Chapter Four

Globalization and Regionalism

What is Globalization?
 a word commonly used in public discourse, but it is often loosely
defined in today’s society
 David Harvey – Time-space compression
 The growing magnitude of interconnectedness in almost every aspect of
social existence
 Globalisation is a process that removes all national barriers for the free
movement of international capital, including human, material and
structural resources as well as normative cultures that promote societal
building across the globe
 It is the intensification of worldwide social relations, which link distant
localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events
occurring many miles away
 The advent of transportation and information communication
Debates on Globalization
• The role of the nation state in the globalization process has led to
many questions
• Among the questions are:
is the nation state being undermined?
has it retained its primacy?
is it becoming transformed in new ways?
• It is possible to understand the relationship between globalization and
the role of nation state by examining three different well accepted
theoretical perspectives of globalization
• These are hyper-globalism, skepticism and transformationalism
Hyper-globalism: the role of the nation state is diminished by the
existence of international organizations such as the United Nations and
the International Monetary fund (IMF) or by social movements
• The world is on its way to a form of global governance, rather than a
system the governance by powerful nation states
Cont…
• Nation-states become obsolete to regulate their economy and
boundary
• Economic globalization brought denationalization and
deterritorialization of economies
• Eco. Globalization brings the decline of state
• IMF, World Bank and General Agreement and Tariff and Trade
(GATT) organizations, have created a new economic order, which
must be obeyed by nation states
• National governments unable to control trans-boundary movements
and flow of goods, services and ideas
• Transnational organizations diminish the role of the nation state, and
global governance will become the last frontier
• national states will eventually vanish, and will not transform any kind
of structure in the future
• Uniform way of life by trivializing traditional culture
Cont…
Skepticism
• Nation states are shaping the nature of world politics
• Globalization is not a new process, but an on-going form of
internationalization
• Nation state is growing
• The role of the nation state is still alive and its borders are effective
• The organs of the United Nations (UN) are instruments of powerful
nation states and are designed to achieve their political aims
• The future of world politics will be related to national states and their
implementation
• Anti-globalist movements – a large number of people in the world are
not comfortable with the idea of global governance
• Reject the idea of global governance
• Reject the view of hyper-globalist as flawed, myth and politically
naive
Cont…
• States are central actors and agents of globalization
• States play central role in shaping and regulating economic activities
• What is happening in the name of globalization is internationalism,
regionalism, and neo-liberal policies created by the capitalist order
• Globalization brings nothing new
Transformationalism
• Present the middle ground between the hyper-globalists and skeptics
• While there are still nation states that exist in the context of world
politics, their structures are different from what they were, and the
effect of globalization on nation states is irrefutable
• Globalization is a real phenomenon and is affecting nation states
• The nation state still plays a role in world politics
• External forces such as human rights, population policy, and factors
such as the environment, education, labor, and immigration, all have
an enormous role to play in reshaping the structures of nation states
Cont…
• Although international laws and the implementation of international
organizations press for national sovereignty, national institutions are
major players who put these international laws and other strategies
into practice
• Globalization reconstitute/reengineer the power, function and
authority of the state
• A new sovereign regime is displacing traditional conception of state
power as absolute, indivisible and territorially exclusive power
Advantage and disadvantage of globalization
Advantage
• Expansion of democratic culture, human right and the protection of
historically minority and subaltern groups.
• Innovation in science, medicine, and technology and information
communication which enabled the improvement of quality of life.
• Agricultural technological expansion which could be helpful in
Cont…
• Technological and social revolution that resulted in human security
and safety.
• The free movement of good, service, people, ideas, expertise,
knowledge and technology which has brought international
interdependence.
• New sense of global society and the perspective of global citizenship
Disadvantage
• Western imperialism of ideas and beliefs eroding and inroads the
sovereignty of non-Western countries.
