Free Essay Sample: The Future of Nation-States in a Globalized World

Nation-states basically are states where the majority of the population share the same culture and are aware/conscious of it. It is also defined as a sovereign state in which most of its subjects are united by factors common to the majority, such as language and common descent. Historically, nation-states have existed since the 19th century, after the invention of the dynamics between capitalism, political economy, mercantilism, and geography. The advancement of state-funded education, mass media, and literacy within the same period precipitated the development of nation-states. Portugal and the Netherlands emerged as the first nation-states in the world within that time. This course and readings have focused on the elements of nation-states, vividly describing the processes and occurrences, which led to the birth of the nation-states in the 17th to the 20th centuries.

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The most recent decades have, however, been quite different. The sustenance of nation-states is threatened by a continually advancing digital environment with the most recent days seeing the world being labeled a 'virtual village' (Suter,2018). The interconnections made by the 9ntenet and other networks have resulted in increased cohesiveness not only in the nation-states but across the world. Diversity is continually on the decrease, as human interactions increase, based on the now expansive communication channel in the digital platforms. What impact does this have on the structures and elements of nation-states in a continuously globalized world?

To put this into perspective, it should be understood that most of the countries around the globe are currently nation-states. The internet and other digital globalization tools have put in place a fundamental but sometimes disruptive change to society, business, and individual lives. The process, known as globalization, has effectively altered the structure and context of society, having a resultant effect on nation-states, which have continually been adapted to particular protocols and elements in society. The fate of nation-states is based on whether they can adapt to changing conditions or not. This is also based on the evolutionary process and innovations through which societies have to undergo in order to adapt to changing societal conditions.

Looking from the perspective of innovations and progression in technology, nation-states can be traced back to the earliest history of human beings. Human language and the invention of fire marked some of the most significant developments, which later led to the development of nation-states. According to the ethnic approach to nation-states, human language contributed to the increased interaction between humans, which in turn led to the development of communities and cultures, culminating in the most recent nation-states.

The early forms of modern states are considered to have been developed due to warfare. Warfare enabled the existing territories to enforce systems that collect taxes and maintain law and order. Centralized authorities, therefore, had to be defined in order to ease the process of administration and law and order. Other inventions, such as agriculture and modern printing presses, gave more power to nation-states.

Along the lines of development, people were united and enabled to live together, under the same cultures, and do the same practices. Agricultural production in domesticated and defined areas made it easier for the people to live together and also gave rise to new industries, which necessitated people to coexist and divide work among their specialties. The defined areas and boundaries, therefore, became inhabited by similarly cultured people who supplemented each other by performing different tasks and exchanging services and products. This supplementary relationship led to the strengthening of the boundaries of nation-states. Other inventions such as education and the printing press provided literacy to the people, which strengthened national languages and cultures' sharing.

The nation-states of today are more different. Digital transformation and the changing scenario of cultures have led to globalization, a phenomenon that has led to the integration and interaction of countries, companies, and cultures, altering societal bases. The process is aided by the advancement of Information technology (IT).

Advancements in policymaking, economics, and political studies have enabled increased cohesion, not only within, but between cultures. The concerns for the diffusion of cultures have risen, especially with the increasing states of globalized economies and political instruments (Barrow &Keck,2017). The common view of globalization is that market forces of demand and supply are the strongest forces determining the structure and composition of nation-states. With increasing globalization, cultures are getting more diffused, and nation-states are essentially becoming segments of the larger globe, united and brought together by globalization.

The business of today involves aspects such as offshoring and real-time business exchanges between defeat cultures. Through globalization, nation-states are less autonomous and therefore have lesser control over their territories' social and economic processes. With lesser control, nation-states will lose their power and therefore be more autonomous and less powerful in the future than they are now. The combined effects of mobile capital and increased access to information technology are key to globalization.

The world today is more globalized than it was a decade ago. It is, therefore, a sure thing that in the next few decades, the world will be a more digitalized place, and this will decrease the autonomy of nation-states. With the broad diffusion of technology, the internet, and information, the world is becoming closer and more connected than ever before (Azzam,2017). The rationale for the existence of nation-states is based on the exchange of information ideas, and cultures. With increased globalization, cultures will be diluted, and information extensively shared. This exchange of cultural information between cultures will ultimately lead to the spread of nation-states' cultures and practices such as language. Such changes have even started occurring; state boundaries no longer define the current societies; rather, cultures are shared across regions. With the advancing technology, more and more people are being involved in learning a new language and practicing other cultures' aspects apart from their own.

Technology is one of the main elements of globalization. Future nation-states will have several changes, which need to address the increasing need for technological protection and use. One major change is the change in terms of the acquisition of goods and services. The owning of goods is gradually changing, with most people opting not to incur the expenses of storage and transportation but rather choose to access goods and transfer the ownership from the manufacturers to the final consumer without having to physically interact with goods.

The technological advancement will also see the growth of a shared economy across the world (Flew,2020). Other aspects of technology that could alter nation-states include implementing a new arm of law enforcement; Cybercrime division. With an increasing rate of cybercrime and related attacks, governments will be forced to look into the options of a robust team whose world will only be fighting issues regarding cybercrime. With increased globalization, the internet and other connections are expected to get stronger. There will, therefore, be an increased need to address the issues of increased cybercrimes.

With technological advances leading the way, nation-states will have issues in retaining their original structures, and new changes have to be made to accommodate the adaptation of nation-states to the developments. Kang (2018) indicates that nation-states may become obsolete and be replaced by some other structures for governing the world's territories. This, in my opinion, however, may not be the case. Nation-states can adapt to change in societies, and adaptation to occurring changes will allow them to be perpetuating and long-lived. Due to the advances in digital transformation, a key aspect of globalization, governance, and service delivery will be adapted to digital platforms, enabling the smooth running of activities.

However, the nation-state faces various threats that may lead to the collapse of the natural structures of nation-states if not addressed. Due to globalization, people are now forming new cultures and identifying with new groups. One of the examples is that of shifted loyalties. There have been increased cases of the call for the separation of countries, with some groups requesting autonomy as sovereign states from the mother state. These calls for separation are based not only on ethnic but also on religious grounds (Dasgupta, 2018). Recent developments have seen an upsurge in loyalty differences based on political ideologies, political and commercial interests, and other autonomous criteria. Therefore, it will be a difficult job for nation-states to stay intact with the upsurge of globalization if the adaptation process to changing policies, economic policies, political fronts, and commercial policies is not addressed in time.

Conclusion

The role of nation-states in providing security, among other benefits to its citizens, is continuously under threat. The increasing need for autonomy, based on increased globalization, is one of the issues that nation-states have to deal with. With increased attention towards the economic, political, and socio-cultural structures of nation-states, it is prudential for these states to continually adapt to society's changes and, therefore, remain relevant as governance and administration structures.

References

Azzam, A. (2017). Globalization, Nation-States, and Imperiality: Limits and Scope of Resistance. TLI Think.

Barrow, C. W., & Keck, M. (2017). Globalization theory and state theory: false antinomy. Studies in Political Economy, 98(2), 177-196.

Dasgupta, R. (2018). The demise of the nation-state. The Guardian, 5, 2018.

Flew, Terry. "Globalization, neo-globalization, and post-globalization: The challenge of populism and the return of the national." Global Media and Communication 16.1 (2020): 19-39.

Kang, H. (2018). Investigating Multiple Citizenship in International Relations: Rethinking Globalisation, Nation-States, and Social Contract. Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional, 20(1), 15-37.

Suter, K. (2018). The Futures of the Nation-state in an Era of Globalization. Cadmus, 3(4), 32-38.