‘Do the ‘oceans make a community of nations impossible?'’
- Immanuel Kant

The Immanuel Kant’s disturbing question proves that desire of universal fraternity is not the creation of twenty-first century. But never before in history had it been so achievable one.

‘World Government’ is no more a utopian idea. The evidence of global governance complex - embracing states, international institutions, transnational networks and agencies (both public and private) - which functions, with variable effect, to promote, regulate, or intervene in, the common affairs of humanity prove that if we don’t hinder this wave we can transform utopian into practical.

In the following sections the various issues that are related, either directly or indirectly, with the emerging idea, have been briefly discussed. Firstly, the thickness of globalism and its effect is dealt. Then the changing concept of politics, which is taking place. Next, the effects of transnational non-state actors are discussed. Following them closely is dealt alter in notion of citizenship with the shift of loyalty of citizens and the culture homogenization. Penultimate point includes various issues, which could sabotage this wave. In the end comes some suggestions and conclusion of the essay.

A Globalizing Economy and Politics

Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, remarks that it has become possible ‘to produce a product anywhere, using resources from anywhere, by a company located anywhere, to be sold anywhere’ . It can be added to it that from a worker from anywhere.

Central to this structural change are contemporary informatics technologies and infrastructure of communication and transportation. These have greatly facilitated new forms and possibilities of virtual real-time worldwide organization and coordination from the operations of multinational corporations to the worldwide mobilization and demonstrations of the anti-globalization movement. Although geography and distance still matter it is nevertheless the case that globalization is synonymous with a process of time-space compression in which every local developments, from unemployment to ethnic conflict, may be traced to distant conditions or decisions. In this respect globalization embodies a process of ‘deterritorialization’: as social, political, and economic activities are increasingly ’stretched’ across the globe they become in a significant sense no longer organized solely according to a strictly territorial logic. Domestic issues are becoming internationalized and world affairs are becoming domesticated, created a new breed of ‘intermestic’ (i.e. inter (national) (do)mestic ) policy problems arising from the globalization of economic, social, and cultural life .

From (state-centric) geopoltics to (geocentric) global politics

As globalization has intensified over the last five decades, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain the popular fiction of the ‘great divide’: that is, treating political life as having two quite separate spheres of action, the domestic and the international, which operate according to different logics with different rules, actors, and agendas. There is a growing recognition that, as former US President Clinton described it, ‘the once bright line between domestic and foreign policy is blurring. If I could do anything to change the speech patterns of those of us in public life, I would like almost to stop hearing people talk about foreign policy and domestic policy, and instead start discussing economic policy, security policy, environmental policy’ .

World has seen a tremendous change in the Westphalian model of Sovereignty. The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights has modified the notion that state can do anything in their domestic matters. A post-Westphalian world order is emerging and with it a distinctive form of global politics. At one time sovereign states could control foreign populated territory as colonial dependencies. That right has been extinguished for all states apart from the United States or a coalition of US-led states under the authority of the UN.

Communication Revolution and its impact

World has never before been more interactive, literally. The Benton Foundation estimates that ‘there are an estimated 429 million people online globally’ . The rise of global communications augmented the loss of control of governments over traditional foreign and economic policy issues. The instant saturation of broadcast and Internet channels with the latest news from anywhere on the planet pushed decision-makers or policymakers to act more quickly in response to breaking crises.

Global communications enabled and empowered new non-governmental institutions and accelerated and broadened transnational contacts between states and non-state actors in other countries.

Unlike travellers and immigrants in previous generations, those who move across the globe today do not severe ties with family, friends, and their workplace because phone and e-mail connections are usually cheap and available. At the same time, cultures blend into one another and become more global today because of shared attachments to news, movies, video games, fashion, design, and even cuisine. Thus, hyphenated identities are slowly giving way to multiple identities shared among global citizens.

The impact of global networks is to undermine government control and to make it possible for those at the top and those at the bottom of society to interact in new ways.

Transnational Actors

The five main categories of political actors in the contemporary global political system are :
1. More than 200 governments, including 191 members of the UN;
2. 64,000 major transnational companies (TNCs or MNCs ) such as Shell, Microsoft, or Nestle, with these parent companies having over 8,66,000 foreign affiliates;
3. 9,000 single-country non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), such as Population Concern (UK) or the Sierra Club (USA), which have significant international activities;
4. 240 intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the UN, NATO, the European union; and
5. 6,600 international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), such as Amnesty International, the Baptist World Alliance, or the International Chamber of Shipping, plus a similar number of less well-established international caucuses and networks of NGOs.

The weight of transnational actors can be seen everywhere. The role of World Bank and IMF in ‘opening up’ of various economies is a perfect example of the transnational actors. The influence of NGOs is also evident. In 1997 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (www.icble.org/) a consortium of about 1,000 NGOs. The Mine Ban Treaty of December 1997 bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines. The treaty became international law on 1 March 1999, the treaty has been ratified by 143 countries.

What is Political Community and Citizenship?

Till now we have discussed the various correlated issues with ‘World Citizen’. It is time to discuss the focal point of ‘World Citizen’ in the light of the previously discussed concerns and certain other important matters.

• Nation-State and its erosion

With the French Revolution, we found a shift in political community from territorial sates to nation-states. A territorial state is one that has power over the population which resides on its territory but which does not seek to represent the nation or the people as a whole. While, a nation-state is a political community in which the state claims legitimacy on the grounds that it represents the nation. However, the nation-state is also changing.

