Globalization and Nationalism - Essay Example

There is a great relationship between nationalism and globalization as the perspectives form the basis of the modern society. Nationalism is instrumental to global governance through the systems of the nations. Most people consider nationalism as a sentiment, ideology, social movement or a culture that concerns nations. According to anthropologists, nations or the ethnic groups existed for more than 20,000 years until the most recent centuries when people identified themselves with local identities. Globally, nationalism is the foundation of modern social solidarity and society as it is essential in the promotion of nationalism and national unity. Overall, nationalism and globalism are responsible for the grief societies present today.

Nations dominate the world as every corner of the planet belongs to a particular country thereby creating more than 200 territories or countries. However, nationalism and the present-nation states have a long history. This history stretches from the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. There are still some countries that still hold territorial disputes. Other countries are still split alongside their ethnic groups that form the basis of their political leaders, particularly in Africa. Most of the countries in the world became independent after the World War II while others had gained independence before the colonial period. A large percentage of the nations followed the basis of social nationalism instead of nation states dominated by particular ethnic origins. These nations, just like the U.S are products of globalization that defines the current situations in the world. There are significant differences in the viewpoints on what constitutes globalization, its origin and the direction that it's leading the world.

Different approaches explain the relationship between nationalism and globalization. One of the approaches sees nationalism and nations as losers of history which is a stage that human beings passed to the new development of humankind that keeps on disappearing and giving way to other structures. The new formations are becoming more suitable to increase the global interconnectedness on this planet. The other approach views nationalism as an enduring political force and the most potent that is far from disappearing. Nationalism is in the process of strengthening as it seeks to address the challenges related to globalization. Irrespective of the diverse viewpoints, both approaches have a common understanding of kind of relationships between nationalism and globalization.

The two approaches are different from each other and demonstrate relationships of confrontation and resistance between nationalism and globalization. The first approach suggests that nationalism will eventually leave the center stage after losing out to supranational alternatives as necessitated by globalization. On the second approach, nationalism is expected to intensive and increase response to and handle the opposing forces of globalization. Anthony Giddens suggests that the accentuation of local identities and revival of local nationalisms are bound up with globalization impacts to which they oppose. The two approaches just present complex interconnections between nationalism and globalization.

Nationalism and globalization forces can complement each other rather than contradict individuals to embrace, accept and promote globalization for diverse reasons such as the nationalist objectives. The relationship between nationalism and globalization is beneficial and not destined to identify the winners and losers as they are perfectly compatible.

Currently, globalization isnt a big challenge to the already established international news and systems. In fact, there are a lot of positives regarding the promotion of globalization. Recently, there is no news for the death of states. Instead, there is news of new nations. Globalization provides states with the opportunities of receiving international recognition and protection as they enter into various global organizations. They become powerful to the extents of controlling the largest percentage of human life. However, historically the key areas of nations authorities have suffered erosion on the provision of security, protection of territorial integrity, economic regulation and control of communications. The capabilities of countries are highly variable and contingent.

Nations have many differences, particularly on their capabilities. It may be incorrect to expect that all the countries experience same impacts from globalization regardless of their differences. Domestic policies and national institutions mediate the effects of globalization on both the individual and state levels to examine the power between the global economic factors and countries. The governments of some countries in particular, the powerful nations are active on the globalization aspects as they believe that they are critical to their well being. Smaller countries have little authority and are more rule-accepters rather than rule-makers in globalization contexts. However, this viewpoint doesnt render them irrelevant, or their existence is insignificant.

Globalization sustains nationalism and provides survival for the most fragile countries or states. Some newly created states and countries such as Southern Sudan and Georgian state may benefit from globalization as they receive forces that contribute to their survival and viability. Globalization protects the residents of a country from power politics and reduces political-power competition amongst countries that might create tension in the long run.

