Cultures and Institutions, Essay Example

The Modern Nation State has been defined as ” A political unit consisting of an autonomous state inhabited predominantly by a people sharing a common culture, history, and language.” (Free Dictionary, 2009).  Nation States have a number of distinct characteristics.  These include : (i) The concept of self-rule, in other word the Nation state rules itself. Using the United States as an example, this was a former Colony of Great Britain until it became a Nation State as an outcome of the American Revolution.  (ii) Organized Government or the process by which the Nation State administers itself (iii) They are independent and not part of some form of colonial power.  Places like Grenada and the Falkland Islands still fall under the British constitution, although colonialism is diminishing.

Transnational entities occur when considering the place of a modern Nation State in the context of global political considerations.  For example Britain has a sovereign Defence policy which by and large is dictated by the UK Parliament.  Nevertheless Britain has responsibilities to NATO of which it is a member,  the European Union of which it is a member and to countries like Canada, USA and Australia viewed as Western allies.  Hence decisions in Defence matters have to take into account global considerations in addition to domestic requirements.

Hugh Seton Watson described a Nation as being ” A nation exists when a significant number of people in a community consider themselves to form a nation, or behave as if they formed one. It is not necessary that the whole of the population should so feel, or so behave, and it is not possible to lay down dogmatically a minimum percentage of a population, which must be so affected. When a significant group holds this belief, it possesses ‘national consciousness” (Seton-Watson, 2009).  This is a very good definition particularly when you consider the position of Palestine and Israel.  Israel considers itself a Nation State with an identity, history, defined territory and a Capital City of Jerusalem.  As such it has ‘national consciousness’.  Equally Palestinians consider themselves a dispossessed race with the Israelis occupying what they believe to be their land.  They equally have a history, national identity and a disputed Capital City of Jerusalem.

A State is a self governing political entity and often used interchangeably with country.  It becomes a little more complex in the USA where you might have a State e.g. Texas that is self-governing but it is part of  a Nation State (USA) that presides over it by Federal powers and in a legal context the Supreme Court of America.  The same applies in Canada where a province like Alberta has independent jurisdiction but is part of a Nation State i.e. Canada and subject to the federal jurisdiction of same.

The United States fits the criteria of a Modern Nation State because really it is a “United Nations of America” , the concept of nations as opposed to states,  this is so because by definition a state claims sovereignty within its borders, whereas all of the collective of ” United States” are responsible to the Federal Government a Nation State known as the United States.

A nation is looked upon as  a group of people that share a common culture, but do not require sovereignty or territory.  “The nation-state is the political pillar of the culture of capitalism. Virtually everyone in the world considers herself or himself a member of one nation-state or another, in spite of the fact that few nation-states are more than fifty years old.”  (Robbins, 2009)

The United States of America fits the criteria of a Nation State because it has the following characteristics : (i) It has Fixed Borders i.e. Canada to the North and Mexico to the South  (ii) It has a monopoly on the use of force and supreme in the global hierarchy of power (iii) The power structure is impersonal, as such the legitimacy of power and use of force is derived from the will of the people.  As such the USA is a true democracy with a just people with a belief in liberty and freedom of speech.  Often described as a representative democracy whereby elected individuals represent the interests of the people.  Nation States mostly develop out of war situations, the USA is no different with the war of independence and the Civil War.  Nation States hold the legitimate use of violence in order to protect their borders and belief systems.  Above all the legitimacy is derived from the people.

Essentially the borders or fixed territories within the United States are defined by the State borders and State jurisdictions.  Texas being the first state is particularly proud of that honour and the history within the context of the United States.  The result of statehood ultimately resolved after the American Civil War in which the Confederate States became States within the United States of America that we see today.   The concept of sovereignty historically goes back to the rights of a king or sovereign having supreme power over the land and the people.  It equally applied to the Romans and the Roman Emperors.  In British history before the creation of Parliament the Kings dominion over the land and its’ people was absolute.  In modern context the sovereignty of the United States is protected by an elected Commander in Chief or President. This supported by the Senate and the House of Representatives.  The judicial system by the Supreme Court of America.  Robert Bellah made an interesting observation on the common culture in the USA and how this was born out of adoption of the English Language and ultimately adopted and influenced throughout the world.  The foothold through trade already being established through the former British Empire ” Serious multicultural education would begin by teaching native English speakers a second language, but that, unlike most of the rest of the world, almost never happens in the United States.  The half-hearted effort to teach Spanish in California public schools results in very few native English speakers with a secondary fluency in Spanish.  Why don’t most Americans speak another language?  Because we don’t have to-everyone in the world speaks English-or so we think.  Tell me about multiculturalism.  (The truth is that American culture and American English are putting their stamp on every other culture in the world today.)”  (Bellah, 1998)

Policy Objectives of the USA

Two examples of policy objectives of the USA are:

Grenada in 1980’s – ” In the 1980s Grenada’s revolution under Maurice Bishop came at a time when the U.S. was engaged in the war against the spread of communism. It was one thing to have Cuba as a communist country in the region, but the United States was determined not to have still another Cuba in the Western Hemisphere.” (Davis, 1994). Grenada is a British Crown Protectorate and it was widely acknowledged that Britain agreed with US intervention for freedom to deal with the Falklands Island situation and the conflict with Argentina.  Ironically Argentina is a signatory to the Treaties of the Americas and technically could be interpreted that Britain was at war with the USA.  Margaret Thatcher and the US President quickly side stepped that issue with the perceived threat of communist expansion  being higher on the agenda than petty colonial squabbles.  Britain viewed that its’ very sovereignty was being threatened by Argentina.

