The resilience of the Nation State to globalization

Abstract

Notwithstanding recent studies about the alleged weakening of some basic functions of nation-states on account of globalization, national states have been showing remarkable resiliency, that is, flexibility and adaptability to change. Starting from the perspective of international relations, the article undertakes a review of contemporary worlds political geography, pointing out some of the reasons that explain the creation, during the XXth century, of 150 out of a total number of 200 existing national states. It analyses the ambivalent nature of some of the forces for change, not always towards national state weakening, and devotes special attention to the European Union, the only example of a still unfinished construction of a post-national configuration.