Globalization is putting increasing pressure on the and strains on the resources, coherence, sovereignty and principles of self -governance on the nation states. As result to this, the rate of emigrants and immigrants has tremendously increased making some of the nation states adopt the principle of walling their states for coexistence. The effect of this is a waning sovereignty among the nation states as supported by Seyla Benhabib and Wendy Brown on their books. Their overview of the waning sovereignty is as elaborated below.
Seyla Benhabib overview on the on barriers.
We are like travelers navigating in unknown direction if we won’t consider the current prevailing factors and the reality that the global societies have greatly changed. We cannot be confined to the old borders which didn’t consider the effect of the future. despite the traditional monopoly over territory and the state sovereignty exerted along with migration and citizenship, its crystal clear that it didn’t deal with the issue of the cross-border movements. Noticeably, the international community has mingled, and they cannot be restricted to the movement across their borders. Over the past decades, the world has marked a tremendous increase in the number of the migrants registering over 75 million of them across the borders movements. This has significantly caused an increased number of the refugees, asylum seekers, and the like (Benhabib).
The national borders of the countries have become more porous to restrict peoples movement across the borders. In other terms, Benhabib is against the issue of the border Barricades and legal restriction of the people movement across the borders. He argues that with the formal expansion of citizenship rights came to the enrichment of the rights from the civil to political to social. On this, the liberal ideal of citizenship is to enjoy the rights and the benefits therein. He advises that the modern democracies should integrate the republican and liberal ideas to come up with the right scope of citizenship. The old political structures have hampered the new political forms of globalization which have not yet manifested (Benhabib).
According to Benhabib, the largest legal provider in the world of citizens is the United Nations. But in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is silent about the grant entry and the rights of the immigrants while puts clear the rights of the emigrants. This is a discrimination of the highest order and the world organizations must investigate and consider the rights of the refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers and the assertion of territory sovereignty as they are norms of the new world (Benhabib).
He claims that crises of the nation-state, along with globalization and the rise of multicultural movements, have shifted the lines between citizens and residents, nationals and foreigners. Citizenship rights today must be resituated in a transnational context a significant call should be made to allow the membership within the bounded communities and defend the need of democracy that should not be exerted to the individuals in the state structures alone. Where there is inception globalization. The idea of united democracies has been fractured by the fact existing multiculturalism and the tremendous growth of the transnationalism of current world national societies (Benhabib).
Moreover, the democratic self-governance is the ideal of public autonomy where nothing can go beyond state control. Contrary to this, the new emerging democracies have given in to the sub-national and transnational modes of citizenship. This undermines the democratic sovereignty, as the aliens are recognized and then, underscores the strong relationship between the current democratic self-governance and the territorial sovereignty. Furthermore, with the current cosmopolitan norms and practice of globalization, we are experiencing a decline of the ever-existing sovereignty and the emergence of the beyond the border sovereignty connected to the rule of law (Benhabib)
Finally, Benhabib is showing the sate of balance by showing the escalating effects of both sides of the boat. Nevertheless, his perspective if that the world has changed its patterns and need to adopt new measures to allowing the transnational, multicultural and economic globalization prevail. The laws that allow globalization are made by the same autocrats who are declining to adopt the new world moves. His concern is that the legal and physical barricades barriers should be done away with despite the waning effect of sovereignty (Benhabib).
The overview of Wendy Brown on the barriers.
The principle of fortification means defense and It’s a limit of expansion which creates security dilemma. On the same manner, the actualization of the legal system that bar people from accessing the global benefits. Globalization as earlier discussed, its features escalate tension between global networks and local indigenous nationalism, secrecy and transparence, territoriolization and deterritorialization and so forth. Some of these global tensions lie in the fortification. Walls are architectural instruments of separation, occupation and territorial expansion and the show assurance of iconography and continuous political border. The two major examples are the Israeli West bank wall and the United States built behemoth fortress. Both share technological advancement. Others have constructed a wall along their states to hamper the movement of their poor neighbors, diseases and the guerilla Islamic associating them with the suicidal killings and terrorism. And still more walls are coming (Brown).
