We have been discussing about how globalisation can affect state sovereignty. Here are some examples how :)
A very interesting cartoon with a hint of sacarsm. Okay, not a hint. The whole tone is sacarstic.
Globalisation, made the crossing of national boundaries possible. Physically, it allowed wars between nations and states. The war between the US and Iraq has reflected that the US overruled Iraq as they are more developed, richer and has a stronger military force. When the US reigns Iraq, terrorising and threatening it, Iraq has no choice but to follow the US's say. Even its own national political decisions has to be controlled by other countries. Iraq's state sovereignty is badly jeopardised. It no longer has the ability and absolute control over its own nation's decisions.
However on the surface, the US seem to be declaring Iraq "democracy." No other countries dare to defy the US as it is a very strong, rich and dominating country.
Funny how hypocritical and ironic it is, isn't it.
Everyone is about patent nowadays. Ever wondered why?
Globalisation has caused an overabundance of the accessibility to information. It has allowed almost everything to be made available to everyone in any country possible. For example, blatantly, we can listen to songs online from youtube, imeem etc. We can even download these songs. Also, people do not use books for information. We can easily access to information overload over the internet. We no longer have to pay money to buy them.
This upsets economies. One company can come up with a brilliant genius idea that can inflict major economical gains and market it. Without patent, another company can easily get access to this information and reproduce this idea for their own benefits. This will result in economical losses on the first company. Therefore, a patent is needed to claim a particular information.
Patent indirectly affects a country's state sovereignty as patent is a global thing, not soley on a national basis. The ownership of that information is announced to the world. Countries have to impose laws to make sure that the patent is not infringed upon by companies or individual in their respective countries. One example is that it is illegal to sell pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs in Singapore. It is too against the law to download songs from the internet. Patent has affected Singapore's state sovereignty, and of course, many other countries.
On a sidenote, ironically patent is a product of globalisation, created to suppress globalisation, trying not to let information cross boundaries without economical exchange.
These are only a few economic examples of how economic globalisation challenged the national and state boundaries of countries in the world. Is challenging the state sovereignty a bad thing? Is globalisation beneficial to human development? This controversy has yet to have a conclusion. I guess it will always be a paradox, with pros and cons coexisting as one.
Credits of cartoon to :
Economical expert, XIAOWEI signing off.
Labels: Globalisation and Economy