• Nationalism

The map of states we see on an atlas today is supposed to be of pre-existing peoples, a reality like that of a geological survey or of the physical features of a part of the earth: but this is far from being the case. In practice it reflects where history has, often by accident, led the lines to be drawn- in Europe where armies grew tired of fighting, elsewhere in the world where colonial administrators and soldiers chose to draw them. Even such settled frontiers as that between the USA and Canada, or between Spain and Portugal, reflect haphazard history. Nevertheless, the challenge to map has taken the form of both fusion and fission.

• Imagined Community

The term ‘imagined community’, coined by Benedict Anderson, conveys the idea of a group of people one knows one is part of, but all of whose members one can never meet. The past- tradition, history, language, folklore- is not what determines the present but is, rather, used to provide material, is used as a reserve, by political and intellectual leaders. Where the past is lacking, traditions are invented . Anderson has also suggested the role of Print Capitalism in influencing the people’s attachment, imaginary or real, to their nations. The transformation of world into a ‘global village’ (McLuhan) is also due to people feeling more attached to liberal ideas, then to their folklore or traditions.

• Citizenship

The citizenship is the status of having the right to participate in and to be represented in politics.

Now the national democracies have little control over global markets and a limited ability to influence decisions taken by transnational corporations which influence currency values, empowerment prospects, and so forth.
It has been realized that democracy may not survive in any meaningful form, remained tied to nation-states.

Potholes in the ‘Flat World’

We have seen that how the uni-polar world is evolving and more and more states are embracing democratic values. But we still remain to tarry over the various issues, which show the above discussed arguments to be augur of neo-imperialism.

The various states find themselves to be missing in action in world-politics and contend that they are being ruled by the ‘West’ or the developed nations. The veto power of few states in U.N. and disproportional rights in IMF and World Bank make these international non-state actors a puppet of Western interests.

They bring out that in the communication revolution it is the developed countries which are the main beneficiaries. Out of the 429 million people online globally, 41% are in North America. Also, 429 million represents only 6% of the world’s population.
The digital divide becomes incontestable when we see the data that one-sixth of world population is below poverty line. On an average, 30,000 children throughout the world die of malnutrition every day. Without Internet or other communication access, economically marginalized population will experience even greater development gaps than they already face. Knowledge, or power according to Foucault, will remain in the few hands, if the present scenario remained status quo.

The young urban poor of many countries have no hope of a better life and falls prey to fanatic religious leaders. Arab world is a quintessential of such behavior, and has also led to the rise of nationalism in those countries, resulting into clash of civilizations, to use Hutington’s phrase. The result is the threat to security which turns up into far more aggravated condition for them. Something needs to be done fast, before situation gets out of hand.

The high concentration of media in few hands has also led to concern of various intellectuals about the veracity of news. Truth is not only the reportage of events but also the various factors and objectives behind the episode.

The destruction of various local culture industries has also fuelled the fear of being the victim in the hands of mammoth transnational corporations, whose business interest make them more concerned with the developed nations.

The non-intervention by various developed countries and international non-state actors in crisis like Rawanda, Uganda, Cambodia has been widely criticized. It has ensued that state spend more of its resources and energies on its defence. The non-respect by the US and Allied forces of the UN has also abraded the trust in the UN and other international non-state actors.

The hypocrisy of ‘North’ or the ‘First World’ whose liberal trade policies is only for the other nations, has led to fear of globalization in various chunks of world. The un-stooping of developed nations to their protection of own agriculture industry has eroded the trust of many nations in the liberalism. The End of History (Francis Fukyamma) may be approaching but the leaders need to see that their Machiavelian approach to foreign affairs may thwart this development.

The decaying condition of society in various parts of world will not only result in jealousy of developed nations but will also lead to rise of jingoism and may be, in worse case, lead to perception of developed nation as an enemy. Hitler has shown how easy it is to wake devil in humans if you provide the economically depressed people with an enemy.

Suggestions and Conclusion

We have seen that world may have become a globalized place but without certain measures such a scenario will lead to us being again at the start of 20th century when world was also globalized, but in a colonial way.

I would like to propese certain suggestions so that the dream of ‘World Citizen’ becomes true.

The vast majority of the population has still been denied the fruit of communicating with their distant loved ones, may be due to the folly of their governments or the various biased factors. The Internet presents the opportunity to leapfrog communications and incorporates entirely new applications and services. Freedom of Communication will not only result into a better democratic world but will also lead to a better multicultural world where the other culture won’t be seen as a danger. It will also lead to better informed society, making it far more difficult for fanatic leaders to brainwash the innocent citizens or followers.

Democracy requires a level of trust and a commitment to the public good. The democratization of international non-state actors like U.N., IMF, World Bank needs to be done. It should also be ensured that they don’t become puppet in the hands of the present world power.

The global mass media has made more people aware of human suffering in other societies but this particular facet of globalization has not had much influence on the course of the world politics. The example of the Iraq war shows us both the sides. Never before in history people in different parts of the world have openly opposed, in such a magnitude, but the au courant governments of the USA and other nations have also never been so callous to their own public. This need to be corrected.

The more concern of their own soldiers than other humans has also resulted in non-intervention in many crises craving for help. The pretext of sovereignty of other states needs to be done away with and bodies like the U.N. needs to be more compassionate.

The illegal arms trade, in which main producers are developed nations, needs to be stopped. The hugeness of causality is a blot on human conscience.
Respect for international law and regimes needs to be developed. The developed countries need to take the initiative, which until now they have restrained from. The universal human rights needs to be widened and should not remain only on paper.

World Citizen defined would be nothing else than a human who would give priority to his/her other fellow human beings, before anything else; a person who is ready to fight for the rights of other humans, no matter where they are residing; a citizen of world where artificial boundaries are done away with; a person who does not fear of other’s success on the loss of his/her.

‘I am a citizen of the world.’
- Diogenes