Nation-state and Transnational Entities
Kastoriano defines the transnational entities as communities made of different group of people and individuals who are based in varying national societies. These transactional entities act on the basis of there shared or common interests and goals which may be in linguistics, religious and territorial terms. The transnational communities use such networks to strengthen their solidarities which are beyond the borders of a nation (Kastoriano, 2000, pp353). The rise of the nation state leads to the development of transnational entities. This is a phenomenon which appeared during the post national and post colonial times. This is because there was increased emigration from various national and territorial states both from the federal states like Mexico or centralized states like Turkey.
The major question examined today is the analysis of the relationship between the transnational entities and national states and the concept of citizenship. Another new developed aspect is the single allegiance principle which is expected by the political community members. The nation state is formed from its political legitimacy which self identifies itself as a sovereign entity or a country within a unit of sovereign territory (Connor, 2000, pp 625-50). The state is a geopolitical and political entity and the nation is an ethnic and cultural entity. The nation state therefore implies to the combination of both geographical which distinguishes other types of states from the nation state. The United Kingdom m is an example of a nation state. It is complex type of nation state with countries within country. The United Kingdom is a unitary states formed by the merging of independent kingdom. The two kingdoms which merged and were initially independent are the Kingdom of Scotland and the EnglandKingdom. Through the Treaty of the Union of 1707 the UK nations have state agreements and terms of ensuring that there are distinct features for each country. These terms have continued to apply to date. The terms also incorporate the separation of national churches and legal systems.
The British Government in 2003 descries the UK as countries which are within a country while others have described the United Kingdom as nation state (National Statistics, 2010). The UK prime minister defines the UK as a multinational sates. Basically the UK is formed by countries like Wales, Scotland, north Ireland and England (Drucker, 1997).
The UK can therefore be defined as a nation state because it comprises of self-governing countries or political entities. The terms country and states can be used interchangeably. A nation is a group of people who are tightly-knit with shared culture. A nation state is an example of a nation with similar borders as the state.
The united States have various characteristics of a modern day nation states. The United States of America has a self-ruled and well organized government with lack population ranging from one territory to another. The United States of America being a self ruled country means that each states rules itself. The fifty states making the United States of America are in depended but not other countries colonies. In the part some of the regions of the United States were Great Britain colonies like Virginia both were decolonized during the American Revolution making these states to be for the United States making the whole country to be a nation-state (Matthew, 1997)
The United States has a well organized government where each state within the nation rules itself. The United States government has three main branches which are the judicial. The legislative and the executive, the government is also organized into three starting from the federal government to the state government and finally the local government. Each of these nation states of the United States is organized in different ways but governments many have characteristics similar to other states (Garden, 1997).
The united states territories a re fifty states which cover both the land and water. Even those are the edge of the country such as Guam and Puerto Rico near the oceans are stills under the governance of the United States. The laws of the United States are enforced by each territory. The UnitedState population comprises of people from different ethics groups but they still share the same nationality. The United States can therefore be defined as nation states because it has the characteristics of achieving a population of multiple ethnicities, different cultural norms and religious practices despite having well defined borderlines and territories. These states have independent governments which are under one umbrella of the United States of America. However in terms of culture the United States does not qualify to be nation states. There are multiple ethnic, religious, and cultural practices and norms despite the, people sharing the same nationality.
The United States foreign policy aims at creating a relationship with other countries. This is the central government of the United States with other countries of the world. One example of the United States foreign policy is the protection of the territorial integrity. This policy aim is at protecting the territory of the United States from foreign attacks. The protection of the country’s territorial integrity goes beyond the physical territory to include safeguarding the military forces individuals the country’s embassies which are stationed in other world countries.
Another foreign policy which the United States has enhanced the policy on war against drugs. The country ensures that there is no import of illegal drugs such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. This has been especially the case with Latin America which started way back during the 1880.
The European Union is an example of a transnational entity. For it to qualify as a transnational entity, the EU ensures that the member countries are committed by fostering healthy and committed participation among the immigrants from different countries within the EU. The EU is formed under the political action of the member countries. These ideas, identities and behaviors are circulated among all the members of the transactional entity which make up a strong social capital. The European Union has managed to create its own identity by empowering the residence of the member’s countries to have the source of their rights and a new space which is transnational. This space is an area which various political actions can be undertaken which involves its countries and those they interact with (Kastoriano, 2000, 358).
Through the process of transnationalism, the immigrants are given the opportunity to sustain and construct various social relationships between the new country they have settled and those countries they come from. The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 states of Europe. The EU was formed from the European Economic Community and The European Coal and Steel Community which comprised of European member states. The European Union was formed after signing of the Maatrichy Treaty but which was amended in 2009 to become the Treaty of Lisbon (Garten, 1997).
After the end of the second world war the European countries saw the need to develop an integrated body to escape the devastating effects of nationalism which many European countries had experienced. By the start of the 20th century the EU had grown to include the UK, Ireland, and Denmark (Stanley, 1999). The EU has managed to open the member county borders even to include some non member’s states. In 1990 the fall of the iron curtain after a long term cold war among the nations enabled East Germany to be part of the EU. The national currencies and notes have also been replaced by the euro which happed in 2002. Other countries which joined later in 2004 include Slovakia, CzechRepublic, Estonia and Poland among others. The EU plays the exclusive role of concluding and making directives of all international agreements. It also plays the role of implementing monetary policy and encouraging competition rules within the internal markets (Thurow, 1999).
The transnational corporations and nation state have various international law and international relation especially after the end of the cold war. The world has become a global village and the various transnational entities and nation states have developed new foreign policies. The main aim of these communities and countries is to make the world a safe place which domestic matters should not be tempered with by international concerns (Haass, 1997, pp 4-7).This is because the notion states citizens have moved to other new boundaries. Transnationalism involves developing relationship among various countries. This means that foreign policies among countries should be enhanced to foster international peace and unity (Cerny, 1996).
Reference
Haass, R (1997) Starting Over: Foreign Policy Challenges for the Second Clinton Administration. The Brookings Review, pp. 4-7.
Stanley, A (1999) Opening Remarks presented at the Stanley Foundation’s 34th United Nations of the Next Decade Conference, Country Limerick, Ireland
Thurow, L. (1999). Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies and Nations. The Atlantic Monthly, p. 57
Garten, J (1997) Business and Foreign Policy. Foreign Affairs, pp. 67-79
Drucker, P.(1997) The Global Economy and the Nation-State. Foreign Affairs, pp. 159-171
Matthew, J (1997). Power Shift: The Rise of Global Civil Society. Foreign Affairs, pp. 50-66
Cerny, P.G. (1996). Globalization and Other Stories: The Search for a New Paradigm for International Relations
Connor, W (2000) Ethnic and Racial Studies PP 25-50,
ONS Glossary of economic terms (2010) National Statistics. Retrieved from
atistics.gov.uk/about/glossary/economic
On February 3, 2011
Is this your assignment or some part of it?
We can do it for you! Click to Order!
