Global Business Practise

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES Vol. XLII No. 2 June 2008

Globalization and the Nation-State: Dead or Alive
Richard L. Brinkman and June E. Brinkman

Abstract: Has the current process of globalization led to a decline in nationstate sovereignty? To address this question there is a need to clarify the concepts of the nation-state and nationalism. A decline in U.S. nation-state sovereignty would serve to promote megacorporate power manifest in the rise of the corporate state over that of the nation- state. Evidence of U.S. nationstate decline appears in many areas, such as that of Article XVI in the WTO and policies of the IMF. The decline in nation-state sovereignty is also evident in U.S. policies of privatization manifest in the War Service Industry (WSI). Keywords: nation-state, nationalism, and War Service Industry (WSI) JEL Classification Codes: A12, B52, and F01

There is a good deal of discussion in the globalization literature related to the question: “Is the Nation-State Finished?” (Holton 1998, 80-107; Ohmai 1995). Even as early as 1969 Charles Kindleberger stated that “[t]he nation state is just about through as an economic unit” (Kindleberger 1969, 207). Is this position correct, and further, what would a conceivable loss of nation-state sovereignty portend for the long-term dynamics of ongoing culture evolution? The Cultural Complexities of Conception: The Nation, Nationality, the Nation-State and Nationalism Figure 1, “The Evolution of Culture,” depicts the sequential pattern of the stages of culture evolution. Culture evolves with the evolution of knowledge which in its application appears as technology. Technological advance, as a process of economic development relates to the core of culture and accounts for the dynamics of culture evolution. Figure 2, “The Evolution of Governance and Sovereignty,” relates to a

Richard L. Brinkman is a Professor Emeritus of Economics and International Studies and June E. Brinkman is Retired Adjunct Faculty at

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