That is that globalization interferes with economic

that is, that globalization interferes with economic or political
sovereignty. What are the generally accepted criteria of sovereignty? In order to be considered
as a sovereign nation, a nation must exhibit:
1. Independence of political and economic institutions;
2. An effective governmental structure (there are two major governmental models, one
including separate executive, legislative and judicial branches , and a second, termed the
parliamentary system, where the government is formed within the governing parliamentary
grouping;
3. A defined physical territory;
4. The capacity to enter into and conduct foreign relations through treaties or executive
agreements;
5. A defined population.
Does Globalization interfere with any of these characteristics?
Some questions may be considered: Is “Palestine” a sovereign nation? What must happen before
it might be considered as such? How about Puerto Rico or the Vatican? What about Iraq in the
period immediately after the demise of Saddam Hussein? Post-Saddam? Today? Is Afghanistan a
sovereign country?
Is it possible for a people to be a “nation” and yet not a sovereign “state”?
Overtime, certain characteristics of sovereignty have been recognized under international law:
1. All sovereign nations are presumed equal.
2. All sovereign nations have the right to act in pursuit of their legitimate economic, political,
or military objectives;
3. All sovereign nations have the exclusive right to manage their internal affairs.
4. A sovereign nation may, however, choose to act “in consort with” other nations in a wide
variety of political and economic matters. For example, there is the concept of “collective
security” for self-defense found in Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations (1945)
and recognized under a treaty organization such as NATO, the (former) Warsaw Pact, the
OAS, SEATO, and a myriad of other regional security organizations and arrangements.
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Sovereign nations are never subject to the compulsory jurisdiction of international law
(e.g., the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Justice, or, problematically,
the recently created World Criminal Court) without their consent.
5. Sovereign nations are said to possess certain “physical capacities” such as the right to
receive and send diplomatic agents, the capacity to conclude treaties or other international
agreements (or to enter into executive agreements ), or the ability to apply for membership
in a wide variety of international organizations for economic, political, humanitarian, or
judicial (especially dispute resolution) purposes. Nations may decide to join the IMF or the
World Bank, the WTO, the United Nations or a host of other international organizations.
Conducting foreign affairs is a big part of sovereignty. In many cases, this is carried out through
treaties or executive agreements. A treaty is a formal agreement between sovereign nations. An
executive agreement is an agreement between the heads of government of two or more nations
that has not been ratified by the legislature as treaties are ratified.