This document discusses several key aspects of globalization and its impact on nation-states. It outlines threats to nation-states like global economic flows, transnational organizations, and issues like terrorism and the environment. It also discusses the origins of the modern nation-state in 1648 and concepts like nationalism. International institutions focused on human rights can challenge nation-state sovereignty. Benedict Anderson's theory of imagined communities is summarized, how the idea of the nation was spread by novels and newspapers. The document closes by considering changes in global political relations, with the EU, China and US seen as most important, and new global political institutions.

1. SOC 451
Globalization of Culture and
Communication
Global Political Structures and
Processes
Asst. Prof. Fatma Altınbaş Sarıgül

2. Understanding of Contemporary Globalization
• The global flow of people- refugees, illegal
immigrants
• Dwindling oil and water supply
• Economic flows dominated by MNCs.
• Economic and financial crisis
• Environmental problems-Global warming
• Diseases- Malaria, AIDS, etc.
• War
• Global Inequalities
• Terrorism

3. THE NATION-STATE
• The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty and
Eighty Years Wars in Europe and instituted an
international system which recognized sovereign
states as its core.
Nation: Social group linked through common descent, culture,
language or territorial contiguity. (Cerny 2007:854)
National Identity:A fluid and dynamic form of collective identity;
members of the community believe that they are different from other
groups.
Nationalism: Doctrine and political movement that seek to make the
nation the basis of a political structure.
State: The new institutional form after the fuedal systemi offers a
more centralized form of control.
Nation-state: Integrates sub-groups that define themselves as a nation
with the organizational structure that constituted the states

4. Threats to the Nation-States
• The global economy and global economic flows
• Flows of information
• Illegal immigrants
• New Social Movements
• Terrorists
• Money and Drug Traffic
• The growing power of global and transnational
organizations
• The growth of global problems
• Growing interest in international human rights

5. International Human Rights
• The Declaration of International Human Rights
states that human rights take precedence over
the nation-state and that the UN is seeking
control over the state on these issues.
• The International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002,
created a venue in which those accused of
human rights abuses could be tried and found
guilty.

6. THE NATION-STATE
• It is still the major player on the global stage,
but it retains some power in the face of
globalization.
• Some scholars argue that the issues which
may be seen as threats to nation-states are
also the issues which increase the power of
the nation-states.

7. IMMAGINED COMMUNITY
(Benedict Anderson)
• Nation-state is not a ‘natural’ phenomenon but is
rather a social an political construction.
• Anderson’s theory of ‘Immagined Community’
states that a nation primarily exists within the
realm of ideas.
• The idea of nation and nationalism is linked to
two developments- the modern novel and the
modern newspaper.
• It was the mass sale and distribution of novels
and newspapers that was critical to the rise of the
imagined nation.

8. Changes in Global Nation-State Relations
• International Relations during WWII;
The Allies ( US, Great Britain, France, Russia)
The Axis (Germany, Japan, Italy)
• During the Cold War;
Soviet Bloc countries and West
• Contemporary Question:
How about international relations of the new
global political world?

9. Changes in Global Nation-State Relations
• New Big Three in the World:
The EU, China and the US.
• Why EU is important?
• Why China is important?
• What about Russia?
• Second World nations on the way;
Turkey, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Brazil, Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Thailand.

10. Global Political Institutions
• League of Nations
• United Nations (UN)
• United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD)
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
• G8 Nations- France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
United Kingdom, US, Russia, Canada.