Held His Own

Regulating Globalization David Held's article "Regulating Globalization? The Reinvention of Politics" is an ambitious attempt to stratify the different aspects of globalization and to act on it in a matter that ultimately redefines the nature of citizenship. The article begins with an accounting of globalization which the author reasons is a somewhat logical progression from the socio-political structures of empires to that of nation states, and then finally to globalization.

He offers a definition of sorts for globalization, which he explicates "connotes the stretching and intensification of social, economic and political relations across regions and continents" (Held 395). One of the most important facets of the article is the explanation for how globalization comes about, and what its ramifications mean for nation states. The article emphasizes the fact that a world in which globalization is a reality does not necessarily mean the loss of the power or solidarity of nation states.

In fact, he argues that in many different ways, the cause of globalization stems from various nations which have played a fundamental role in developing and propagating the interests of international groups that make decisions across conventional state borders. In this respect the author (2000) provides explanations for causes of globalization which inherently include the dissemination of technology, collective systems of weaponry, the assertion of international law and crusading agencies such as those pertaining to human rights, and environmental concerns that transcend international boundaries (396).

After explicating how states are still viable in an era of globalization, the author advocates what he refers to as "The Cosmopolitan Project" (402) -- which is a form of global citizenship in which people are aware of numerous cultural differences between states and are able to readily rectify them with that of their own cultures. One of the fundamental strengths of Held's article is the fact that he considers globalization from a host of different perspectives.

For instance, he not only accounts for its socio-cultural roots, but also its environmental, political and economic ones as well. Many scholars tend to focus on the ramifications of these factors and not their causative aspects for this global phenomenon. Additionally, another benefit of this effort is that Held is able to contextualize the future of nation states within the brimming era of globalization.

In doing so he is able to provide a rationale for their continued existence and to also discuss this phenomenon without doing so in an apocalyptic way in which nations states (and therefore life as most Americans know it) are abolished. In that respect he is actually able to provide a viable medium between the future of globalization and the present o nation states in a way that is not troublesome people.

However, the primary weakness of this article is the fact that the author looks at the factors contributing to globalization from a relatively vague perspective. Quite simply, it is impossible to distinguish the political and economic causes of globalization from the advent of multinational companies.