Beyond Sovereignty: Territory and Political Economy in the Twenty-First Century

Pradip Sarbadhikari is a professor of political science at Lakehead
University in Thunder Bay.

This ambitious and somewhat unfocused book draws upon political models
past and present to support the author’s vision of the 21st century.
According to Elkins, nation-states have experienced an erosion in
sovereignty since the 17th century. The reasons for this erosion include
the growth of incipient nations within nations’ territories; the
separation of economics from the political realm; the spread of human
rights; and the intensification of free trade. What is emerging in place
of the nation-state is a borderless world wherein governments will be
compelled to retreat from the powers invested in them. Nations will
continue to exist in the 21st century, Elkins argues, but they will once
again “share power, sovereignty and loyalty with non-territorial modes
of organization.” The radical change in thinking about sovereignty,
territory, and political economy offered in this book is specifically
relevant to Canada and an emerging international society.