WHAT IS ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION AND HOW HAS IT AFFECTED STATE SOVEREIGNTY .
Economic globalisation is an ongoing process that has become increasingly noticeable in the last few decades. This essay will attempt to explain economic globalisation and how the growth of transborder companies has affected state sovereignty. I will explain that although states have lost their sovereignty they still play a pivotal role in international politics.
Globalisation is a term that has been used frequently in the past ten to fifteen years and cannot be regarded as only an economic phenomenon. It is also the case when examining international identity, community, knowledge and the environment. There is very little that cannot be linked with globalisation when studying international politics. Globalisation is widely described as an increase in movement between countries of goods, investments, people, money, communications and ideas and can therefore be thought to increase trans-border relations. Globalisation is also credited with the opening of borders as states remove tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to increase trade, travel and communications. Many liberals believe this will create a single, borderless world where a global economy will replace individual countries" economies and state governments, cultures and loyalties will eventually be replaced with a new global society and government. It is undoubtedly true that distance and borders have become obsolete in relation to communications. Telephones, the internet and radio and television now allow anyone, anywhere in the world to have near immediate contact with almost anyone else on the planet. The last few decades of the twentieth century have seen an expansion in trans-border businesses trading in goods from country to country and dealing with monies being transferred electronically from anywhere in the world in an instant. The environment is another area that has no borders and, again, in the last few decades this has been highlighted by various environmental disasters.