Empire: Holding the Steering Wheel of Globalization

A snippet of the email I received from the director of ICD.

An email I received days ago allowed me to think about controlling the effects of globalization. It was an invitation for an event in Germany to celebrate the fall of Berlin Wall and create discourse on globalization and our interdependent world. More than the excitement of being away from school and pressures in the country, I know that attending this event would allow me to get grit of how a powerful nation shares an important part of its history to citizens of other nations. However, given that the costs to be incurred would be way impractical within my means, allow me to just deconstruct.

Consider this as an example

This invitation manifests that countries today not only embrace the process of globalization, but continue to bring clear on who they are in global politics. How can Germany welcome people across the globe without hurting its citizens and forgetting about the idea of european harmony? How can Germany uphold its sovereignty without being frowned upon by other countries as anti-immigrant? These questions are asked by countries today. Globalization is important in sustaining the resource pool of countries, but so is sovereignty. If sovereignty is about jurisdiction within one's borders (Elden, 2009), what determines what is right and what is wrong in global arena given that sovereignty protects a nation to do what it wants?

Hardt and Negri's idea of 'Empire'

Hardt and Negri (2000) argue that the idea of a world government, the empire, would put an end to national conflicts that continue to threaten countries today. While Arendt believe that one way to control power structures is to cooperate with other countries or individuals (Tétreault & Lipschutz, 2009), the two move beyond cooperation as they propose that the creation of empire that would homogenize countries. Notwithstanding they propose a possible panacea to end the world problems, it is clear that this will happen at the expense of discarding our national identities.

By the time we have to choose, who will hold the steering wheel?

References:

Elden, S. (2009). Why is the world divided territorially? In J. Edkins, & M. Zehfuss, Global politics: A new introduction (pp. 192-219). London: Routledge.

Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. London: Harvard University Press.

Tétreault, M., & Lipschutz, R. (2009). Global Politics as if People Mattered. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.