Fostering an emergent world social system constituting a profound modification in the condition of the human species and characterized by: a rapidly emerging world wide system of human interaction; growing globalization of economic and military interdependence; expanding network of cross-national organizations; increasing similarity in mankind's social institutions; increasing cultural homogeneity. The global focus is distinguished from the conception of international society and international relations as being confined to relations between sovereign, nation-states, which excludes consideration of important religious, language, scientific, commercial, cultural and other relationships, in addition to a variety of formal nongovernmental relations that constitute a worldwide network.
In its broadest sense internationalism a characteristic of relations, interactions or organizations in which individuals or organizations from two or more countries participate. In a more restricted sense, the relations, interactions or organizations only involve the participation of governments of nation-states. International is then synonymous with intergovernmental or interstate.
Traditional internationalism derives from the dictates of political expediency in a world of growing interdependence, but of unlimited horizons opened up by technology. Globalism is associated with the ambivalence of technology, its negative effects on the environment and ecological balance, the limited capacity of the biosphere, the population explosion, the limitation of resources, and the general finiteness of the planet.