The End of the Nation State

The author argues that nation states have lost their ability to control exchange-rates and protect their currencies, and have consequently forfeited their role as critical participants in the global economy.

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In this work, Ohmae argues that not only have nation states lost their ability to control exchange rates and protect their currencies, but because they no longer generate real economic activity, they have forfeited their role as critical participants in the global economy. Ohmae contends that five great forces - communication, corporation, customers, capital and currencies - have usurped the economic power once held by the nation state. He explains how communications control the movement of capital and corporations across national borders, how demanding consumers determine the flow of goods and services, and how harmful governmental policies are increasingly disciplined by the actions of informed consumers, profit-seeking corporations, and currency markets. The result, Ohmae claims, has been the rise of the region state, the natural economic zones that have emerged, for example, between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Ohmae argues that to establish a presence within these regional markets, corporations must jettison their "country strategies" and instead focus on special strategies for particular regions.