Globalisation in State Creation and the Transformation of the International System

     We are experiencing the era of the hyphen crisis – Benedict Anderson stated in 1996 that “the impending crisis of the hyphen that for two hundred years yoked the nation and state” would force humanity to redefine... [ view full abstract ]

     We are experiencing the era of the hyphen crisis – Benedict Anderson stated in 1996 that “the impending crisis of the hyphen that for two hundred years yoked the nation and state” would force humanity to redefine our current world system. Anderson’s prediction was correct; the emergence of the “unhyphenable” entity is creating a political vacuum within the international realm (Vera, 1998). We are witnessing an essential moment in the history of state building “when the basic organization of political order is up for grabs” (Ikenberry, 1998).

     The author looks at the influence of globalisation on state creation and how it impacts the pre-existing system based on the Treaty of Westphalia. Globalisation in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries created a discussion on the role and future of sovereignty (Albert & Brock, 2001). The author, through the case study of Palestine, examines how territoriality, sovereignty and identity in the context of nation-states are currently being redefined as a consequence of globalisation. In the era of the hyphen-crisis can Palestinians rise above the issue of territory that for so long plagued their quest for nationhood and could they claim their own state or will the power of the hyphen continue to keep them from reaching their goals?