Introduction to international relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Introduction to international relations - Essay Example Sometimes it is considered as a whirlwind that brings disruptive and relentless changes that result in some unique social, economic, environmental and cultural problems that make the governments helpless (Brittan, 1998, pp 1-2). Sovereignty, on the other hand is a very important concept which is also not an easy one to describe. Sovereignty, in simple words can be defined as the quality that allows one to have independent and supreme authority over a particular geographic region. Globalisation is one of such powers that have challenged the concept of state sovereignty. The principle objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the effect of globalisation on the state sovereignty. The question, ‘has globalization undermined the concept of state sovereignty?’ will be tried to be properly answered in this paper. In the process of doing so it is crucial to have a clear idea about both ‘globalisation’ and ‘sovereignty’. This paper is attempted to give a brief but clear understanding regarding both the concept and then it tries to analyse the fact whether globalisation has weakened the concept of state sovereignty. Globalisation Globalisation is perhaps the most popular terms in the recent time. ... There are experts who believe that the term ‘globalisation’ may be a new one but the main concept and context are not. For instance, the economic integration among various economies of the world has been going on over the past fifty years. Organisations like GATT and WTO are actually the results of such integration (Gangopadhyay, Chatterji, 2005, pp 57-58). During the period of 1960-70 one of the most widely discussed subjects was the growth of different multinational corporations in terms of change in their operational mode i.e. from domestic to international. In simple words it can be said that globalisation is nothing but a new name which is given to the most recent sequence of internationalisation. According to David Colander, the most significant incident that has led to arise of the concept of globalisation is the breakdown of Soviet Union. This breakdown created a situation where intergovernmental relations started to focus on the economic aspects rather than on t he political aspects (Gangopadhyay, Chatterji, 2005, pp 57-58). Business organisations also started to take people from other countries into consideration as their potential customers. Governments also began to understand the importance of investments from foreign organisations to their economies and started to withdraw various restrictions regarding trade. With the gradual removal of different barriers entire globe started to emerge as a single market for the business organisations and as a result of this, ‘internationalisation’ started to turn into ‘globalisation’. Almost all the economies in the world are greatly impacted by the globalisation. Areas like investment, production and employment