International organizations and the expense of sovereign state autonomy

Globalization and Its Effects on State Sovereignty and Autonomy

The rapid pace of globalization, continued consolidation of global organizations across international boundaries, and the resulting culture shock happening across countries at the individual and national level is disrupting the autonomy of sovereign nations. This disruption, often seen from a negative light, is actually more balanced in its effects on national sovereignty than is being reported by the mass media.

The greater the knowledge and insight a given nation has, the freer its people are to not only achieve on their own, but also to achieve higher levels of collaboration as well. One of the most positive effects of globalization is the spreading of knowledge and the skills needed to make the most of new intelligence and research in a given area. This proliferation of knowledge and the skills to make the most of it threatens the sovereignty of nations that have failed to stay attuned to the needs of their citizens. A case in point is the situation in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. Globalization and the continual rapid pace of expansion by global organizations including social networks led to long overdue changes in the structure and operation of these nations, who for the most part were totalitarian regimes who oppressed their citizens. From this standpoint, the rapid expansion of international organizations has been a catalyst of positive change in these oppressed nations. The expansion of organizations at an international level have also led to the development of entirely new schools and universities as well, following the topping of totalitarian regimes that sought to control and define personal liberty rather than allowing their citizens to actually be truly free. These are the positive effects of the rapid expansion of international organizations.

There are also the occurrences where rapid expansion has also led to an exceptionally high level of conflict and turmoil as well. The culture clash in India between American and Indian outsourcing companies is a case in point. And whole the Indian government welcomes the investments of western nations, the impact on their culture and the strict controls Indian ministries of commerce have put into place are designed to guard against foreign nations taking too much control of the country's economy. The detrimental effects of these factors is a rapidly changing social fabric and set of value sin the fastest growing Indian cities, where many move to in the hope of getting a lucrative position with a western company. Too often this leads to a loss of the local culture and also a continual struggle for sovereignty of these high-growth regions of the country. Bangalore and Mumbai city ministries are continually challenged for greater control of their own industries by foreign companies, and this in turn threatens the freedoms of these areas of the country. The same can be said of how aggressively Nike expanded its production centers throughout Southeast Asia in the 1990s and the deteriorating effect that had on the sovereignty of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.