Session 20: Beyond Transnationalism

Throughout the semester, states were the centre of all discussions. All the theories that we discussed so far talked about how the behaviour of the states was to be determined using certain theories. However, transnationalism suggests that states are by no means the only actors in world politics and thus should not receive such overwhelming responses from scholars. Other non-state entities such as oil companies and world organizations can influence the international events and thus requires attention of the learned.

Transnationalism is basically a socially constructed phenomenon that focuses on the interactions between the states and socio-economic significance of the states that share boundaries. The author believes that individuals and organizations can participate as members of coalition with the government and other states or can act directly, bypassing their own government. However, the latter is more transnational by definition.

However, then the question arises as to how these bodies can have such significant influence on the government. The answer is simple. It is through international trade and finance or by mass communication. For example, it is clearly evident that Israel pulls the strings of the government of United States because they control the US banking system by a fairly large percentage. Moreover, public pressure always has a profound impact on the decisions of the state and certain times states are forced to act a particular way to please the people. For example, it is believed that the Pakistani government was opposed to the idea of capital punishment for the militants of the Peshawar APS Attack but was coerced by the public to grant death sentence to them.

Although, transnational relations is not an entirely new concept but the events of World War demands that it is studied due to the importance that it possesses. The state-centric approach diverts the attention of scholars because there is greater tendency to distort the analysis of other academics. If transnationalism contributes towards a better understanding of the field, peace and justice can indirectly be attainted which would be a win-win situation for all.