“Although transnationalism is an important force in contemporary world politics, it is premature to speak of the demise of the nation-state, given the continued attachment to nationalism felt throughout the world.” In the light of this statement, discuss the role of nation-state as an actor in international relations. (1996)
Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye defined transnational relations as cross-border interactions in which at least one actor is not an agent of a government or intergovernmental organisation, challenging the realist picture of the state as the sole unitary actor. The statement accepts that challenge but rejects its strongest conclusion: the state remains central because nationalism still binds people to it.
The transnationalist challenge
- Transnational corporations run production networks across the jurisdictions meant to tax them; NGOs set norms; terrorist and criminal networks are territorially unbounded; digital platforms perform identity, payment and speech-regulation functions.
- James N. Rosenau (Turbulence in World Politics, 1990) described a state-centric world coexisting with a multi-centric world of “sovereignty-free” actors.
- Susan Strange (The Retreat of the State, 1996) argued that authority had leaked to markets and private bodies. Kenichi Ohmae (The End of the Nation State, 1995) went furthest, calling the nation-state an unnatural unit in a borderless economy.
Why the demise thesis is premature
- Nationalism endures. People vote, pay taxes and fight as nationals. Brexit’s call to “take back control”, “America First” economic nationalism and Ukraine’s national resistance since 2022 show that national identity mobilises more than any transnational loyalty.
- Unique attributes. Only states hold territory, confer citizenship, tax comprehensively and possess the monopoly of legitimate force; corporations exist under some state’s company law.
- States made globalisation. Trade and investment regimes were negotiated and ratified by states and can be revised by them, as tariffs, investment screening and export controls since 2018 demonstrate.
- The idea was weighed before. Hedley Bull (The Anarchical Society, 1977) considered a “new medievalism” of overlapping authorities and multiple loyalties, and concluded it had not displaced the states system.
The nation-state’s role as an actor today
- Security provider: world military spending reached a record $2,887 billion in 2025 (SIPRI).
- Economic strategist: industrial policy, sanctions and “de-risking” are state instruments; the US Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act (September 2026) authorises tariffs of up to 100% on buyers of Russian oil and gas anywhere.
- Regulator of non-state actors: platform laws and data rules bargain with transnational firms, and states set the terms: the OECD minimum tax’s “side-by-side” package (5 January 2026) largely shields US-parented groups at Washington’s insistence.
- Crisis manager: in 2008 and during COVID-19, citizens turned to national governments for bailouts, border control and vaccines.
- Constituent of global governance: the UN, WTO and treaty regimes are made of states; even Alexander Wendt‘s constructivism holds that anarchy is what states make of it.
A transformed actor
The state is no longer a closed “billiard ball”. Amitav Acharya (The End of American World Order, 2014) describes a “multiplex world” in which states share the stage with corporations, movements and regional bodies without leaving it. Anne-Marie Slaughter (A New World Order, 2004) describes a disaggregated state whose regulators and judges network across borders; the EU pools sovereignty. India’s strategic autonomy, with foreign funding, data and investment regulated on its own terms and the diaspora treated as an asset, shows a state accepting transnational flows while setting their terms.
Conclusion
The statement is borne out: transnationalism has reconfigured the state rather than retired it. The nation-state has lost its exclusivity but not its primacy. It is less the sole author of outcomes than the indispensable actor that legitimises, regulates and, when crises strike, overrides everyone else.