The Future of Nation-States in the Changing World Order

The notion of nation-states is closely related to the project of modernity that began in the 14^th and 15^th centuries in Europe and spilled over to Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the post-colonial period. The developing societies adopted the process of modernization (convergence thesis) for their development based on the experiences of the European societies. However, they could not get much success in achieving the goals of modernity. Two dominant paradigms, socialistic and capitalistic models, of development advocate for a centrally administered nation-state and a federal structure of states within this. In the last few decades, the project of modernity has faced a crisis, particularly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union into 15 new nation-states. The capitalist countries of Europe and the American continent have also faced an economic crisis in the form of recession and initiated a new economic policy of liberalization, privatization, and globalization and a new global economy came into existence in the first decade of the 21^st century with the rise of internet-based new communication technologies which intensified the globalization, beyond the economy and added cultural, social, political and environmental dimensions. A set of globalization theorists, particularly hyperglobalists, argue that nation-states have become weak and a new epoch of human history has begun with globalization. They also claimed the end of the modernity project. However, neo-Marxists and Sceptics denied their claims and argued that nation-states are as strong as earlier and globalization is just confined to trading that is also at the regional level and rejects the notion of globalization. The present paper aims to analyze the future of nation-states in the era of globalization in which world order is transforming from a unipolar world to a multi-polar world.