Why are we still grouped together under nation states? What is the role of such an entity in our lives? A question like this goes into the heart of the current political arrangements and debates about the future of the world. There is no doubt that over time, nation states have developed a powerful emotional connection in the minds and hearts of the people living within them. There is also no doubt that nation states conferred a powerful advantage to those who developed them in the international sphere.
Questioning the raison d'etre of nation states can be tricky since this is typically a highly emotional topic. History has shown and continues to show that people are willing to undergo severe restrictions on their personal freedoms if they can be convinced that the nation is under threat. Witness the steady erosion of cherished civil liberties in the US since 9/11. The UK has one of the largest number of security cameras in the world; about 1 camera for every 14 people. This is a country that slowly and painfully developed parliamentary democracy and established modern concepts of personal and civil liberties and then extended these concepts around the world via the British Empire. The US in turn developed its own political and civil system because the founding fathers were strongly influenced by enlightenment concepts originating from the UK. In this regard, the US ows a strong debt to the UK.
Still the question now needs to be asked: what is the purpose of a nation state in the 21st century? There is one very important role that most nation states have fulfilled to some degree in the past and continue to do so: provide a safe environment for its citizens in which they can grow economically, socially and personally. They do this primarily by providing continuity of policy. Nation states do not often experience wild changes of policy and law. They also often have competing interest groups operating within them. This typically helps to counter arbitrariness. To what extent is this role still valid in an age of globalization where international trade treaties and protocols increasingly act as limitations on nation states?
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