Globalisation is one of those pervasive and diffuse phenomena that are hard to define. David Held et al 215 define globalization as:
A set of processes, which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions – assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact – generating transcontinen-tal or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction and the exercise of power.216
Economists see globalisation in terms of increased economic interdependence and the integration of all national economies into one global economy within the framework of a capitalist market.217 Economic globalisation is manifested primarily in the multinational corporations (MNCs) that have greatly accelerated integration of the global economy, and in the growth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and
213 Mansell and Wehn Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development 214.
214 Ibid.
215 Held, McGrew, Goldblatt and Perraton Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture 16.
However, globalisation is essentially a contested concept. Its ―contested‖ nature is evident in the ongoing debate about its meaning and nature. This debate has pitted ―hyperglobalist,‖ ―skeptical,‖ and
―transformationalist‖ accounts of globalization against one another.
216 The flows referred to in their definition relate to the movements of physical artefacts, people, symbols, tokens and information across space and time, while networks refer to regularized or patterned interactions between independent agents, nodes of activity, or sites of power. Elsewhere, Held and McGrew observe that ―[v]irtually all nation-states become part of a larger pattern of global transformations and global flows.
Goods, capital, people, knowledge, communications and weapons, as well as crime, pollutants, fashions and beliefs, rapidly move across territorial boundaries. It has become a fully interconnected global order…‖ see Held and McGrew 1998 (24) Rev Int'l Stud 230.
217 Rajaee Globalisation on Trial: The Human Condition and Information Civilization 24.
65 corporate mergers and alliances in the 1980s and 1990s.218 The growth in FDI emphasizes the role of the MNCs in the global economy. As suggested by Susan Strange, globalisation increases the power of the MNCs and will finally shift power from states to firms.219
Another dimension of the globalisation debate is the political perspective which also tends to emphasize the near impotence of the state in the era of globalisation.220 The political perspective of the globalization debate argues that states are increasingly losing their capacity to govern, and to regulate the internal dynamics of the state in an increasingly borderless world. Appadurai in fact argues that ―… the nation-state, as a complex modern political form, is on its last legs.‖221
―Non-state actors‖ such as MNCs, international governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and ethnic groups influence the state‘s authority in a situation of complex interdependence.222 The emergence of regional and global law (also described as global humanitarian law) in the present era of
218 Sorenson 1998 (24) No 5 Rev Int'l Stud 83-100.
219 Strange The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in The World Economy 45. However, not all commentators on globalisation accept this conclusion; Hirst and Thompson for example, argue that there is no strong tendency toward a globalised economy and that the major advanced nations continue to be dominant. They offer three reasons for their arguments against the prevalence of economic globalization:
that the current state of international interconnectedness is not unprecedented and that previous episodes of integration have generated a backlash and have ended in the regression of international trade and investment,
that nation-states are not being overwhelmed and that the future of extended multilateral governance does not look promising — in a turbulent physical and international environment the nation-state may become more salient as a means of protection against global forces beyond supranational governance, and
that there may be inherent limits to the growth of international trade, that borders do matter and that we may be approaching those limits.
See Hirst and Thompson 2002 Cooperation and Conflict (37) No 3 263.
220 Political globalisation is said to be ―the shifting reach of political power, authority and forms of rule‖
wherein, political relations become closely and deeply linked, presenting a challenge to domestic/international distinctions of politics. See n 216 at 219-245.
221 See Appadurai Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization 19. See also Rosenau Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity; Wriston Foreign Affairs 1997 (76) No 5 1972–1982, for similar views about the impact of globalisation on sovereignty.
222 Keohane and Nye Power and Interdependence 4. Although Keohane and Nye criticised modernist writers who ―see our era as one in which the territorial state, which has been dominant in world politics for the four centuries since feudal times ended … is being eclipsed by non-state actors such as multinational corporations, transnational social movements and international organisations‖ (p 3), they pointed to the importance of ―today‘s multidimensional economic, social and ecological interdependence‖ (p 4).
66 global politics, also challenges state sovereignty.223 Consequently, one of the most important issues in the globalisation debate is the question of national sovereignty as it relates to economic, social and political processes. Economic activity is both national and international, and the state still mediates between them.224 Nevertheless, as noted by Jayasuriya:225 ―Globalisation is reshaping the fixed and firm boundary between domestic and international spheres and changing our conception of the proper domain of domestic and international politics and law.‖226 One of the fallouts of modern globalisation is increased collection and dissemination of personal information about the users of the Internet and other tools of economic activity. Personal information now routinely flows across national boundaries seemingly without hindrance.227 What makes the collection of information so attractive is the fact that:
Information is power, and economic information is economic power.
Information has an economic value and the ability to store and process certain types of data may well give one country political and technological advantage over other countries.228
The economic value of personal data motivates firms to collect and process these data, by generating profiles of user behaviour for internal marketing purposes or for sale to other firms wanting customers of that type. Kling and Allen assert that the exchange of information dominates the contemporary market place, because of the expansion and use of computer technologies for large-scale record keeping and this has given rise to what they term ―information entrepreneurialism‖.229 It is now very
223 See n 216 at 219-243.
224 Ho Nov 12 2000 The Sunday Times (Singapore) 47.
225 Jayasuriya 1999 (6) No 2 Ind J Global Legal Stud 425.
226 Id at 447. Jayasuriya explains that the reconstitution of sovereignty represents the nationalisation of international law. He concludes that what this signifies is that the operation of the global economy requires extensive regulatory changes at the national level.
227 Bennett ―Convergence Revisited: Toward a Global Policy for the Protection of Personal Data?‖ 103.
228 Statement of Louis Joinet, French Magistrate of Justice, before the OECD Symposium on Trans-border Data Flows and the Protection of Privacy, in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 1977 quoted in Regan 1994 (52) No 3 AJES 260.
229 Kling and Allen ―How the Marriage of Management and Computing Intensifies the Struggle for Personal
67 easy for organisations, companies, governments and individuals to collect, store, retrieve and manipulate personal information.230 The exchange of personal information has become integral to the functioning of the global network economy and has made the security and privacy implications of trans-border data flows frontline issues confronting not just the developed countries, but also the developing ones.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), today‘s technological transformations are intertwined with another major historic shift — economic globalisation that is rapidly unifying world markets. The two processes are mutually reinforcing. The new tools of information and communications technology reinforced and accelerated the process of trade liberalisation and privatization, which in turn accelerated economic globalisation. The economic globalisation has resulted in a global marketplace that is technology-based, with technology a major factor in market competition.231