S1 : Sovereignty and Globalisation examples

Nations

Group of people with a common culture, language and or history
Kurds
Cornish

States

UK
US
France

Nation states

Geopolitical entity - area with defined border and a gov that controls its citizens
Iceland
Portugal

Conflicted areas

Kashmir - between India and Pakistan

Failed states

Somalia - Civil war, ineffective gov

Yemen - Same reason

Non recognised states

Kosovo
Palestine

Factors for interconnectedness

• People - travel, social media

• Institution - UN, WHO, WTO

• Politics - UN, NATO, EU, IMF, G7, G20

• Economics - Capitalism, Free market

• Culture - McDonalds, Coca Cola,

• Countries - Sharing info e.g. Interpol, Five eyes, shared resources e.g. Danube Commission 1948

Complex web of independence

Factors of globalisation which contribute to the interlinking of the world

Extents of globalisation

Hyper - Globalisation is inevitable, state power is dwindling as going more towards IGO’s

Transformationalists - Globalisation is occurring and states are becoming more interconnected and cooperating more, states must adapt to using NGO’s

Sceptic - State is the main actor and globalisation can increase conflict and competition

Impacts of globalisation

Western dominance over globalisation
Brexit
Financial crash
Strength of rogue states

Sovereignty

Deemed essential for for functioning of a state by the Montevideo Convention 1933
Internal - State power to govern independently - making laws
External - States should recognise and accept other states and their sovereignty

Characteristics of nation states

• Defined external borders

• Population defined by citizenship and nationality

• Gov with authority over its territory and population

• Ability to form relationships with other states

IR view on sovereignty

R - Respect for national sovereignty is crucial for the maintenance of international peace and stability
L - Not as important, willing to sacrifice some sovereignty for the shared global interest

Non state actors

TNC - hold huge economic power - Google, Microsoft - drivers of cultural homogeneity
IGO - Created to bring states together to resolve collective challenges - UN, WTO

Types of globalisation

• Political - Institutions and laws created to solves hared challenges such as the environment - COP summits, states no longer approach politics as a purely national activity

• Economic - Advances in technology and ease of international trade, free trade areas and agreements e.g. EU single market + USMCA, free markets endorsed by WTO, IMF and WB to further encouarge international trade

• Cultural - Deepened by domiance of MNC’s, encourage openness, toleration and diversity within cultures, can be unpopular as traditions and customs are being phased out and out competeed by outside influences

Impacts of globalisation on the state

• Widening and deepening interconnection - 2008 financial crash spread to basically everywhere bar Australia, but, it has lead to hugely increased global trade taking millions out of poverty. Spread of disease through international travel - Covid-19

• Political globalisation → International courts (ICJ, ICTY/R) and HR laws, only binding in case of EU court of justice - defiance to EU law is punished - Poland fined 1m per day for attempts to reduce judicial independence

• Intervention - State intervenes upon another to prevent HR abuses, increased after R2P.

Successes of humanitarian intervention

Ivory Coast - 2011, collaboration of work between UN and AU, restored stability after a disputed election result
Sierra Leone - 2000, Deployment of British military groups e.g. SAS to protect gov from rising rebel groups supported by Charles Taylor who was endicted into SCSL as actions were before establishment of ICC

Failures of humanitarian intervention

Somalia 1992 - Violence was so entrenched within society and complex US pulled out after losing 18 men
Srebrenica - 1995 - 8k Muslim Bosnians killed
Rwanda - 800k killed

Globalisation impact on poverty

Helped

• Developing countries can exploit their cheap labour markets to mass produce inexpensive products for the global market

• 2021 global trade = $28 trillion

• Method has led to number of those in extreme poverty decreased by 75%

• UN’s MDG and SDG to centralised improvements → lack of impact, child morality reduced to less than half , 1990-20

Hindered

• Economic independence traps developing countries into being dependent on bigger states → reliance on cheap developing labour → neo colonialism

• Can worsen working conditions as condemns people to long hours in factories

• Harsh loan conditions e.g. free market and privatisation, are often unsuited to the honest nation, not protecting the worker or environment

Globalisation impact on conflict

Helped

• Ec - reliance on other economies through trade, makes warring with them mutually destructive - if goods do not cross borders armies will

• Po - Created institutions where common issues can be debated and solved - COP meetings on climate change

• Cu - Strengthen empathy and encourage the sharing of values between all globally
  
  Hindered

• Po - Social media can be used to spread radical and extremist ideas, can also encourage nationalism and populism - GB news and Fox

• Ec - Not all countries benefit equally causing resentment, fears that workers in developed nations will be replaced by the cheap labour of those in developing states

• Cu - Can cause hard reaction to western liberal ideas → Russian renewed emphasis on nationalist conservative values

Globalisation impact on HR

Helped

• Po - Creation of international hr laws - UDHR 1948, has developed into defending particular vulnerable groups - Convention on Child Right 1989, establishment of courts (ICC in 2002 + European Court of Human Rights) to keep abusers of HR’s accountable

Hindered

• Sovereignty of the state allows abusers to go unpunished as ICC not recognised by US, Rus, Chi

• Humanitarian intervention is inconsistently applied

• Liberal democracies have most power and less willing to use it

• Ec - TNC are able to dominate over developing states - Reliance theory

Globalisation impact on environment

Hindered

• Ec - MNC and developed state dominance shows a lack of punishment for disregarding environmental impact of their works - tragedy of the commons, booms in global trade and standard of living has not been accompanied by sufficient regard for environmental impacts

• Po - COP summits have encouraged state reduction of emissions but the NDC created are unenforceable and very unambitious

Helped

• Po - Created a platform purely for environmental debate, EU pledge net zero by 2050, 90% of the world covered by pledges of emissions reduction, increases no of saes required to act - India and China exempt under Kyoto 1997 but do so after Paris 2015, agreed to aid developing states deal with climate challenges - pledge $100b annually

• Cu - Social media led to boosts in awareness, especially amongst young people regarding, the scale of the issue, activists Thunberg and Attenborough have global reach and recognition