The transformation of the medieval and the modern can be depicted in the at least

two different ways. In one sense it represents the trend towards the consolidation

and strenghtening of the territorial state . . . In another sense it represents a

reordering in the priority of international and domestic realms. In the medieval

period in the world, or transnational, environment was primary, the domestic

What I am offering here is what I call and advocate as a necessarily minimal model of globalisation. This model does not make grand assertions about primary factors, major mechanisms, and so on. Rather , it indicates the major constraining tendencies which have been operating in relatively recent history as far as world order and the compression of the world in our time concerned.

As I have indicated, one of the most pressing tasks in that regard is to confront the issue of the undoubted salience of the unitary nation state – more

Phase II – the incipient phase, lasting – mainly in Europe – from the mid-eighteenth century until the 1870’s. Sharp shift towards the ides of the homogenous, unitary state; crystallization of conceptions of formalised international relations , of standardisedcitizenly individuals and a more concrete conception of humankind. Sharp increases in conventions and agencies concerned with international and transnational regulation and communication. Beginning of problem of ‘admission’ of non-European societies to ‘international society’. Thematisation of nationalism-internationalism issue.

Phase I – The geminal phase, lasting in Europe from the early fifteenth until the mid-eighteenth century. Incipient growth of national communities and downplaying of the medieval ‘transnational’ system. Accentuation of concepts of the individual and of ideas about humanity. Heliocentric theory of the world and beginning of modern geography; spread of Gregorian calendar.

Phase V – The uncertainty phase, beginning in the 1960s and displaying crisis tendencies in the early 1990s. Inclusion of Third World and heightening of global consciousness in the late 1960s. Moon Landing.

Some topics in this essay:
, Phase III, Phase II, Landing Accentuation, Phase IV, Nations Phase, Third World, Implementation World, phase lasting, national society, mid-eighteenth century, †mid-eighteenth century, national societies, gregorian calendar, phase â€, nations phase, sense represents, nation â€, international relations,