After the Cold War, the world seems to be rapidly shifting towards democratization. Liberalization of markets has given birth to tremendous trade routes. And all these trade routes have dragged and dropped the nations into vicious cycles of interdependence and integration. In this opinion article, I will be discussing the impacts of regional integration over a nation’s right to be sovereign. Today, there’s no single sovereign state on earth that has not joined some transnational regional organization. And it would not be wrong to say that there’s no single state, that is sovereign in a true sense. Because when we’re concerned with the term “sovereignty”, it means exclusive and complete control of the state over its people and territory. It is actually the capability of a state to make laws and rules for its citizens, without any external interference. So, the idea of state sovereignty tells us that all the states are equal states. Whereas, regional integration sometimes (in fact most of the time) lets a state dominate over the other. That domination may be in the form of handshaking in such a way, that the subservient state cannot pull its hand back.
According to the theorists, there are some factors which stop the states from being able to turn around and switch their trade routes. The first one is trade dependence. The dominant state spreads a net of trade investments in such a way that the subservient states start completely relying on it. Being dependent in terms of trade, it’s burdensome for them to take a U turn. For example, after ASEAN-China free trade agreement, China offered its investments and services in such a way that the ASEAN states could not help being dependent on Chinese market. Undeniably, ASEAN states might have been the beneficiaries, but when it comes to sovereignty, those states are barely capable of making any trade decision without Chinese involvement. Other than that, the opportunity cost is what matters a lot. States seem reluctant to switch their trade because of massive switching cost. Thirdly, and the most importantly, there’s political sensitivity among states. Pakistan, for instance looks upon china, for moral and materialistic support in the hour of need. In any serious conflict with India, China would be the least reluctant to support Pakistan. These Strategic sensitivities bind the nations together.
Without the slightest doubt, integration and cooperation have played quite a role in empowering the states and raising living standards of the citizens. But the point to ponder is; what does integration takes in return from a state. Its ability to take decisions without any interruption? Or its right to choose another track (which doesn’t wet its socks) without any fear of being dragged back? I think both. Regional integration gives birth to the regional hegemon, which dominates or at least tries to dominate over other nations in that particular region.
Let’s recall a quite relatable short story. There used to live a wolf and some sheep in a jungle. The wolf owned the safest and the nearest patch of green grass, and the sheep obviously had fluffy wool on their bodies. One day, they sat together on a tea and went through a friendly agreement. It was decided that the wolf would let the herd of sheep graze through the grass field and also keep them safe from other wolves. And in return, the sheep will cut some wool off their bodies every day and give it to the wolf. (For that matter, the wolf would undeniably provide the sheep with sharp trimmers and scissors). The sheep ate well, all of them became healthy whereas the wolf kept collecting and piling up the wool. This all went very well until the winter came, because it was hard for sheep to survive the freezing season without any wool on their bodies. It is said that the whole winter, the wolf slept comfortably under the warm and cozy wool and the sheep suffered with high fever and cold.
In South Asia, China’s rise as a regional hegemon unleashes a number of facts. China went in an agreement with Hong Kong and Macao in 2003. In its early harvest phase, it was a simple agreement which covered a few services and small scale investment. But Beijing definitely had some plans for later. In 2012, the agreement was extended by including education, training and rail transportation. As of 2018, China was a home to Hong Kong’s 50 percent of total trade. Hong Kong and Macao’s dependence over China has increased to a level that China has a huge formal and informal influence over both of them. Thus, they’ve been trapped in such a way that they’ll think a hundred times over before switching their trade routes to some other nation.
Cutting to the chase, these gold-plated mousetraps leave the nations with almost no other options. The growth of multinationals, and intensification in regional connections, have brought the nations closer to each other. But at the same time, these bonds have created a concept of a regional master and its subordinates. This relationship among that haughty master and the subordinates confines the sovereign rights of the state, thus creating an unending inequality in the region and ultimately in the international system.
