1 The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, First Edition. Edited by George Ritzer. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Transnational state JEB SPRAGUE The theory of an emergent transnational state (TNS), as coined by sociologist William I. Robinson (2001), claims that through globaliza- tion a nascent political, juridical and regulatory network is coming into existence worldwide. This notion rests upon the idea that a domi- nant social force, a transnational capitalist class (TCC), propels globalization through trans- national corporations (TNCs) (Robinson & Harris 2000). The TCC, to promote and ensure its power, requires a concomitant political pro- ject. Such a political project would involve, for example: (i) promoting investor confidence in the global economy, (ii) setting up mechanisms and institutions for responding to economic, political, and military crises that threaten the stability necessary for global markets, and (iii) establishing a degree of macroeconomic policy uniformity across borders. A restructuring of the world economy in the era of global capitalism has also occurred alongside political restructuring. Emphasizing economic development through incorpora- tion with global capital, state elites increasingly work to transfer state resources from “program oriented ministries (social services, educa- tion, labor, etc.) to central banks, treasuries and finance and economic ministries, and the foreign ministry” (Robinson 2001: 186). Over recent decades, more and more state elites have shared in this overarching project, which is ultimately in the interest of the TCC. State institutions, penetrated by transnational social forces, are changing, and, as Robinson sug- gests, in many ways are being incorporated into an emergent transnational network. Pushed by global capital and the policies of numerous institutions and powerful states (most impor- tantly, the United States) such transforma- tive processes continue to occur around the world yet are also held back by numerous divi- sions, inherent contradictions, and forms of resistance. In this way, the emergent TNS is an analyti- cal abstraction for understanding how many national and supranational state institutions around the world are transforming through globalization, as the practices and ideologies of the state elites who operate them have become tied in a variety of ways to the promotion and accumulation of global capital. In this shift, a “loose network comprised of supranational political and economic institutions together with national state apparatuses” is being “pene- trated and transformed by transnational forces” (Robinson 2007: 131). Robinson has looked in depth at how various social groups and strata and the institutions they operate through have become further incorporated into processes of global capitalism, for example, looking at how this has played out in recent history in coun- tries such as Haiti, Nicaragua, the Philippines, South Africa, regionally in Central America, and across the Americas (Robinson 1996, 2003, 2008). As many socioeconomic processes increasingly occur as functionally integrated (to different degrees) across borders it becomes more difficult for social scientists to reduce such processes as bound to the “nation-state.” Even the unilateral invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States, for exam- ple, can be understood as a conflict through the scope of global capitalism. Fractions of the TCC aligned with the US national state ben- efit from the intensified incorporation of new zones into global capitalism, as do many other fractions as time has passed. But still, even with different local conditions, and as tactical and strategic differences occur, transnationally ori- ented elites share in many overarching interests and processes. While sharing in the view that global capi- talism is a new epoch in the history of world