Realism, Globalization and the Internet
Brock
globalization are a bit of poppycock. That is, notions of a
transnational society founded on notions other than the interactions
between nation states are somewhat bogus. The notion of American
empire has arisen rather frequently of late, and this appears to be a
more realistic notion than 'transnational society'.
On the other hand, having done some work on the nature of
globalization, eg. certain aspects of mnc's and globalization, the
globalization of the economy, this sort of thing, it seems to me that
globalization is a real phenomenon. A significant process of
globalization of economies and transnationalization is going on. I
thought at a point that multinationals not only were an engine of
globalization, but could be an engine toward some notion of
'transnational society' or at the time, a 'global centric' sort of
transition. Realistically, the nation state has very significant
powers, in particular, the American state, and the relations between
corporations and governments is not an easy relation to characterize.
The notion of a movement toward global centric (or 'geocentric')
corporations will not do in itself. (The theory that the modern nation
is founded significantly on the integrating factors of economics of
trade and investment is not sufficient, for example.)
Something that appears to have been missed in the research that I did
was a look at certain aspects of the sociology of globalization, as
well as the phenomenon of the internet. While the global economy is
founded on a variety of integrating factors, such as transnational
finance, global and integrated trade and investment, intrafirm trade,
significantly increased global travel, (also such things as globalized
news services), etc. something that I did not focus on a great deal
(this was a fair while ago, of course) was the transformation of
communication via not only such things as the telephone and satellite
(which I also don't think I emphasized sufficiently, and other forms
of international broadcasting, such as radio and tv), but also via the
internet itself. The internet is a distinctly unique phenomenon.
Nevertheless, an integrated approach to globalization with a view to
looking at how the internet fits in (or doesn't fit in, as something
sui generis) to the overall picture of globalization and to realist
approaches to international relations is something that I think would
have some very beneficial research results.
If anybody has some especially good references in this regards, I
would appreciate that.
- Brock Trenchard
Brock
Some other notions that relate to some degree include - aspects of
international law, such as public international law, and some aspects
of movement towards global law, aspects of international regimes
literature - a variety of international regimes, interconnected
international regimes, a number of which are founded on various
material structures, eg. international telecommunications regimes, or
the emergence of some international public law, such as the law of the
sea. (It seems to me that a difficulty with the regime literature is
that it separates the regimes out. There is good review of the
structure etc. of the specific regimes, but it doesn't provide the
best insight into how regimes interconnect, nor how it relates to
overall developments of globalization processes.)
- as for the rise of the modern nation - obviously developments such
as geographical divisions, of language, culture, of the rise of the
state monarchies, aspects of historical identity, or a recognition of
certain historical commonalities, these also complement other aspects
such as integrative effects of various trade and investment, and the
development of communications and broadening national networks.
- it would be interesting to determine when it was that the English
nation ‘crystallized' - ie when it was that the English began to call
themselves English (an evolutionary process?), or when the French
began to call themselves French, in the modern sense of the term. In
regards to this, the notion in a course on nationalism was that, I
think, the idea of the modern nation emerged with the French
revolution - a very interesting notion, and very late as well,
suggesting that various processes are necessary before the formation
of the modern nation was possible.) And also when the Germans first
began to call themselves Germans, etc. (as for that, it was suggested
in a different course that the zollverein paved the way to German
unification, suggesting again a certain role and relation between
economics and the emergence of the nation.) None of these issues, I'm
afraid, do I know a great deal about. I remain interested, although
I've indicated elsewhere that there are deriders of the notion, in the
idea of the 'global nation', whether the various globalization
processes could lead to the formation of the idea of a global nation.
Perhaps there is such a notion in the works, and that current
historical issues relate to competing conceptions of what that notion
might be - whether an idea of a federalized global mosaic, or
something rather different.
- Brock Trenchard