National Politics in a Global Context: Anti-Apartheid in Britain and Sweden

Abstract

Any analysis of the role of the nation state must consider the process of globalization. Although the concept of ‘globalization’ was quite recently established in the social sciences, it must be regarded as a historical process intrinsically connected with the history of colonialism and modernity. Contrary to many assertions, globalization does not by definition equal the erosion of the nation state. Rather, the global dissemination of the nation was a crucial aspect of a certain phase of globalization, originating in the late eighteenth century, and culminating during the decades that followed the Second World War. The era of the Anti-Apartheid movement was marked by the contradictions between processes of nation state building (predominantly in the South) and transnationalization.