The answer we arrived at was a solid... ish. Does the creation of organizations such as the EU, African Union and NGO's affect state sovereignty? Yes, a bit. Is the EU going to remain united? Maybe. These are questions that are really interesting and as a side note, I now totally understand why this class opened with Hobbes. I keep imagining global politics as a kind of recess playground. Alliances are formed, secrets are found out or kept, those we're friendly with this week are totally different than the ones we were friends with last week, we have to help out a friend in a bind and then it's expected all over... I could go on, but I think you get the gist. The biggest difference is that global politics do not have a "recess lady" or anyone overseeing the field. Now a class member would say something in favor of Global Government, and I'm sure there would be a reference to the Star Trek Federation. The problem is, I'm not totally convinced that would be desirable or feasible. It seems like the question that we generally run into is - who watches the watchmen? Where would the checks and balances be? How could a global system of government ensure that each state can still act on their own in some ways? It's never a good idea for a bureaucracy to get too big because then nothing ever gets done.
I think that the EU has been a grand experiment in finding out just how much sovereignty a country is willing to give up, how much a country is willing to help other member countries and how tired of each other such an organization can get. Looking at the possibility of Britain leaving the EU, there are things that they'll want to consider, but personally I think that the national identity of being "British" before being "European" will win out. Just a theory, but I'll be watching what is happening with popcorn and a kind of fascination that is usually reserved for films.
I found the spiral model in the readings to be a very good example of how a country can come to change their policies toward something like human rights due to pressure from their own citizens, NGO's, and other countries. Mapping changes in societies is obviously something that I find quite interesting and I thought that illustration was on point.
I really like your recess analogy. It fits perfectly in a lot of ways. Although without a recess lady it might be more of a Lord of Flies scenario which is a scary thought. It's definitely hard to imagine people giving preference to an identity other than their national identity. However, I think there was a time in history for which it seemed unlikely that people would identify themselves with anything greater than their city state so perhaps it is just the prevailing perspective of our time that there can't concretely be anything beyond a national identity.
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