Transnationalism has changed the shape of our world. This is true even though most of us have only a vague idea about what transnationalism is, and even those who believe that they know what the word means in fact disagree over the definition of the term that is more or less a synonym for "globalization". This paper examines three specific questions that arise from this phenomenon of globalization, or transnationalism.
Globalization in general refers to the current flows of capital, people, information and images and culture across national borders. Such flows of money, products and ideas across the previously far more impermeable national borders of the world have been given substantial impetus by such international trading agreements as NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement (a pact that was in many political and economic ways prompted by the founding of the larger and more economically powerful European Union).
It is most certainly true that at the beginning of the 21st century - as indeed it has been true for hundreds of years - that international trade plays an important part in the economy of most countries. As countries like the United States have become increasingly industrialized, foreign trade has become increasingly important to their economies. In fact, the United States is now in terms of both exports and imports the most important single trading country in terms of volume of goods traded and the value of those goods. One consequence of this is that the United States - and U.S. companies - have an immense amount of power vis-a-vis its trading partners.
NAFTA has allowed companies in one nation to do business more easily in the other two and has created a more united economic and political identity for the largest nations of the continent. This would seem at first to be a good thing, for most of us at some level believe that free markets are a good thing and that fair competition, unburdened by the prot...