Has the nation state, a political unit with internationally recognised boundaries, had its day? Does it matter if it disappears? A conversation with author, journalist and broadcaster Michael Goldfarb.
The role of the nation state was once easily understood and widely accepted. It existed in order to defend the identity of a nation. Nation states though have always had to adapt.
Globally, capital can flow unconstrained by national boundaries. And the crisis in the Eurozone raises the question of whether E.U. member-states ought to give up sovereignty to create centralised financial structures.
Does this doom the nation state to an inevitable decline? Or might it survive by giving new life to progressive and enterprising societies?
Michael Goldfarb has written for
The Guardian,
The New York Times and
The Washington Post but is best known for his work in public radio and the BBC. Throughout the 1990′s, as NPR’s London Correspondent and then Bureau Chief, he covered conflicts and conflict resolution from Northern Ireland to Bosnia to Iraq.
Chaired by
Hywel Williams, author and historian.
In its Salon Series the Legatum Institute hosts scholars, writers, artists and public figures to discuss issues that are fundamental to the success of free, prosperous, and enterprising societies. Ranging widely across the arts, sciences and humanities, the conversations promote a discourse between cultural, philosophical, economic and political modes of enquiry.
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