From the Nation State to Europe - Essay Example

The is considered as a political and geopolitical entity consisting of a central government which exercises equal control over all regions of the state through various state institutions which include the military, the state police, legislature, judiciary etc. A nation is defined as a group of people who share common language, culture and history. A nation does not necessarily lives in the same geographically divided regions. A nation-state can be said to be the union of a nation and a state i.e. people with same language, culture and history who belong to one nation living in the boundaries of a particular geographical region to form a state which is sovereign and exercises equal control over all the regions of the country through a central government and state institutions. The nation-state uses the state as an instrument of national unity in all the fields of the everyday life of its subject i.e. social, economic and cultural life. The nation-state maintains a centralized system of government in which the various regions of the state get equal representation. A single currency, centralized infrastructure and free movement of people between different regions of the state bring uniformity in trade and economics within the state. The state policy in a nation-state tends to create a uniform national culture promoting common language and culture by giving them the status of national language and national culture. The education system in the nation-state is the most effective tool for bringing this uniformity of culture in the nation because the students are taught uniform curriculum which is selected keeping in mind the objectives of national unity and cultural uniformity. Some of the states even tend to manipulate history of the state in the educational curriculum for brining uniformity and unity in the state. A nation-state has a geographically defined territory, has complete and unchallenged sovereignty over its territory, has a central government consisting of public officers and representatives, has fixed boundaries which have the status of international borders and are protected or guarded where necessary, its population manifests a sense of national unity in terms of cultural and social life, language and history and it works for the benefit of its subject by exercising control and authority over its territory and the people living in it. There are groups of people living in the world who call themselves on nation but do not live in one single state. The most important example in this regard is of the Kurd nation which is the largest nation of the world (in terms of numbers) without a state of their own. Kurds living in various different countries form one single nation because they have a distinct history, language and culture of their own which is different from other nations and despite living with other nations in different countries of the world, Kurds have preserved their uniform culture, language and historical values. Today Kurds are living in a region which has been geographically separated from other regions i.e. most of the Kurds live in between the Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges and seven states fall under this area including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan (McDowall, 2000). There are various incidents in the recent history when the Kurds started armed struggle for an independent state but never met success, however the Kurds have preserved a separate national identity despite living in geographically different states of the world. The Ottoman Empire is an example of one single state with various different nations living in it. The various different nations living in the Ottoman Empire had distinct culture, languages and history but they formed one single state with a central system of government which exercised its control over a vast area. Bangladesh is an example of a nation-state because 98 percent of the population of the country is Bengali and share the same culture, language and history and thus there is a remarkable degree of national unity among the Bengali people who form a single nation living in a sovereign and geographically distinct territory of Bangladesh (Ahmed, 2004). United States fulfills the criteria for a modern nation-state because the people living in the United States despite belonging to various different ethnical identities and cultural backgrounds now form one single nation and the government has taken various different steps for ensuring national unity and uniformity. There are various examples which show that the people and the government of the United States have strived to form a nation-state. The very concept of Popular Sovereignty and a republic state in which the affairs of the state are run according to the wishes of the people depicts the formation of a strong-nation state. The War against terrorism which is being fought by the US forces and is being funded by the US citizens through the tax money is the most important example which depicts that the US government and the society give due consideration to the matters of sovereignty and preserving their territory. The people of the United States and the government started this war to preserve its sovereignty and for the security of its territory and the whole nation has equally shared the burden of this war which unites them as a single nation. The bulk of the population of the United States consists of people who came from various different regions of the world and started living here and thus possessed different cultures, historical backgrounds and languages. However the people of the United States have formed one single culture by amalgamating the various different cultures with the modern culture of the region, the people living in the United States now speak one language which is the Americanized version of the English language and they have made the history of the United States their own history thus they have transformed themselves