The limitations of the nation-state

[phantom power]

The basic theme of all four topics is that trans-national corporations can trump individual nations, by forcing each nation into a Spanish Prisoner dilemma: if any single nation tries to "do the right thing" wrt any particular issue, they risk being undercut by other nations that don't do the right thing and accrue an immediate advantage by attracting corporate business.

...the kernel of truth Ms. Applebaum was trying to get at is an issue that is an increasingly troubling and complicated part of the political landscape. The reality is that the nation-state as an institution is increasingly limited in its ability to resolve problems that are truly global in scale. Obviously, national policies can still have considerable effect, and national politicians--contra Ms. Applebaum's thesis--do have significant power to tame international problems and render life better for their citizens. Even so, a few examples of the problems facing nation-states are readily apparent:

1) Global Finance. Part of the reason that financial regulation isn't as simple as putting Glass-Steagall back in place is that Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are global congolomerates now...

The international financial elite wrecked the entire world's economy, and the effect of that destruction are still rocking the globe from America to Europe to China. Each nation can and should attempt to regulate their financial sectors, but ultimately the big banks will play nations off of one another in a race to the regulatory bottom unless some sort of supra-national architecture is established to regulate them...

2) Climate Change. The impossibility of nation-states alone to deal effectively with climate change is evidenced at nearly every turn. Attempts to create global protocols for dealing with the issue in a serious way are regularly scuttled by intra-national gamesmanship...

3) Terrorism and WMD proliferation. Both the Bush and Obama Administrations have been plagued with difficult choices concerning what to do about international terrorism. In a world where a loosely affiliated group of individuals not wearing a nation-state's uniform can be capable of massive destruction, traditional rules of engagement and policing must change with the times...

4) Global labor arbitrage. ...The power of multinational corporations to place global downward pressure on wages by shifting operations sequentially to next cheapest labor pool is an international problem by definition...

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/limitations-of-nation-state-by-david.html