THEME THREE

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THEME THREE
SOVEREIGNTY
GLOBALIZATION
REGIONALIZATION
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The Changing Nature of
Sovereignty
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What is it?

• It is the set of rules that govern our lives
  because we are all citizens of some place. It is
  the endpoint of law. No body above the sovereign
  state has any rights over you.
• It defines the players in relations across the
  globe international
• Playing outside these rules threatens the
  security of the world. Think about those rogue
  and phantom states we discussed earlier.

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Symbols of Sovereignty
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Where did it come from?

• Originally the term sovereignty referred to the
  sovereign, or ruler who was the head of the
  state so it referred to a person.

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Indeed, through most of history the ruler was the
law, and the US was one of the first states to
set that aside firmly
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Some Key Events in Creating modern Sovereignty
The rise of the nation state challenging the
old Empires. The US was never a nation state
France is, and that led to a lot of historical
conflicts within their revolution, leading
eventually to its failure. The revolutions of
1848 generally failed, but were the shape of
things to come
Created the need for institutions above the
state to counter (a) national rivalries, (b)
national versus global interests. So, we got the
United Nations and the European Union. The main
challenge for our age is globalization
Finished off the old multi-national empires like
Austria-Hungary. Great outburst of nation
states on the principles of Woodrow Wilsons 14
points.
Introduced the role of the state above the
individualfascism did the same thing.

• The Treaty of Westphalia, 1648
• The American Revolution 1776
• The French Revolution, 1789
• The Revolutions of 1848
• World War 1, 1914-1918
• The Russian Revolution of 1917
• World War 2, 1939-1945

The Origin of the Modern Secular State
The origins of the Liberal Democratic State (We
The People)
Failed experiment in new type of state, but too
many conflicting philosophiesa thinkers
revolution, not a practical mans revolution.
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Sovereignty is not an Absolute

• The version of sovereignty we have today was not
  always there. Before that states came and went
  with marriages, wars etc
• Then in 1648, as the nation state was beginning
  to emerge, a treaty The Treaty of Westphalia,
  was signed establishing the rules for the new,
  secular states.
• What were these rules?

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Before the Nation State?
The Church was over everything, but there was an
increasing struggle to co-opt the church (warrior
popes), and eventually the break came with
Protestantism and Martin Luther
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Shifting Allegiances
You were as likely to belong to somebody as to
some place, under feudalism. And marriages and
wars constantly shifted boundaries. Much of
France, for instance, was English.
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This is Italy as late as 1850. A mass of small
states pulled together or set apart by alliances.
But the people would all call themselves Italian
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And this was Germany before 1871
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A Definition

• The supreme, absolute power by which any
  independent state is governed supreme political
  authority the self-sufficient source of
  political power from which all other political
  powers are derived the right of regulating its
  internal affairs without foreign dictation the
  supreme right to make laws and execute them, to
  raise and collect taxes, and the right to make
  war and treaties.

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The Rules of Sovereignty

• In International Relations, a sovereign state is
  the equal of any other sovereign state.
• It is in control of a specified and agreed
  territory
• It has the right to make law and declare war, to
  issue money
• Over time, the sovereignty of the nation moved
  from the monarch to the people through their
  representativessomething the US pioneered

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For Instance.

• The United States went to war, along with the
  members of the UN, against Iraq in 1990 because
  Iraq invaded the sovereignty of Kuwait.
• This was a clear violation of the rules of
  sovereignty

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Remember what we said

• The real problem comes when you have to deal with
  places that do not fit, or play by the rules.
• Those countries which have sovereignty, but cant
  exercise it (Somalia, Liberia, Ivory Coast,
  Colombia)
• Those countries that practice sovereignty but
  have no right to it (North Cyprus, Taiwanin
  Chinas eyes)

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Heres a Grade A Sovereignty Problem--Taiwan
Taiwan, on the other hand, considers itself a
separate country, but has not declared
independence. However, you cannot recognize both
Chinas so Taiwan exists, and it doesnt exist.
It exercises what looks like sovereignty, but
must never be called that.
The P R China claims that Taiwan (or the
Republic of China as it calls itself) is really
part of the PRC.
In Nov 03 the Taiwan government voted to give the
people the right to vote for Independence
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Challenges to Traditional Sovereignty

• Globalization and the need for global management
  and regulation
• The rise of the multi-national corporation
• The emergence of indefinable political units,
  mainly the European Unionis it a state or not?
• The emergence of Rogue, Phantom and Failed States
• The Global village breaking down nationalism?

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Challenges to Sovereignty

• We discussed Rogue, Phantom and Failed States
  last time they represent a challenge to the
  rules of the game and a base for crime and
  terrorism
• The EU is probably a temporary mystery on its
  way to becoming a state, after which we will
  understand it, and they will understand
  themselves a lot better
• Some writers are talking about globalization as
  the end of the Nation State. Is it? Probably not

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Globalization

• The need to tackle problems that cannot be
  handled by states alone

Organized Crime
And many more
Climate Change
Terrorism
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The Multi-National Corporation
In the run-up to the Millennium, we are seeing a
strange spectacle the growing power of planetary
business giants, against which the governments,
trade unions, etc., seem increasingly impotent.
The main phenomenon of our ageglobalizationis
in no sense under the control of governments

• Factors Influencing the rise of the
  multi-national corporationa business with
  interests in many countries, or worldwide.

This is a world of business acquisitions and
mergers. Firms become fewer and gigantic
Globalization of Information, tastes, and
images leading to the development of a world
product Coke, McDonalds
The Opening of Trade encouraging export
The shrinking of government through Privatization
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The Multi National

• Key Problems
• Where do they belong? which is another way of
  saying Who has the authority to regulate them?
• With global communications, they can locate just
  about anywhere, and go where they find the best
  deal worldwide. So, Indiana does not compete with
  KY, but with the Philippines.

