Contemporary Globalisation has made the Nation State obsolete. Discuss with reference to political relations.

Essay by graemehickinCollege, Undergraduate June 2010

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Contemporary globalization has made the nation state obsolete. (Discuss with reference to either cultural or economic or political relations)

Globalization is the cultural, economic and political merging of relations across the world with growing interconnectedness through the rapid exchange of knowledge, ideas and information, both locally and globally and is the organising of power at a global level. It has been suggested that as a result the authority of the nation state, a state that possesses external, fixed borders and which possesses the absolute law making authority over its territory and citizens, continues to face dramatic changes. Globalization and its meaning has caused intense debate among social scientists and different theories; that of the globalists, who argue that state sovereignty and autonomy are disappearing with a new global structure dominating and is very significant and far reaching; inter-nationalists, who argue that states can determine their own priorities and systems of governance and that no fundamental changes are taking place and transformationalists, who argue that states remain powerful but have to adjust their role in the face of new global corporations etc and believe it to be significant but patchy and difficult to quantify, all exist.

Discussing the concepts of globalization and the political perspectives from all three theories will conclude that although there are some deficiencies, the transformationalist theory seems to be the most sound.

The contemporary world is divided into geo-political space and has its roots in the Westphalian system, 'The organisation of humanity into sovereign, territorially exclusive nation-states' (McGrew, 2004, p133) implemented in 1648. This system centres on the legal and political powers of states being confined to within territorial limits and sovereignty is absolute. They have the right to non-interference and self-determination and there is no higher authority than the state.

There are four...