SOC 451 Globalization of Culture and Communication

Global Political Structures and Processes

Asst. Prof. Fatma Altınbaş Sarıgül

Understanding of Contemporary Globalization

• The global flow of people- refugees, illegal immigrants

• Dwindling oil and water supply• Economic flows dominated by MNCs.• Economic and financial crisis• Environmental problems-Global warming• Diseases- Malaria, AIDS, etc.• War• Global Inequalities• Terrorism

THE NATION-STATE• The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty and

Eighty Years Wars in Europe and instituted an international system which recognized sovereign states as its core.

Nation: Social group linked through common descent, culture, language or territorial contiguity. (Cerny 2007:854)National Identity:A fluid and dynamic form of collective identity; members of the community believe that they are different from other groups.Nationalism: Doctrine and political movement that seek to make the nation the basis of a political structure.State: The new institutional form after the fuedal systemi offers a more centralized form of control.Nation-state: Integrates sub-groups that define themselves as a nation with the organizational structure that constituted the states

Threats to the Nation-States• The global economy and global economic flows• Flows of information• Illegal immigrants• New Social Movements• Terrorists• Money and Drug Traffic• The growing power of global and transnational

organizations• The growth of global problems• Growing interest in international human rights

International Human Rights

• The Declaration of International Human Rights states that human rights take precedence over the nation-state and that the UN is seeking control over the state on these issues.

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002, created a venue in which those accused of human rights abuses could be tried and found guilty.

THE NATION-STATE

• It is still the major player on the global stage, but it retains some power in the face of globalization.

• Some scholars argue that the issues which may be seen as threats to nation-states are also the issues which increase the power of the nation-states.

IMMAGINED COMMUNITY (Benedict Anderson)

• Nation-state is not a ‘natural’ phenomenon but is rather a social an political construction.

• Anderson’s theory of ‘Immagined Community’ states that a nation primarily exists within the realm of ideas.

• The idea of nation and nationalism is linked to two developments- the modern novel and the modern newspaper.

• It was the mass sale and distribution of novels and newspapers that was critical to the rise of the imagined nation.

Changes in Global Nation-State Relations

• International Relations during WWII; The Allies ( US, Great Britain, France, Russia)The Axis (Germany, Japan, Italy)• During the Cold War;Soviet Bloc countries and West• Contemporary Question: How about international relations of the new global political world?

Changes in Global Nation-State Relations

• New Big Three in the World: The EU, China and the US.• Why EU is important?• Why China is important?• What about Russia?• Second World nations on the way;Turkey, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Thailand.

Global Political Institutions

• League of Nations• United Nations (UN)• United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD)• United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO)• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)• G8 Nations- France, Germany, Italy, Japan,

United Kingdom, US, Russia, Canada.