• Global capital and international financial institutions like WB and
IMF made free inroads into countries of the south
• Brings different way of life and cultural values.
• Has made the globalization of risks, threats and vulnerabilities like
global terrorism, religious fundamentalism, proliferation of Small
Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs), arms and human trafficking.
Cont…
• It has stimulated the emergence of a simultaneous but opposite
process of Glocalization, which involves a process of integration to
the world and differentiation to the local.
Regionalism
• An ideology focusing on the development of cooperation among
states within one or more regions
• Depends on the ingredients of identifiable geographical regions,
geographical proximity and an organization with a common sense of
identity and purpose. Old regionalism
• Dominant after WWII
• Emerged in Western Europe in the late 1940s. Eurocentric
• A regionalism can be:
 Old regionalism: regional association and protection from
globalization and trade liberalization
Cont…
advocate protectionist policy
cooperation and integration is limited to member states
 New regionalism: open and outward oriented regionalism driven by
market and less by politics globalization changes the balance from
state regulation to market competition more diverse in geographical
coverage. To win win. Post cold war era. Not formal but global
transformation
Regional integration
• It is a process where states enter into a regional agreement to enhance
regional cooperation through regional institutions and rules
• Purpose: economic, political, social and environmental
• It is the highest stage of cooperation
• It sacrifices some of the ultimate decision-making power of the
nation-state to regional cooperation
Theories of regional integration
Functionalism: war as the result of social and economic
maladministration
• The real task of the cooperation is the conquest of poverty, ignorance,
and disease
• The existing system based on sovereignty is not only adequate but
also an obstacle to finding solutions to global problems
• Integration is functional response by states to regional problems
arising from interdependence
• Cooperation must start from low politics
• Reject political aspect of cooperation
• Neglected anticipated problems like conflicts, hard power decisions
and political mobilization
• Technocrats should rule. Spill over a key for functionalism
• Supranational institutions are the main actors within the integration
Cont…
Neo-functionalism: popular in the 1950s and 1960s
• Integration developed through time
• The theory hinged on three main processes
 The theory views interest groups, political parties, nation states and
supranational institutions as actors in regional integration
 Good will and common interests will ultimately leads greater integration
 The context in which integration take place is economic, social and
technical and to a lesser extent political
Intergovernmentalism: integration can be best understood as a series of
rational choices made by national leaders
• Integration takes place within domestic politics
• A logical consequences of intergovernmental negotiation
• Downgrade the importance of supranational institution
• Effectiveness of integration is determined by the role of the state
Cont…
• State as the main actor in the integration process and the international
system
• The process of integration includes:
national preference formation
inter-state bargaining
institutional choice
• The integrating units must be political community
Supra-nationalism: autonomous role of supranational institutions:
encouraging deeper and broader integration
domestic interest groups shift their activities from the domestic to the
international realm.
once supranational institutions are created, international interdependence
grows, and interest groups or political party leaders can shift their
loyalties to international institutions.
 Selected Cases of Regional Integration

• Regional integration across the world followed

divergent trajectories. Dev’t, experience, history…
• EU: began European Economic community transform
in to common currency, defence, visa, mkt, institution
• OAU-1963: decolonization. AU-2002: RECs, trade
• Association of South East Asian States (ASEAN): 1967,
1977, free trade area-1992: decolonization,
economic goal, political and security motives for
regional solidarity
 The Relations between Regionalization and Globalization
• Regionalization as a Component of Globalization: Convergence
• Regionalization as a Challenge or Response to Globalization:
Divergence
• Regionalization and Globalization as Parallel Processes: Overlapping
process
 Nation-States and Nationalism as Rival Processes of Globalization-localizatn.
 Globalization as a Force of Nationalism and the Formation of New States
 Nation-States as Rival Forces of Regionalization-constraint
 Regionalism as a Force of Nationalism and the Nation-States
 Coexistence between Regionalism, Nationalism and Globalization
 Nation-States as Mediators between Regionalism and Globalization
 Nation-States Opposing Globalization through Regionalism