The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies - Softcover

Ohmae, Kenichi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006387373 ISBN 13: 9780006387374

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

‘The Tokyo prophet presents a clear-eyed perception of the way the world is going. A spectacularly effective thinker... What he says undoubtedly changes the minds of powerful people.
Bryan Appleyard, Independent

‘A bold statement of a provocative thesis’
Robert L. Bartley, Editor, The Wall Street Journal

From the Back Cover:

A MASTERFUL ANALYSIS THAT WILL REDEFINE THE WORKINGS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY FOR YEARS TO COME.

Nation states are dinosaurs waiting to die. Kenichi Ohmae, world-renowned business strategist, argues that not only have they lost their ability to control exchange rates and protect their currencies, but they no longer generate real economic activity. While governments cling to jingoistic celebrations of nationhood, within their borders a revolution has been born.

The fates of the nation states are increasingly determined by economic choices made elsewhere. Ohmae explains how communications now control the movement of capital and corporations across national borders, and consumer demand now determines the flow of goods and services. The nation states have forfeited their economic supremacy to the 'region states', the links forged between, for instance, San Diego and Tijuana, Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. These links are closer than those with the 'host' nations, bringing real, concrete improvements in the quality of life, and constituting essential growing markets for the goods and services of global corporations.

Ohmae contends that the emergence of the region state changes deeply and forever the global logic that defines how corporations operate. His is the first full-scale analysis of this important and far-reaching global phenomenon.

"A bold statement of a provocative thesis."
ROBERT L. BARTLEY, Editor, 'The Wall Street Journal'

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0006387373
• ISBN 13: 9780006387374
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224