Ne w i n P a p e r
Losing Control?
Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization Saskia Sassen
What determines the flow of labor and capital in our new global information economy? Who has the capacity to coordinate this new system, to create a measure of order? And what happens to territoriality and sovereignty? Examining the rise of private transnational legal codes and supranational institutions such as the World Trade Organization and universal human rights covenants, Saskia Sassen argues that sovereignty remains an important feature of the international system but that a profound transformation is taking place, a partial denationalizing of national territory. Two arenas stand out: the global capital market and the series of codes and institutions that have mushroomed into an international human rights regime. As Sassen shows, these two realms now have the power and legitimacy to demand accountability from national governments, though both depend upon the state to enforce their goals.
From the economic policy shifts forced by the Mexico debt crisis to the recurring battles over immigration and refugees around the world, Losing Control? presents an incisive overview of the affairs radically altering world governance in an era of globalization. Saskia Sassen
“Sassen is particularly concerned with the transformation wrought by globalization on the national state and its basic attributes: sovereignty, exclusive territoriality, and citizenship. She does a fine job of outlining the positive and negative aspects of this process.” —World Affairs
is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and
cochairs the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Her recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages and A Sociology of Globalization.
$25.00 / £17.50 paper 978-0-231-10609-2 A p r i l 128 pages p o l i t i c s / i n t e r n at i o n a l r e l at i o n s
c l o t h e d i t i o n 1996 978-0-231-10608-5 L e o n a r d H a st i n gs S c h o ff L e c t u r e s
All Rights: Columbia University Press c u p. c o l u m b i a . e d u | 53