State sovereignty

Essay by kabirchhatwal November 2014

download word file, 8 pages 0.0

In this essay, I would like to discuss the importance of state sovereignty in a globalised world. I will be going in depth with the political, economic and cultural/social dimensions of globalisation and there will be two main channels through which I will be explaining the importance, the first being how interconnected different countries are due to the various dimensions of globalisation and second, how this interconnectedness between different countries in the world can lead to the end of sovereignty for a state. My overall stance in this essay is that Globalisation has a direct threat to state sovereignty, hence making state sovereignty more important in today's world.

Before going in-depth with the explanations, we first must understand what really state sovereignty and globalisation are as individual concepts. The concept of state sovereignty is the, "absolute supremacy over internal affairs within its territory, absolute right to govern its people, and freedom from any external interference in the above matters" (Wang, 2004: 473).

Not only is a sovereign state safe from external influence by deciding it's laws to govern their own citizens, it must be safe from external intervention at any cost. It has been described as the 'watch-cry for the principle of self-determination' (Gerry, 1996: 255-262), meaning the protective wall for the people to go and desire what they want for themselves and not because it is benefiting others through their own influence. Globalisation on the other hand is a very broad and subjective topic. When I look at Globalisation, I think of the interconnectedness between different countries, how business organisations have set up themselves in a number of countries and how the impact of decisions and change in fortunes of one country can have a worldwide affect (2008 American recession). In a way to explain Globalisation which...