The nationalist alternative in Southeast Asia after independence

Abstract

The internationalization of capital and the new international division of labor generated by the activities of transnational corpora tions under the aegis of the World Bank, the DXF and other multilateral institutions have been responsible for the erosion of the nation-state O political unit in international relations. This erosion of the political sovereignty of the nation-state is the result of the erosion of its economic integrity. The interna- tional operations of capital and its supra-national resources have given it economic power that transcends any and all territorial boun- daries. Whereas before the era of the transnational corporations, the economic policies of a state responded primarily to internal forces within its territorial limits, today the TNCs can exact economic decisions from the state which do not necessarily favor its population or internal economy and in fact these global corporations can go around many national restrictions precisely because they operate in many different countries. In this sense, the traditional concept of terri- torial sovereignty even of the advanced capitalist states is at least partially negated. The drive of international capital to erase state boundaries to facilitate access for economic integration has resulted in a much more serious erosion of the sovereignty of Third World states.