by ‘global civil society’—a social realm populated by thousands
of voluntary, non-governmental associations of worldwide
reach.

• International NGOs like Doctors Without Borders or

Greenpeace represent millions of ordinary citizens who are
prepared to challenge political and economic decisions made
by nation-states and intergovernmental organizations.
 POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION:
FINAL OUTCOME
• emergence of a ‘cosmopolitan
democracy’ that would constitute the
basis for a plurality of identities
flourishing within a structure of
mutual toleration and accountability
ILLUSTRATION
 FEATURES of COSMOPOLITAN
DEMOCRACY
([Link])

1. A global parliament connected to regions, states, and localities

2. A new charter of rights and duties locked into different domains of

political, social, and economic power

3. The formal separation of political and economic interests

4. An interconnected global legal system with mechanisms of

enforcement from the local to the global