Globalization and Nation-State: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Abstract

The fairly common pandemic of the coronavirus has paralyzed the global world. The material damage it inflicted amounts to trillions of dollars. It is unclear how long it will take for humanity to overcome the consequences of the most serious socio-economic crisis after the World War II. The contours of the “new normal” after the pandemic are even vaguer. The “perfect storm” of the pandemic was created by a combination of three destructive forces: the coronavirus, the cyclical crisis of the economic conjuncture, and the nefarious trends of neoliberal globalization. The political practice of neoliberalism in recent decades, which has brought the world a number of significant achievements, has created a tangle of intractable contradictions in all areas of modern life. Both of its main drivers – capital accumulation on the basis of expanded reproduction and the global hegemony of the Anglo-Saxon elite – were called into question. Issues such as a more equitable distribution of the created wealth and expanding the membership of the elite club of global regulation are going to the forefront. At the same time, protecting the environment and preventing other cataclysms that threaten the well-being and even the very existence of mankind have become urgent imperatives of the political agenda. However, it seems that the world elite is not ready for a profound correction of the existing world order yet. The most likely scenario for the foreseeable future seems to be attempts, in one form or another, to return to the unconditional hegemony of the collective West under the aegis of the United States in world affairs. This portends a turbulent decade filled with conflicts of varying severity and duration. Although there is a fundamental possibility of another, much more positive scenario for the development of globalization processes. In it, the coordinated actions of national and global elites would focus on finding solutions to the most pressing problems of the world community, namely environmental protection, human rights upholding, the unhindered development of world trade, the prevention of pandemics, and the fight against terrorism.