Nationalism in The era of globalization, Essays (university) of Political Science

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Nationalism in the Era of Globalization

Pratyush Gupta

EN

“Brexit: UK votes to leave the EU” (Staunton 2016) read the headline on The Irish Times article on United Kingdom voting in favour of leaving the European Union, one of the first acts of the 21st century of open display of rising nationalistic sentiments in the nation. Globalization and nationalism have often been evoked as two distinct defining feature of the modern world; while former globalisation is a process of “the intensification of worldwide relations which links the distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.”(Giddens 1990), and the latter nationalism according to Manuel Castells the new nationalism is a defensive reaction to different trends of globalisation. In his words, “the whirlwind of globalisation is triggering defensive reactions around the world, often organised around the principle of national and territorial identity”(Castells 2000). So, why is it that a Nobel concept like globalisation that has possibly prevented the world from waging World War III is facing opposition in the 21st century? Nationalism has arisen as a backlash to globalisation due to its inherent incapability to addressing the three core issues concerning any nation of its sovereignty, cultural identity and internal economic and political instability in the era of globalisation.

Globalisation has failed to address the issue of national sovereignty. Globalisation has erased national boundaries and increased interdependency among nations limiting the citizen's ability to make decisions. With globalisation, there was a need for an international organisation to maintain peace and harmony, but due to inadequate representation and policy of equality rather than equity, it led to distrust and unlikeness in affected nations as they are unable to address their local issues and can only pass policy after approval from all the other nations in the organisation. Sovereignty was also one the major issues raised during the Brexit campaign, as British people felt the European Union mistreats them firstly, as being a flourishing nation is forced to support other nations lagging behind in the EU.Secondly, lost

The idea of no defined nations and interconnectedness is quite fascinating but is far from reality as issues raised against globalisation on sovereignty, cultural identity and instability are quite important and need to be paid attention to. As a soluting, we should look towards Georgia for inspiration as explained by Natalie Sabanadze in her book Nationalisation and Globalisation “Political and strategic considerations were at the heart of Georgian and Basque nationalist engagement with globalization. In the case of Georgia, nationalist forces in power have been seeking out greater globalization of the country through efforts aimed at Georgia’s integration in Euro-Atlantic structures, incorporation into global political and economic processes, attracting foreign direct investments and enticing multinational companies. They tried hard to carve out a strategic place for Georgia in the global market by positing it as a transit route for oil and gas to Europe and resisting the takeover by Russian energy companies. All these efforts were made in the name of protecting and promoting Georgia’s national interests” (Sabanadze 2010). As their could a place for nationalisation and globalisation to co-exist peacefully and harminously.

Bibiliography

Denis Staunton .2016. Brexit: UK votes to leave the EU. Jun 23 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/brexit-uk-votes-to-leave-the-eu-1.

Anthony Giddens (1990) The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 65.

Castells, The Power of Identity, p. 66.

Heather Long.2016. U.S. has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000. March 29.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/29/news/economy/us-manufacturing-jobs/index.html

SABANADZE, Natalie. 2010.Globalization and Nationalism: The Cases of Georgia and the Basque Country.