V.
Conclusion
a. Need to Find Alternatives to the
Nation-State
The breakup of
the Soviet Union changed the meaning and purpose of NATO, and this change eventually
led to the bombing of Serbia. In the process of
bombing, the United
States and NATO
bypassed the decision of the UN, and ignoring the decision of the UN has become
usual since then. This defiance of
the UN is a product of the unilateralism of the United States, and since then, sustaining internationalism led by the UN has
become extremely difficult.
The case of NATO
is significant, but after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, so- called “new
regionalism” emerged as an alternative to the nation-state. First, the old regionalism was basically
about government, specifically about how to insert a new layer into the
hierarchy of state-local relations.
By contrast, the new regionalism is about governance; that is,
establishing vision and goals, and setting policy to achieve them.
International trade agreements like NAFTA demonstrate reduced economic
competitiveness on a country-by-country basis, and increased competitiveness on
a region-by-region basis. The trade
agreements such as APEC, ASEAN, EU and MERCOSUR are examples of new
regionalism.
For example,
APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) consists of 20 nations and one
administrative region dedicated to promoting regional economic integration and
global free trade. APEC was founded
in 1989 at the prompting of the government of Australia. Its members include Australia,
Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United
States. Peru, Russia,
and Vietnam joined the organization in 1998.
At the meetings,
members have discussed such issues as regional security, financing for infrastructure
development, reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers, and development of
global free trade. In 1994, APEC
members with industrialized economies pledged to eliminate trade barriers by
2010, while those with developing economies agreed to follow by 2020.
In 1990,
Mahathir bin Mohamad, the President of Malaysia, suggested the creation of EAEC
(East Asian Economic Caucus) as an alternative to APEC. EAEC is primarily an
Asian organization and excludes from membership Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, and the United
States, all of which
belong to APEC. Mahathir chose not
to attend the APEC summit in November 1993 in Seattle hosted by
Bill Clinton. After this summit, APEC became an organization led by the United States.
This alliance of
Asian-Pacific nations threatened nations in the European Union and elsewhere,
and they started to protect themselves. As a result, the free trade area in the
world became blocked, resembling the situation before World War II.
Not only APEC,
but also the European Union and NATO are expanding. The United States declared that the role of the NATO in Iraq
after the war is desirable. After
the Iraq war, the power balance of the world shifted, and the effect of the
shift influenced the election in Spain.
b. Need to Solve the
Decision-Making Methods of Democracy
After the
terrorist attacks that killed more than 200 people on March 11 in Madrid, the
pro-American conservative government led by Jose
Maria Aznar’s party was swept away, and a new liberal government headed
by Partido Socialista Obrero Español started. Prime
Minister-designate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pledged to withdraw Spanish
troops from Iraq unless power is swiftly handed over to the United Nations. His promise to anchor Madrid's foreign
policy to the European Union rather than the United States has delighted Euro-enthusiasts.
Most of the
blame for the impasse regarding the European Union’s constitution was heaped on
Spain and Poland, which persistently refused to give up a voting system heavily
weighted in their favor. However,
sources close to Zapatero say the incoming government is ready to accept the
EU's first constitution, which was denied in December 2003. The center-left government of Poland
followed Spain's example, and shifted its opposition to the
"double-majority" voting system favored by almost all other
nations. In the draft constitution,
the threshold for reaching such a majority is put at 60 percent of states and
citizens. But a new compromise
proposal would see this reduced to 55 percent in order to prevent Germany, France
and Britain from having the power to block laws agreed by the other 22 members.
This is a big step for the EU in creating a united Europe.
However, the
important thing is that these decisions and the unification of the EU were
conceived as a strategy to compete against the United States. Moreover, this new
regionalism appeared as the result of globalization which was led by the power
of capital. So, the new regionalism
cannot solve the problem of global capitalism.
c. Need to Solve the
Problem of Global Capitalism- New Association Movement as an Alternative
In summer 2000,
the New Association Movement (NAM), aimed at abolishing capitalism, the nation,
the state or their amalgamation, was established in Japan. NAM was
an association of individuals who staged effective and non-violent
counter-actions against capitalism and the nation-state. NAM,
founded by a leading philosopher and Visiting Professor at Columbia University
Kojin Karatani, proposed highly critical theories regarding capitalism and the
nation-state, as well as a practical form of activism. Once NAM’s
membership reached around 600, drawn from all over Japan and
other parts of the world.
NAM had
various sections of interest, such as agriculture, architecture, art,
computing, cooperative education, the environment, gender and sexuality
studies, labor, law, LETS (Local Exchange Trading System), minority issues,
third-world issues, theory, and welfare. The main project of NAM is
"Q project," formed to establish an internet-run global LETS. The creation of multi-local currency
networks is supposed to be the first step toward the development of a
non-capitalist market based on exchanges without the creation of surplus or the
fetishization of money. Unlike the
single currency issued by a nation-state, the currency called “Q” is plural and
heterogeneous. Different from any
other alternative local currencies, each individual member has the right to
issue currency. As a result, each individual starts to issue the currency,
deconstructing the sovereignty of the nation-state.
As a solution to
the bureaucratic fixation of NAM, Karatani introduced the lottery into the
election process of the NAM administrators. However, Karatani’s lottery could
not provide the effective answer to how the currency would be
administered. Moreover, his
original idea, which was to deconstruct the inside and outside of the nation,
created a new phase of inside and
outside, which is inside of NAM and outside of NAM.
As a result, NAM
disappeared two years after the organization was founded. However, NAM was one of the most
important movements set up as a deconstruction of the nation-state and
proposing an alternative to late capitalism.
d. Need
to Solve the Problematic Effects of Mass Media
Actually, there
is no effective way to control the effect of the media. Under the current law in the United
States, PR companies such as Ruder Finn cannot be punished effectively. However, if the law in Belgium which can
judge the person who lives outside of the nation became mainstream, it would
stop the reckless activity of these entities. If other countries that are curious about it, such as
Switzerland and Canada, followed this Belgium system, the whole structure of
judgment would be changed, and it
would shift the decision making process of these medias. However, the main part of the problem of
media can be solved only by morality.
This moral issue has been one of the biggest issues in the world.
In conclusion,
it is extremely hard to find alternatives to the current state of democracy,
the nation-state, and capitalism.
Those who have tried to make alternatives to democracy, such as Carl
Schmitt, created brutal fascism.
Those who have tried to deconstruct capitalism and the nation-state,
such as Kojin Karatani, failed.
However, we need to find the solution for these questions. Otherwise, we cannot be free from the
problems of nationalism and wars between nation-states.
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