ABSTRACT
Within the unfolding dynamics of the global political economy, there has been a marked shift in the nature of politics at the level of civil society. Under the bipolar world order, popular political movements were centred on labour and peasant-based class struggles. In today’s globalising context, politics focuses primarily on human rights, identity, culture, feminism, environmentalism, peace, nationalism, religious revivalism and terrorism.1 The role of the nation state is being redefined as it responds to pressures from the changing power configurations in the global economy and from the emerging political movements found in global and local (g/local) civil societies. In terms of human rights, states must respond to pressure coming from ‘above’ and ‘below’ from actors striving for democratic space within national civil society and from international human rights narratives, actors and institutions. Complicating this situation is the fact that states are struggling to find a balance between preserving basic rights while maintaining national security in the post-September 11 world, to protect themselves from possible attacks by non-state actors, often labelled as ‘terrorist’ or ‘extremist’ organisations.
