ABSTRACT
Today’s received wisdom contends that strong nation-states are happily things of the past; that technological progress and improved human understanding are making it increasingly difficult to maintain barriers between nations; and that these changes will enhance global efficiency and reduce the scope for international conflict. Globalization is treated as beneficial and inevitable, demands for national sovereignty are dismissed as misguided and foolish. From this point of view, strong nation-states cannot even qualify as a Utopian goal since that implies a desirable but unattainable objective. A goal considered both undesirable and unattainable can only appear stupid or perverse, and those pursuing it, ignorant or dishonest. It is thus no easy task to argue for the desirability of sovereign nation-states at the end of the twentieth century.
