Globalization theory and state theory: the false antinomy

Since the 1990s, globalization theorists have published a never-ending litany of books and articles about the crisis of the nation-state, the eclipse of the state, the retreat of the state, and even the end of the nation-state. Globalization theory has, on a regular basis, dismissed the nation-state as irrelevant to understanding contemporary political and economic development. However, this paper reexamines the relationship between globalization theory and state theory to argue that nation-states are the principal agents of globalization, as well as the guarantors of the political and material conditions necessary for global capital accumulation. Globalization theorists have constructed a false antinomy that rests largely on having misconstrued international relations (IR) theory, while ignoring significant developments in neo-Marxist state theory