Synopsis: Cross-border governance and the challenges of globalization

The contributions in this volume highlight that issues in cross-border governance are generated and constantly reshaped by the forces of globalization. These dynamics are of relatively recent historical origin, but are certainly not new. Both globalization and the nation-state system that defines modern borders emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe. To the present day the Westphalian concept of sovereignty based on territoriality and the exclusion of external actors from domestic authority structures shapes the nature of inter-state relations. Modern-era globalization, in the sense that it goes beyond trading and caravan routes such as the Silk Road, is also about 400 years old. It began to emerge around 1602 when the Dutch East India Company became the first multinational joint-stock corporation in history.

Related Subject(s): Democracy and Governance