Professionals and elites present globalization regarding countries or states versus markets as if the two need always to be together. Usually, global markets depend on a nations development of the set norms, rules and regulations for the daily activities. Global elements including the international companies controlled to globalization markets are usually under the control of their governments. Nations matter greatly in the creation of the right stimulus and conditions for globalization to function. Sometimes, particularly in the times of crisis, countries or states took a firm stand as governments and need to intervene and cushion the effects of economic and financial meltdown. Most importantly, it is unclear what the future holds for globalization particularly in the periods of crisis. The existence of globalization largely depends in nationalism which the latter is an irreversible phenomenon unlike the former which is reversible.

Globalization is responsible for the growth of nationalism. In the current world, the mobility of people is greater than in the past due to the opportunities offered by globalization. As a result, migration is significantly increasing especially the air travel which allows people to move thousands of miles away around the world in several hours. Globalization, a cause for migration is manifold. As tourists and other adventurers plan to travel various countries for just a while other people such as asylum seekers, refugees, and economic migrants plan to leave their countries for several years or forever. Such freedom of movement brings people with diverse backgrounds and cultures to live together and carry other their meaningful activities collectively. Globalization creates a multicultural community that is evident in most of the countries as well as states. The United States is a classic example of a multicultural community consisting of people with different cultures, ethnic groups, and races. The most important aspect is that they live peacefully.

Globalization promotes interdependent of global economy thereby increase the nationalism interconnectedness. Economic nationalism is currently an absolute and in most cases causes harm to the practices of nations. The economic fate of a nation appears to be largely deepened to the fate of other countries. There are many commissions and associations globally recognized to strengthen economic ties between countries. For instance, Transnational Corporations have the mandate to act globally in establishing a global market. They work towards the improvement of imports and exports levels as well as increase the foreign direct investments. The formation of national economic models paves way creation of a national economy that ensures that countries are interdependent of each other. The existence of regional organizations such as European Union facilitates the linkage between nations.

Many nationalists view globalization as a way of undermining the countries nationalism as it poses great challenges. The rise of new technological advances, in particular, the internet is a great threat to nationalism. Persons from different nations can now interact freely as the world has no virtual borders. The existence of the World Wide Web creates social platforms in which people get to know each other. Currently, millions of people are flooding the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest amongst others. This huge population shares their interest, ideas, beliefs, and fears. There is a tendency that some social forums use other languages, most of the forums use English since it is the general language for the internet. People have to learn English to identify themselves with the rest of the world population. In this manner, people abandon their national languages, cultures, and practices to embrace those of other people. In this manner, globalization declines nationalism.

However, there are multiple arguments that globalization is instrumental in fostering the ideologies of nationalists. In the periods of global terrorism and mass migration, the fear of strangers significantly increases. People usually tend to fear people of particular countries, region, religion, and color amongst others. They also tend to fear anyone not identified with their culture since they dont well understand the foreigners. They usually tend to trust people whom they know and those whom they can understand their language. Nationalists fear the loss of their customs to foreign culture as they fear the influence of exotic cultures. The fear of foreigners and strangers may change the cultures of a state thereby leading to renaissance. For example, some think that it is important to prohibit immigration top foster the ideas of nationalists.

Xenophobia is not the only factor that boosts nationalism. People often fear to lose their national culture through the processes of globalization. According to Waters loss of culture and identity is the main concern for the globalization protestors. It also accompanies the loss of language as people become interested in other languages while abandoning theirs. For instance, Estonia faces a great threat from Russia and the country imposed a policy of maintaining and developing its culture and language. Most of the nationalists will fear to lose their cultural heritage or significant erosion of their beliefs to foreigners. Migration fosters nationalism as people with various beliefs move away while others with other beliefs come in with different cultures.

Multicultural societies foster nationalism in different ways. The largest population of people living in states is ethnic nationals as individuals from other cultural backgrounds create many minority groups. It might be challenging for the greater part of the population understand or recognize the concerns of the minorities which can result in tensions between ethnic cultures. Nationalists work towards eliminating such fears and seek to bring all the cultures together in a bid to make common political decisions. Nevertheless, in most of the democratic nations, there are laws set to protect the minorities as their opinions is a force that...