The Many Faces of Nationalism

Annual Review of Political Science, 2021

Amid the global resurgence of nationalist governments, what do we know about nationalism? This review takes stock of political science debates on nationalism to critically assess what we already know and what we still need to know. We begin by synthesizing classic debates and tracing the origins of the current consensus that nations are historically contingent and socially constructed. We then highlight three trends in contemporary nationalism scholarship: (a) comparative historical research that treats nationalism as a macropolitical force and excavates the relationships between nations, states, constitutive stories, and political conflict; (b) behavioral research that uses survey data and experiments to gauge the causes and effects of attachment to nations; and (c) ethnographic scholarship that illuminates the everyday processes and practices that perpetuate national belonging. The penultimate section briefly summarizes relevant insights from philosophy, history, and social psychology and identifies knowledge gaps that political scientists are well-positioned to address. A final section calls for more comparative, cross-disciplinary, cross-regional research on nationalism.

1996

The reemergence of nationalism in Europe is characterized by its strong appeal to values outside modernist spheres of reference. Its success is a symptom of profound dissatisfaction with modernist ideals, resulting in, in the words of William McBride, a sort of global malaise. 1 Juergen Habermas' analysis of the changes in Europe is, as I shall show, inadequate, especially for Eastern Europe. The new nationalism defies an analysis like his that is too rationalistic and couched in Enlightenment ideals such as morality for morality's sake, a rather conceited conception of reason, and an abhorrence (or at least a commitment to uncompromising domination) of nature. I will try to explain how the history of nationhood in Europe is influencing the current resurgence of nationalism as the new direction of society. It will be interesting to note the difference between unified Germany and Eastern Europe. The Germany's tradition included a very strong appeal to mythology which did not translate well into the reasonableness of enlightenment but did translate well into postmodernism. The case study of Yugoslavia as a victim of nationalist forces, which gained the upper hand as a consequence of the lack of any other forces, will serve to demonstrate the "newness" of the nationalism there. Habermas 1 " Rethinking Democracy in Light of the East European Experience," in The Social Power of Ideas, pg. 125

Nationalism & Ethnic Politics, 1 (4): 143-5 (ISSN: 1353-7113)., 1996

Third World Quarterly, 2008

This introduction provides the historical and intellectual historical context for our thesis of the transition from developmental to cultural nationalisms. After settling issues of definition and periodisation in relation to nations, nationalisms and the international order, I outline how, in all the main phases in the three-century long birth of the international world out of one of empires, capitalist and precapitalist, in tandem with the spread of capitalism (and initially, imperialism), nations and nationalisms were understood and, often revealingly, misunderstood. Three main distorting factors accounted for the misunderstandings: 1) the implication of nations and nationalisms in the spread of capitalism was ignored; 2) their role, in comparison with imperialism, the other major geopolitical dynamic of the past few centuries, was underestimated; and 3) capitalism was understood, one-sidedly, as a universalising force, a prejudice reinforced by imperialism (especially when it was largely the imperialism of one country, England, in the 19th century). The universal Enlightenment intellectual temper also played a role and it is not surprising, in retrospect, that scholarship on nationalism burgeoned precisely at the time, in the last third of the 20th century, when attention to difference and particularity and the questioning of universal thinking became the leading intellectual trend. This scholarship, however, only accentuated the dominant tendency to understand nations culturally, in separation from political economy and it proved unable to stall the force of the mistaken ‘globalisation’ thesis about the decline of nations and nationalisms.Throughout this discussion critical insights which more-or-less escaped these distortions and detected the intertwining of culture and political economy innationalism are noted.

European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research, 2015

Different events which happened in Europe made not only Europeans but people all over the world think that the efforts for creating a unified Europe, and a global village is threatening national identities and livelihoods. Although globalization is considered as a buzzword of modern era, nationalism, too, is very much alive in its own way. Nationalism is not only expected to persist but also increase and intensify in response to and in opposition to forces of globalization. Thus according to Anthony Giddens, “the revival of local nationalisms, and an accentuating of local identities, is directly bound up with globalizing influences, to which they stand in opposition.”(Giddens, 1994:5).Therefore this paper will try to answer the question: Is there a link between nationalism and globalization? Can these two forces be complementary rather than contradictory? Is their existence a battle of winners and losers? The paper will shortly see the pros and cons and the implications of these for...

The Nation Form in the Global Age, 2022

This chapter reflects on the issues raised in the volume. It examines specifically the history of violence and ethno-religious purification in nationalism. The chapter deals with examples from Europe, Iran, India, and China, showing some general patterns and differences.

Atsuko Ichijo, Nationalism and Multiple Modernities: Europe and Beyond. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 143pp. £55 (hbk).

The Review of Politics, 1996

On Nationality and Banal Nationalism ought to receive attention for each brings something new to the study of nationalism. Miller and Billig reject approaches that see nationalism as an elemental force outside human control. Instead both build on Benedict Anderson's definition of a nation as an "imagined community," and both agree nationalism is not something that should be explained either in terms of individuals' subconscious needs or in functionalist terms. They also agree nationalism is not a primordial but a modern phenomenon. Finally, both reject theories that attempt to sanitize nationalism by making a distinction between good and bad nationalisms. These similarities, notwithstanding, the two inquiries venture into very different territory. Using a version of social-psychology, reworked to fit his poststructuralist commitments, Billig's argues nationalism is a form of ideological consciousness that makes nations, and the world of nations, appear natural and moral. His central thesis-that in established western nations there is a continual "flagging" {i.e., reminding) of nationhood-stands in contrast to the customary understanding of nationalism which sees separatists, fascists and guerrillas as the problem. That view is misleading because it makes nationalism "the property of others, not of 'us'"; by being semantically restricted to "small sizes and exotic colours," nationalism becomes a problem, that occurs "out there" (on the periphery), not "here" at the center (p. 6). Furthermore, this view lacks words to describe the daily reproduction of established western countries and hence, by implication, they are not a problem. Another problem with the orthodox approach is that it makes it appear that nationalism only strikes on special occasions: during national holidays and international crises. Nationalism, in other words, is a temporary mood. But if this were true, it could not suddenly be mobilized. For that to be able to occur, certain ideological habits of thought must be reproduced daily. This is "banal nationalism." It consists of the routine ways in which nationalism is "flagged" daily in established nations. Different chapters give accounts of "flagging" in the speeches of politicians, the daily papers, the unsaluted flags hanging in public buildings, and in sports coverage which provides, mainly men, with daily "pleasure-saturated reminders" of the possibility that they may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice (p. 175). Billig also argues that like other ideologies, nationalism has its philosophical variant. This is most well represented by Richard Rorty, whose work exemplifies the new nationalism being developed for a new world

Introduction for the volume Nationalism in a Transnational Age, co-ed. with Carsten Schapkow (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021). Nationalism was declared to be dead too early. A postnational age was announced, and liberalism claimed to have been victorious by the end of the Cold War. At the same time postnational order was proclaimed in which transnational alliances like the European Union were supposed to become more important in international relations. But we witnessed the rise a strong nationalism during the early 21st century instead, and right wing parties are able to gain more and more votes in elections that are often characterized by nationalist agendas.

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2005

2005