Saturday, April 28, 2012

Fate of the Nation State in Question

Here at COTTonLINE we're Anglophiles; we like the Brits so we have at least some interest in U.K. politics. It appears that politics in the U.K. are becoming regionalized much like they have become so in the U.S. and in Canada. See The Telegraph article.

This raises an interesting question: is the nation state concept disintegrating around the world? I believe there is substantial evidence that this is so.

Examples of countries where region-based parties are strong enough to have found space in the international press would include: Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Moldava, the United States, the U.K., Spain, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Thailand, Nigeria, Somalia, Mexico, Kenya, and Russia.

Extreme examples would include: Sudan vs, South Sudan, North vs, South Korea. The Soviet Union breaking into 15 separate nations, Yugoslavia breaking into 6 countries, Czechoslovakia breaking into two, Pakistan spinning off Bangladesh.

Since 1990, thirty-four countries have been created, a process that is likely to continue.