The perspective of Wendy is more persuasive that these walls have played an important role in maintaining the sovereignty of the walled states. Although they have the negative effect of the globalization, they remain key components of the states. The laws that are put forth to fortifying the nation are relevant. Considering the Israeli wall managed to impact their stability of keeping off the Palestinian terrorists “intifadas” and displayed their iconography. These walls objectively are to deter the movement of “the people”, the association to diseases, asylum seekers, refugees, terror, ethnic or religious mixing are hit by paradoxes from the neoliberalist and other ideologies which belief that the current world should be without borders for it to incorporate globalization. Other than this Wendy puts emphasis that these walls are a purposeful target to nonstate transnational actors like individuals, industries, movements and the like (Brown).
Theorist of modern sovereignty attributes its features to supremacy, perpetuity over time, absoluteness and completeness, and specified jurisdiction (territoriality). With time this has been fractured by theorists who belief its entrepreneurial decisions that matter in the global sector, affecting the legal and political principles. Wendy argues that the validity of new walls as historical phenomenon despite the purpose they were put to serve and the effects thereof. The new walls are as result of pressure on the nation and the state exerted by the process of globalization. The enclosure brings what is sacred together, marking it off from the ordinarly.it produces both sacred and sovereignty which is identified with settled jurisdiction. It conveys self-rule and independence in actions (Brown).
The relevant principles.
Universalization combined with exclusion and stratification. The idea of the global village and universalization as welcomed by the global liberalist has outstanding contagious effects of the sovereignty of the state. Despite that, the world technology advancement outdoes the thorough work of protectionism within walls. Use of nuclear and atomic armaments, satellites, space jets cannot be hampered by the walls. This makes universalization a global worth idea.
Iconography and political border legitimation. The borders are “us here, them there”, it’s a principle of recognition of the border divides. Attempts to dispute this are alleged to territorial expansionalism among the liberal democarcies who wish to use the idea of globalization to build empires across the world. Israeli Wall is iconic. Shhowing they are legitimately recognized as the inhabitants of their territory despite the palestineans disgust. This protects the soverignty of the nation state (Brown).
The opinion on the topic.
The creation of barriers such as physical barricades and legal restriction on migration violate the liberal democratic principles. The main agenda is to protect the people who are sovereign. Despite the mass migration affecting the sovereignty of the states, the liberal democracies idea of globalization given weight to bring the world one global village. I opine that the physical barricades and legal restrictions for migrations are necessary.
The issue of globalization is slowly overthrowing the state sovereignty and endorsing a dilemma in citizenship by weakening and fracturing the long-term residents and national citizens at the same time eating up the effectiveness of the popular democracy control over its jurisdiction. Unnoticeably, this encourages the transnational migration which affects the public autonomy of the national citizens over their state. This has led to the inclusive rights of the aliens in the voting rights, job market affecting the move of the national citizens to securing jobs within their states. It has affected the social paradigms as the parents are feeling the impact of the unemployment. This makes the core citizens affected, the issues of high levels of insecurity, poverty, diseases, ineffective regulation of the flow of electronic commerce and communication can be attributed to this menace. With these happenings, we must hold the transnational governance accountable to the sovereign citizens and the at the same edge the democratic governments must remain accountable to the national citizens they represent (Brown).
Economic globalization with the emergency of transnational corporations like NIKE and Reebok whereby the workers from different nationalities receive low wages compared to the work done. It also desegregates the sovereignty as it leads to transformations in the legal systems and the rule of law. Consequently, it is these same sovereign states who participate in actualizations of these global laws which curtail their powers and rights (Brown).
Finally, it should be noted that the existence of transnational cooperation such as the world bank, the international monetary fund (IMF), the European Union serve the interest of the donor countries, and extension of their empire and world spheres of influence
Works Cited.
Benhabib, Seyla. The Rights of the Other: Aliens, Residents and Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2004.
Brown, Wendy. Walled States, Waning Sovereignty. MIT Press, 2010.
