Sovereignty and Globalization - New Challenge

Globalization promotes the increasing interaction of the inhabitants. Globalization is the process of integrating the national economy, culture, technology, and even governance into a global system. 

The other side provided the insight into straining State sovereignty. State sovereignty has never been absolute except legally.

Questions were raised regarding the state sovereignty. Aspects pointed out by David Held - 

  1. Government's effectiveness of particular instruments has shown a decline with increase on global connectedness. Border controls have lessened.
  2. Expansion in transnational forces and interactions which reduce the influence a particular governments can exercise over the citzens.
  3. The domains such as defence and communication cannot be fulfilled without resorting to international forms of collaboration.
  4. Political integration is necessary among states to control the destabilising effects of the states.
  5. Vast number of institutions and organisations for global governance led to multibureaucratic decision making and has created a framework through which the rights and obligations, powers and capacities have been redefined.
Sovereignty and power blocks - 
  1. The two power blocs after Second World War exerted a great influence on the state's sovereignty and restricted the states to accept the dictates of bloc leaders. The unipolar and multipolar world made states dependent on each other.
  2. NATO, SEATO, OAS and Warsaw pact gave meagre international choice to their respective member states.
  3. Military alliances provide member-states with limited options.
  4. Held says, 'state autonomy as well as sovereignty can be limited and checked' even without a commitment to NATO. This is because, he continues "the routine conduct of NATO affairs involves  the integration defence organisations:. Such organisations create transfovernmental decision making systems which escape. The control or even consultation of any single member state.
  5. Military alliances did not abolish state sovereignty but certainly compels states to compromise on many issues.
Sovereignty and Global Economy - 
  1. Internationalisation of production
  2. Information technology helps in the mobilisation of economic units - currencies, stocks, shares - globalisation of financial organisations.
  3. Though the distinctive identities are kept preserved, markets and societies are becoming more sensitive to one another. National economic policy has reduced accordingly to suit itself to the claims of international financial and fiscal system.
  4. States have to organise themselves regionally and globally as no state is self sufficient.
Sovereingty and International Organisations -
  1. International Organisations like UN function within the UN Charter and contain universal values that transcend national boundaries. The states have to observe civil, political, economic, social, cultural and collective rights which dealing with secessionist and ethnic gorups.
  2. Non-political and technical organisations like the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the WMO, do influence foreign policies in some aspects and do not allow individual states to act arbitrarily.
  3. The non-state actors like WOT, IMF, UNCTAD take up supranational role in certain areas.
  4. IMF (grab the sovereign rights of a nation) while giving loan to a particular state, may insist on public expenditure, devaluation of currency and cut on welfare programmes, liberalisation and privatisation of economy. IMF's intervention must be tolerated even if it leads to many international issues like food riots or the fall of the government.
  5. WTO has emerged as a virtual parliament in economic matters and possesses power to make laws on the subjects which hitherto have been the domain of state legislation.
  6. EU has become more or less supranational agency. Sovereignty is clearly divided; andy conception of sovereignty, which assumes that it is indivisible, unlimited, exclusive and a oeroethak form of public power - embodied within an individual state is defunct.
Sovereignty and International Law -
  1. a. Autonomy on foreign policy matters. b. Prevent domestic courts from ruling on the behaviour of foreign states. These aspects of state's sovereignty are under strain
  2. UNDHR is binding on the states.
  3. Individual is also subject to international law. The International tribunal at Nuremberg stated that "crimes against international law are committed by men, not abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced.
  4. New international law is binding itself on togetherness and closeness of numerous states.






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