Political Geography

Ohio Northern UniversityGlobalization

Globalization?

• Traditional divisions and boundaries that used to mark global society are no longer what they once were

Multifaceted process by which nations and societies of the world are increasingly being merged into a single global society and economy

1. Local events shaped by events occurring many miles away

2. Globalization of trade, diseases, illegal drugs, terrorism (the Internet)

3. The technology and process of globalization are neutral and can be used for good or ill.

Geography? Boundaries irrelevant?

What’s at Stake?

Petty concerns? English & French… or important: impact on global economic inequality…

• Are nations, economies, cultures really that interconnected? Or is it all globaloney?

• Questions is: whether or not there are forces at work

undermining what many believe has been THE defining feature of international politics for several centuries – national sovereignty

• Constrained state thesis: The idea that the forces driving globalization are

profoundly weakening or limiting the ability of states to shape their own policies and destinies

A borderless world?• Interdependence in the 1970s

Creating mutual dependencies among different national economies

Borders and nations are still meaningful• Globalization in the 1980s

Something more: not just interdependent BUT becoming a single economic system

Borders and nations are NO LONGER meaningful Political map? Borders & boundaries still there. Remove political boundaries and only look at patterns

of economic activity – world’s political boundaries would not be there…

• Era of nation-state over? Technological & political changes that have made it easier to

move, communicate, & trade without regard to location & national borders

Countries [nation-state] disappearing? YES

→ Globalization is ending the tyranny of location

o Conditions in which a producer’s geographical proximity to sources of supply or markets is a critical determinant of its ability to compete effectively.

→ The mobility of capitalo The ease with which businesses & investment can move

from one part of the world to another. Potential obstacles might include costs associated with commerce over long distances or government policies that make trade difficult.

→ The race to the bottomo Globalization is exerting downward pressure on wages,

regulations, taxes, & social welfare benefits as corporations relocate in search of lower wages, fewer regulations, & lower taxes.

o Democratic deficit: problem created when critical decisions are taken out of the hands of democratic & representative institutions.

Countries [nation-state] disappearing? NO

→ Location still matterso Microsoft is still dependent on supply of educated workers &

close relationship with American universitieso Lots of low-tech workers staying put: partly for personal

reasons (family owned), compensate for labor with machines, suppliers distributors are still located near to them.

→ The myth of borderless worldo Example of USA/Canada: Ontario/BC vs Wash./Oregono Investors: US 90%, Canadian 88%, Japanese 94%

→ The myth of the race to the bottomo Where resources & labor are cheaper? o Companies NOT flocking to lower wages & regulatory costs

Companies want productive labor & not cheaper labor Companies want political stability, no corruption, rule of law

Peace of Westphalia May - October 1648

Westphalian sovereignty is the concept of the sovereignty of nation-states on their territory, with no role for external agents in domestic structures.The treaty not only signaled the end of the perennial, destructive wars that had ravaged Europe, it also represented the triumph of sovereignty over empire, of national rule over the personal writ of the Habsburgs

Peace's significance &impact on world today?

1.The principle of the sovereignty of states and the fundamental right of political self determination…

2.The principle of legal equality between states…

3.The principle of non-intervention of one state in the internal affairs of another state…These principles are shared by the "realist" international relations paradigm today, which explains why the system of states is referred to as "The Westphalian System".

Globalization and Westphalian sovereignty

“The Westphalian system” is used to describe the system of states which make up the world today…Globalization is bringing an evolution of the international system past the sovereign Westphalian state?

Westphalian sovereigntyFrom 1980s - early 1990s, globalization focused primarily on the erosion of Westphalian sovereignty.Since late 20th century, idea of Westphalian sovereignty questioned further by a range of actual & proposed military interventions in:

  former Yugoslavia,    Afghanistan,    Iraq  &    Sudan, etc.

Interventions ?in Cambodia by Vietnam… or

in Bangladesh (then a part of Pakistan) by India (the Bangladesh

Liberation War and the Pakistan-initiated Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 within it)… …had a questionable basis in international law, however… were carried out on the premise that they constituted humanitarian intervention aimed at preventing genocide, large-scale loss of life or ethnic cleansing.

Further criticism of Westphalian sovereignty

In relation to allegedly failed states, of which Afghanistan (before the 2001 US-led invasion) is an example.• OK to intervene? …said that NO sovereignty exists and that international intervention is justified on humanitarian grounds and by the threats posed by failed states to neighboring countries and the world as a whole.

Some of the recent debate over Somalia is also being cast in these same terms.