into one single nation. All the people of the United States believe in the concepts of individualism, modernism, capitalism, secularism, religiosity, consumerism and mono-lingual-ism making these concepts the elements of common culture in the United States and the reasons for national unity (Berman, 2001). According to the US Department of State, the foreign policy of the United States is devised to create a more secure democratic and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community. The detailed goals of the US foreign policy include the Nuclear Non-Proliferation, export controls, protection of American citizens abroad and international education. The recent invasion of Iraq was conducted for fulfilling the objective of Nuclear Non-Proliferation because the Iraqi government was reportedly involved in the production of weapons of mass destruction which included nuclear arsenals, these weapons have not been found till the present day however the major reason for conducting attack on Iraq was to stop the expansion of nuclear weapons for ensuring the security of American people and global peace (Pillar, 2003). Another example of the foreign policy objective is the recent financial and military aid directed towards Pakistan under the Kerry-Lugar bill. The large amount of tax money is being directed towards a country for funding the war against terrorism in order to ensure the foreign policy objective of national security and international peace. The Fulbright program through which hundreds of foreign students get enrolled in American universities and American students go to foreign universities for higher education is also an example of the foreign policy objectives for the US because importance is given to international education and cultural exchange through students in the foreign policy. The European Union was established mainly for two main objectives; to find the solution to the German problem and to ensure a peaceful Europe, secondly to make the countries of Europe richer and more influential in the world politics through partnership, rather than being individual states (Menon & Wright, 2001). The important events which resulted in the formation of EU include firstly the WWII and the establishment of NATO by United States for strengthening Europe to resist any further threats to international peace from Germany and also to limit the Russian dominance. The European nations were generally happy at forming an alliance with the US and did not involve in any other alliance which affected their relationships with the US. However, the Kosovo conflict and its aftermaths showed the US dominance in the NATO alliance and the European countries thought of forming a European alliance independent of the influence of the United States (Calvocoressi, 2001). Other objectives of the formation of EU include free movement and thus free trade across the borders of European countries to strengthen the European economy. The major institutions of the EU include the European Council which determines the general political direction of the union, European Commission which is the executive body of the union, Council of European Union which represents the governments of member states, Court of Justice of the European Union, European Parliament and European Central Bank (Peterson & Shackleton, 2006). The significant nations included in the European Union are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. With the recent inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria, the total members of the EU are now 27. The member states generally follow the EU foreign policy only on the matters related to trade or energy and there exist a high degree of mutual agreement on other matters of foreign policy as well however the same foreign policy on all the matters is not very strictly followed. Some of the examples of the objectives of the foreign policy of the EU include the participation of the forces of member states in the war against terrorism despite having very little control over the foreign policy matters of the member states which involve military. Another example is the role of EU in brokering peace between Macedonian government and Albanian rebels by the European High Representative for foreign policy in 1999. The foreign policies of the nation-states and the transnational entities are devised to achieve their self-interests and this was clearly depicted by the formation of the European Union after the Kosovo conflict because that was the first time when the foreign policy of the United States and the European states failed to achieve a consensus. The nation-states devise their policies which are best suited to their geographical and geostrategic position in the world and the aspirations of the minority nations living in the nation-state are not always considered. Similarly the EU was established when the European states felt the unchallenged dominance of the US in NATO and the global scenario. However, the recent trends of globalization and the awareness among the people of various nation-states and translational entities due to the advancements in communication technologies have created a clash between the objectives of a nation-state and globalization because nation-states promote nationalism whereas the world is now moving towards globalization therefore in such a scenario the transnational entities like the EU are more likely to survive as compared to nation-states. Works Cited Ahmed, S. (2004). Bangladesh: Past and Present. APH Publishing. Berman, M. (2001). The Twilight of American Culture. Norton. Calvocoressi, P. (2001). World Politics 1945-2000. Singapore: Pearson Education. McDowall, D. (2000). A Modern History of the Kurds. I.B. Tauris. Menon, A., & Wright, V. (2001). From the Nation State to Europe. Oxford University Press. Peterson, J., & Shackleton, M. (2006). The Institutions of European Union. Oxford University Press. Pillar, P. (2003). Terrorism and US Foreign Policy. Brookings Institution Press. Read More