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Implications

• During the nineteenth century, there was a long
  and bitter struggle between industrial bosses and
  the growing working class over conditions of work
  and pay.
• This led to a slow and painful process of Health
  and Safety at work reform, abolition of child
  labor, pensions, etc., etc.
• All of which is regulated by the government. But
  who regulates the multinationals?

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• The Unions established fair pay rates, but you
  cannot do that if you are in competition with
  other countries, especially if they earn 1 a day.

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World Institutions

• The power has grown of organizations such as the
  World Bank, the IMF, the WTO etc.
• Periodically when they meet, there are violent
  demonstrations in the streetwhy?
• Because these institutions have more and more
  control over peoples lives and jobs and yet are
  UNACCOUNTABLE, SECRET, UNELECTED AND
  UNREPRESENTATIVE. So the gains of democracy at
  the national level are threatened too.

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One View of the Future
This is Strobe Talbot, Deputy Secretary of State
under Pres. Clinton, who made the following,
rather remarkable observation
All countries are basically social
arrangementsNo matter how permanent and even
sacred they may seem at one time, in fact they
are all artificial and temporaryWithin the next
100 yearsnationhood as we know it will be
obsolete all states will recognize a single,
global authority.
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The Multinational Corporation

• Challenge to the State?
• Or, a new form of State?

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Notice, from this diagram, that Wal Mart is
economically bigger than Spain, Greece, Canada or
Australia. Toyota is bigger than the Netherlands
Recently, it was announced that Wal-Mart had
opened its first store in Australia. It may be
more correct to say Australia opened its first
store in Wal-Mart
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The Corporate World

• Multinational corporations once made vulnerable
  to the expropriation of property or blockage of
  funds, and forbidden to trade with hostile
  countries and to buy and sell freely the latest
  high technology and scarce commodities are now
  more likely to guide foreign policy than follow
  it. Individual donors such as George Soros and
  Ted Turner surpass the worlds impoverished
  ministries of foreign affairs with their gifts to
  countries and world agencies. Every year, the
  financial flows of international organizations
  such as the world Bank and the International
  Monetary Fund (IMF) diminish in importance
  relative to the hefty direct and portfolio
  investments that private investors pour into
  emerging markets. Many forces, from technology to
  political ideas, are keeping the global bullet
  train of consumerism and privatization running.

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Who Rules?

• To whom, and where, do these companies belong?
  How do you regulate them? Are they becoming more
  powerful than states?
• How might this happen?
• Does it matter?

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The New Middle East?
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OK, and what does this mean for the USA?
It is ready to open its borders to trade,
but nothing more--not like the E U.
It regards all "alliances" as temporary,
otherwise they would compromise U S Sovereignty

• Interestingly, although it is not a typical
  nation state by any stretch of the imagination,
  the USA is the country most concerned about
  protecting all aspects of its sovereignty
• For instance

It distrusts multilateral organizations
because they limit the US' Freedom of Action
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Where does this put us?
The countries of Europe, on the other hand,
individually, are not big enough to balance the
USA, and so they have been giving up sovereignty
to the EU steadily for the last 50 years
Right now, we have problems with the UN and NATO
because they could have constrained our policies
in Afghanistan and Iraq, following a flagrant
attack on our sovereignty (9/11)
This is why European, and most other countries
prefer to use the MULTILATERAL institutions,
because all countries in the UN, for instance,
have the same standingone country, one vote.
The big difference between the US and other
places right now, when we are talking about
sovereignty, is that the US is so large and
powerful that it can impose its ideas on the rest
of the world
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And the future????
The European Federation

• Our closest allies are giving up sovereignty, but
  really only moving it into something that could,
  eventually, look like the USAA Federal, or
  Confederal, Europe.
• The US, Given what we have said about the vital
  importance of continuity the Americans feel, is
  unlikely to move away from its jealous protection
  of national sovereignty.

The Federal USA
The Russian Federation
"A day will come when all nations on our
continent will form a European brotherhoodA day
will come when we shall see the United States of
America and the United States of Europe face to
face, reaching out for each other across the
seas." Victor Hugo - 1848
?
?
Is this the future?
A Confederal African Union?
The Expanded Zone
?
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Key Sovereignty Questions for the USA

• Can we hang on to our traditional concepts of
  sovereignty while the rest of the world changes?
  Is this why we are classed as a Unilateralist
  bully?

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Key Sovereignty Questions for the USA

• Can you manage global-level problems at the
  nation-state level? Even if you are the USA?

Is this how others see us?
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Key Sovereignty Questions for the USA

• What to do about all the countries whose
  sovereignty can be co-opted by gangsters,
  terrorists etc? Do we still recognize them as
  sovereign nations?
• The French think that we are the 1 Rogue State.
• Whatever, we have to learn to control holes in
  the solidarity of collective security

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Well, we are winning some new friends
How ya'all doin?
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The Key Issue

• The US is an ultra-conservative country, in terms
  of its Constitution, Institutions of State etc.
• The changes swirl around us, but the basic
  American principles do not shift. That has always
  set us apart.
• To us, sovereignty is bound up with a sacred
  purpose Liberty, as embodied in the US
  Constitution. Any expansion of Multilateralism is
  seen as compromising that. This will put us at
  odds with the rest of the world, and increasingly
  so.

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One Irony
The position of the US in relation to the world,
may be very similar to that of the American
Indian to the Federal Republic.