Increasingly, through transnational and multinational organizations, citizens pressure their governments from two directions. Hence, what is perceived by some as an erosion of state sovereignty is really a realization on the part of states that sovereignty can be shared under some circumstances. Sovereignty should not be perceived as rigid and uniform. Some will argue that redefining sovereignty is just an obscurist excuse to justify something that does not exist. Regulatory regimes, international organizations and common policies sanctioned by treaty all come into existence when nation-states agree to create them and confer legitimacy on them.
Sovereignty is of positive significance as a distinguishing feature of the nation-state.
Because international society today is highly integrated, states must act as pivots between the various forms of agency that they sanction and regulate, such as non-governmental organizations. Extreme globalization theorists like Kenichi Ohmae maintain that the forces of the global marketplace and transnational corporations cannot be effectively governed by the state. There is a general consensus amongst globalization theorists that economic integration is the hallmark of globalism. The question remains whether such a global economy actually exists. There is a significant difference between an economy that is strictly global and one that is highly internationalized.