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Globalization has challenged the nation-state through both “supranational organizations” and “religious foundations of politics”. How are each products of globalization? 

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To answer this question, let us first look at what supranational organizations are.  These are organizations like the United Nations or the World Bank which are made up of representatives of many countries and are not strictly controlled by any country.  These organizations have some amount of control over sovereign states.

It is fairly clear to see how this is a result of globalization.  As the world has globalized, there has come to be a need for more supranational organizations.  For example, as there has come to be more international trade, the need for supranational organizations like the World Trade Organization, which can make and enforce rules regarding international trade, has increased as well.  Before globalization, there were fewer interactions between countries and, therefore, less of a need for organizations to regulate those interactions.

It is also plausible to argue that globalization has helped to bring about “religious foundations of politics.”  There are many religions with adherents across the globe.  As the world becomes more globalized, the adherents of these religions come into contact with one another to a greater extent.  They are more aware of their coreligionists in other countries and feel more of a connection with those people.  Therefore, we start to have situations in which people in Saudi Arabia, for example, feel a desire to get involved in Afghanistan’s affairs because they want to help their coreligionists.  Because globalization brings about more contact between people in different countries, it allows them to become connected on the basis of religion instead of being separated by their citizenship in different states.

In these ways, globalization can lead to such different outcomes as politics based on religion and supranational organizations.

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