To what extent has globalisation reshaped international politics?

Annotations:

• Had an enormous impact on international politics

1. Porous borders

   Annotations:

   • States are penetrated by external influences to a much greater extent than previously occurred = ''post-sovereignty'' e.g. global capital markets (Marxism) and an increasingly interlocking global capitalist system (‘borderless world’ - global capital markets regulated by BoE and US Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC))
2. Non-state actors

   Annotations:

   • transnational corporations, NGOs, terrorist organisations, transnational criminal organisations and so forth are all increasingly important  ''War on Terror'' - Globalisation has changed the nature of war - fighting a concept/ideology - it not a physical state. 
3. Cooperation and integration

   Annotations:

   • creating stronger pressure - interdependence has shifted focus  away from issues of war and peace - forced other issues onto the foreign-policy agenda (the environment, poverty and development, and human rights)
4. Policy-making responsibility

   Annotations:

   • Shifted from states to international (UN) and intergovernmental (NATO, EU, NAFTA) organisations.  Trend towards regional integration (supranationalism in the EU, impacts sovereignty) and to strengthening of global governance (UN Resolutions are required to wage war) = clear consequence of globalisation.
5. Increased importance of soft power

   Annotations:

   • Globalisation, the spread of technology (cultural), and interconnectedness has increased the importance of soft power, which is detrimental to international politics (e.g. Downton Abbey and the interest in English Heritage increased Britain's standing in China.  e.g.2. China's potential as a superpower is limited by their poor human rights

Annotations:

• Global system goes practically unchanged

1. Economic independance

   Annotations:

   • Bulk of economic activity still takes place within national boundaries.  National economies, in other words, are not as irrelevant as globalisation theorists suggest (global capital markets are just one element of the economy) 
2. States remain sovereign

   Annotations:

   • States therefore remain the principal actors on the world stage. Only a tiny proportion of states (‘weak’ or ‘failed’ states) are unable to control what happens within their borders Even rogue states, such as North Korea, who act completely independantly, control their internal affairs. 
3. International and regional orgs

   Annotations:

   • remain weak and ineffective because control continues to reside with individual states (if they don't like what is going on, they leave). does not necessary imply the decline of state power, as tend to be instruments through which states seek to achieve their interests (P5 at the UN)