The Architecture of Globalization: State Sovereignty in a Networked Global Economy

Abstract

Abstract Stephen Kobrin looks directly at the impact of globalization on the sovereignty of nation states. He, like Richard Lipsey in Ch. 3, sees globalization as the structural fusion of economic activity across national boundaries, and argues that it is qualitatively different from previous forms of internationalization that linked discrete economic activities by a series of arm's‐length market transactions. He views technological advances as providing both the rationale and the impetus for this integration; views MNEs (multinational enterprises), cross‐border alliances and the networking of firms as the vehicles by which it is achieved; and views governments as the creators or facilitators of the institutional framework in which production and exchange can be effectively organized. Kobrin believes that the sovereignty of nation states is being compromised—if not undermined—by globalization, and particularly by the emergence of electronic networks. He believes that this is leading to an asymmetry between political and economic space, and between the structural power of firms and national governments, both of which may be difficult to resolve without the establishment of some sort of supra‐national order.