Can Countries Participate in Globalisation on Their Own Terms?

Can Countries Participate In Globalisation On Their Own Terms?

Globalisation is a very broad concept for forms of interaction and for the purpose of this essay I will refer to the four types of globalisation economic, social and cultural, political and military, and environmental. We have this idea that globalisation is one concept that you either accept or do not but because there are different types of globalisation but there is no reason to suggest that a choice cannot be made, which type to accept and which not to (A. Lent, 2002). Even as we accept a certain forms of globalisation there are always other processes in that form that we will not accept and for this reason I say that countries can participate in globalisation on their own terms.

There are cases where countries have participated in some form of globalisation and not in others for example, Switzerland decide not to join the United Nations as it was convinced that becoming a member of the United Nations would be against its neutrality policy but still did business with United Nations organisations. Joining the United Nations is a form of political globalisation and doing business with the United Nations is a form of economic globalisation, by Switzerland being able to do business with United Nations but not become a member, one can say that choosing which form of globalisation to participate in or not to participate in is possible, therefore making having control in the globalisation process quite possible. (Swissinfo.ch, 2007)

One might argue that globalisation on a country’s own terms is unsustainable as Switzerland itself eventually joined the United Nations in September 2002 making itself a participant in political globalisation. For one party to form an alliance of some sort with another there has to be some kind of benefit they will each get from doing so, that is why there are such things as treaties and the International Law of Treaties to protect the interests of the participants in the...