From Local to Global

Many people are not aware that we live in an age of global governance. Although, many are cognizant that we live in a globalized, interconnected, dependent world but we all tend to be focused on the nation state as the arbiter of policies that affect our everyday lives and livelihood.

I would argue that that nation state was important and the center of life as was the case in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but, the world has gradually shifted to a more globalized framework of multilateralism that have expanded to include non-state actors and multinational private organizations that operate beyond the confines of nation state borders making it much more difficult to control and manage.

This is where the challenge lies for many as people tend to focus on the local while ignoring the global. An instance would the supply chain challenge we are currently experiencing. Many would forget to attribute the problem to a chain reaction of myriad events surrounding various choke points and borders but rather conclude it as a simplistic single causation. This makes it easy to pass the blame to a singular individual or institution.

On the other hand, Global Governance is a very difficult concept to grasp as it seems elusive to the ordinary person. We do not seem to be affected by it but we are greatly influenced by its policies and norms. Global governance structures follow a top down approach, they are implemented and enforced by international organizations with countries on the backend.

The Covid issue is one good example of this, The WHO, UN, World Bank, IMF, etc have taking a leadership approach to instruct how each nation state approaches the challenge. Directing and even sometimes sanctioning countries that do not adhere to their stated policies.

Of course, there is the issue of the national sovereignty being trampled upon which is a legitimate one. However, that has taken the back seat with fear being on the minds of many citizens.

There is an exacerbation of top level management from technocrats in international organizations as a stick to direct the nation state in our current world. Many of the policies that are proposed and implemented are not applicable to all nations in uniformity but we seem to going along with this approach only to our detriment in my opinion.

I do not see this as a sustainable one. The one size fits all approach does not work as the global governance strategy will break sooner or later. I would suggest that people albeit a minority but growing rapidly, are beginning to realize this. It is beginning to become visible as hearing the sound and echoes of push back in the form of nationalization rearing its head in some quarters.

It will only get louder and more aggressive until its addressed and not demonized or castigated as domestic terrorists and nazis.

This may eventually be the straw that breaks the camels back.

See you tomorrow.

- Ope