Since the tragedy of 9/11 the United States has upgraded its policy on dealing with the threat of terrorism both domestically and overseas ” International terrorism has long been recognized as a foreign and domestic security threat. The tragic events of September 11 in New York, the Washington, D.C., area, and Pennsylvania have dramatically re-energized the nation’s focus and resolve on terrorism. ”  (Perl, 2003). Revised policies see a much more global co-operation on law enforcement and sharing of information / intelligence with foreign governments to combat international terrorism. ” Until recently, terrorism has been primarily viewed as an international and foreign policy issue. U.S. policies, citizens, and interests are prime targets for international terrorism — in 2001, approximately 63% of all terrorist incidents worldwide were committed against U.S. citizens or property compared to 23 % in 1995, according to the U.S. Department of State.”  (Perl, 2003).

The European Union

The origins of the European Union  really go back to the ends of the First World War when Europe was essentially in ruins.  Some termed it the beginning of the End of European Civilisation.  It was in 1923 when an Austrian Count  Coundenhove Kalergi  brought together key political figures and held the first pan European Congress in Vienna.  The Count was quoted as saying “Europe as a political concept does not exist. This part of the world includes nations and states installed in the chaos, in a barrel of gunpowder of international conflicts, in a field of future conflicts. This is the European Question: the mutual hate of the Europeans that poisons the atmosphere. (….) The European Question will only be solved by means of the union of  Europe’s nations. (…) The biggest obstacle to the accomplishment of the United States of Europe is the one thousand years old rivalry between the two most populated nations of Pan-Europe: Germany and France…”  (Ocaña, 2003).

It was in 1957 and the signing of the Treaty of Rome that bought 6 member states into a European Union. The initial signatories to the Treaty were France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, and  Germany.  The signatories came into force 1st January 1958. The initial framework agreement provided a political alignment between these nations with the express purpose of integrating the peoples of Europe.  The European Economic Community (EEC) subsequently became termed “the common market”.  In the early years it was the absence of the United Kingdom in the EEC that created the major political obstacles for moving forward with further European integration.  The main problem or issue with Britain being the loss of sovereignty and the emergence of a Federal Europe thereby diminishing the role of the UK parliamentary system in favour of the European Parliament.  Even today there remains issues, particularly in defence where both France and Britain both refuse to surrender the nuclear deterrent to Europe.  Nevertheless Britain joined the EEC in 1973.  The Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 witnessed further expansion of the Union and the concept of European Citizenship along with the European Monetary Union (EMU), a European Central Bank and progress towards a common Security policy.

Two of the major policy decision facing the EU relate to that of expansion.  In the first instance the admission to membership of Eastern European countries from the former Soviet bloc.  On 20th February 2001 the EEC dealt with the concept of the Eastern European Countries and their desire to be formally within European Integration.  These were mainly countries that were isolated within the soviet bloc of the former USSR and as such had lost European identity.  The Treaty in Nice discussed the following countries applications: ” (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Eslovenia, in the first wave, and Bulgaria, Letonia, Latvia, Malta, Rumania and Slovakia, in the second phase) that had already started negotiations, Turkey should be added ”  (Ocana, 2003) .  The second sensitive issue relates to the admission of an Islamic Turkey.  The latest situation really rests with three nations, that of Cyprus, Malta and Turkey.  All countries in the EEC have a right of veto that may block the admission of any new members.  Cyprus having entered the process earliest had issues with its country being divided with Turkish occupation of the North of the Island.  Hence it would become difficult for Turkey to process its application until this issue has been resolved.  Equally Greece and Turkey have had a troublesome past with Greece being in Greek orthodox religion and Turkey being an Islamic state.  The position of the EEC being that Turkey did not currently satisfy admission requirements to the EEC ” The Luxembourg European Council affirmed that this country did not satisfy the political and economic conditions to start accession negotiations and, thus, the EU strategy to prepare Turkey for joining the Union should be continued” (Ocaña, 2003).  Turkey claimed that this was prejudice because of its’ Islamic religion, this combined with the West’s anti Islamic position and obsession with terrorism.

The G7 and now G20 (in its expanded form) have seeked to engage in controlling foreign policy for Western democratic interests.  ” Most of today’s global institutions were established by the West to serve its own worldwide interests. But the G7, the grouping of the world’s leading western industrialised nations, is now ceding its power to rebuild the world economy to the G20, which is composed of both industrialised and emerging powers. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet have jointly observed that “it is the Group of 20 that occupies the vanguard responding to the financial crisis”. The rising influence of non-western states has been underscored in recent years by the appointments of Margaret Chan as head of the UN’s World Health Organisation and of Justin Lin as chief economist of the World Bank. ”  (Wijk, 2009).

The consequences on the global stage are a shift in the balance of power from that of the Western democracies to emerging nations like China and Russia.

Works Cited

Bellah, R. N. (1998, 9). Is their a common culture? Retrieved 12 29, 2009, from The Journal for the American Academy of Religion: http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_6.htm

Davis, A. M. (1994). United States Foreign Policy Objectives and Grenada’s Territorial Integrity. The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 79 .

Free Dictionary. (2009). Free Dictionary. Retrieved 12 29, 2009, from Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nation-state

Perl, R. (2003). Terrorism, the Future, and US Foreign Policy. Washington DC: Issue Brief for Congress.

Robbins, R. H. (2009). Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism. Retrieved 12 27, 2009, from Pattsburgh.edu: http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/legacy/nation_state_readings.htm

Seton-Watson, H. (2009). What and When Is a Nation? Retrieved 12 29, 2009, from What and When Is a Nation?: http://www.meggs007.freeserve.co.uk/essays/whatnation.htm

Wijk, R. d. (2009). The consequences for Europe of the global crisis. Hague, Holland: Europe’s World.