Nation States and State Nations

Question 1

Who were the authors for the reading for this topic? What year was their work?

Answer 1

Mostafa and Enloe

1969

Question 2

What is the concept of a ‘nation’ about and what is a ‘state’ about?

Answer 2

A nation is about identity (national identity) it is primarily a psycho-cultural concept
WHEREAS
A state is about political autonomy it is primarily a political-legal concept

Question 3

Does a state have to come with a nation and vice versa?

Answer 3

No. Nation and state are independent. A nation can exist without a state (Kurds in the Middle East + Balochis in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran + Punjabs in India and Pakistan…) and a state without a nation (Pakistan + many Arab ‘nations…).

Question 4

What has been a major factor in leaving nations without a state or states without a nation?

Answer 4

The legacy of colonialism has left artificial borders across the globe leaving states without nations or nations split between states.

In many countries pre-WW2 the sense of national identity evolved prior to the crystallisation of the structures of political authority - BUT in many of the underdeveloped nations of the world the sequence is reversed and in many cases the state is developing a national identity that didn’t exist before.

Question 5

What is the broad geographical distribution of nation states and state nations?

Answer 5

Broad pattern - Europe produced NATION STATES but Africa and Asia have produced STATE NATIONS.

Question 6

What is a state?

Answer 6

A political and administrative setup concerned with exercising authority (formal/juridical)

Question 7

What is a state nation?

Answer 7

A state without one clear national identity. Political integration of people first, cultural integration takes place next. Often result of artificial borders drawn on a map. Inorganic phenomenon.

Question 8

What is a nation state?

Answer 8

When the idea of a nation and a state coincide (boundaries of state and nation are near exact). It is a nation with political sovereignty. Socially cohesive, politically organised and independent. The nation should define its own form of government to facilitate its well being in the wider world.

Question 9

What is a nation?

Answer 9

A relatively large group of people who feel that they belong by virtue of sharing one or more such traits as common language, religion or race, common history or tradition, common set of customs and common destiny. Traits may not exist - all that matters is that people believe they do.

Question 10

What is nationalism?

Answer 10

An awareness of membership in a nation (potential or actual), together with a desire to achieve, maintain and perpetuate the identity, integrity and prosperity of that nation. (Rejai and Enloe 1969)

Question 11

What is the role of language and communication in the sense of a nation?

Answer 11

Many scholars consider language and communication as particularly important characteristics of a nation and nationalism (borders of what a nation is is often drawn along linguistic lines - language central to many separatist nationalist movements, e.g. that of the Basques or Catalans).

HOWEVER, communication can mean more than language - Indian and Swiss nations are key outliers and so are the separate Arab nations on the other end of the spectrum.

Question 12

What is a nationalist ideology?

Answer 12

Nationalist ideology - psychological condition (state of mind) in which one’s highest loyalty is to the nation. Involves a belief in the superiority of one’s nation above all other nations. Like all other ideologies it entails elements of myth (characteristics to define the nation may not all exist).

Question 13

What is formative nationalism?

Answer 13

The process of nation building

Question 14

What is prestige nationalism?

Answer 14

The process of nation-aggrandising (most contemporary Western and Northern European nationalist movements). Building the prestige of the nation. ‘Bigging’ up the nation.

Question 15

What is expansive nationalism?

Answer 15

The glorification of the nation spills over its own territorial boundaries (if it entails annexation of other lands or conquest of other countries). Often driven by irredentism or feelings of cultural/racial supremacy (where things get messy).

Question 16

Why are state nations interesting to study?

Answer 16

They are far more complex, effects the way states act on an international state, more prone to intra-state conflict (ethnic divide, religious divide… within artificial nations), cross boundary national/cultural affiliations make it messy, power struggle between different ethnic groups all trying to dominate the state and promote their culture/language/religion (leads to separatism, India has 22 separatist movements…) and governing different or opposing groups in one state is very difficult for governments (causes conflict or governmental collapse), lack legitimacy (even within the state citizens will think this). Most of the world are state nations, no wonder the world is a mess?

Question 17

What is the distinction between nation state nationalism vs state nation nationalism in terms of where it comes from?

Answer 17

Nation state nationalism is mostly bottom up (a sentiment from the people) WHEREAS state nation nationalism is mostly top down (the state an the elites have to push a sense of national pride on a diverse population, e.g. in Pakistan, post-colonial Africa…)

Question 18

What are some non-western examples of nation states?

Answer 18

Turkey and Iran

Question 19

How did the foundations of the states of Germany and France differ?

Answer 19

-Germany had a sense of national and cultural consciousness before the German states united
-France actually had the reverse of Germany with a monarchical state preceding national consciousness

Question 20

Who has a lot to say about social mobilisation?

Answer 20

Karl Deutsch

Question 21

What does Karl Deutsch have to say about social mobilisation and the development of national identity?

Answer 21

He identifies that the more important changes are urbanisation and industrialisation, population growth and mobility, technological advances (particularly in communication and transportation), the gradual awakening of a sense of individual and collective awareness, and, finally, the attempt to preserve and enhance the status and interests of the collectivity.

He believes that “susceptibility to nationalism increases sharply with… the shift of people away from a subsistence economy and local isolation” with modern technology (e.g. mass media, literacy…) increasing susceptibility to nationalism. Western and non-western nationalism are somewhat similar in this regard.

Question 22

Why was the French Revolution of 1789 important in the development of nationalism?

Answer 22

The French Revolution spread the idea that the nation has a right and identity of its own.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) boldly proclaimed that “sovereignty resides essentially in the nation; no body of men, no individual, can exercise authority that does not emanate expressly from it.” With the French Revolution, nation and state merged.

Question 23

How is the birth of modern nationalism, the growth of democracy and industrialisation linked?

Answer 23

The rise of nationalism coincided with the growth of democratic ideas and sentiments. The middle classes were demanding new rights, including the rights of representation and participation in public affairs. This in turn suggests a relation ship between nationalism and industrialism: only industrialism could have produced the new classes which rose to assert their new powers and demand new rights.

Indeed, without the advances in transportation, communication, trade, and commerce afforded by the Industrial Revolution, it would not have been possible for modern nations to come into being.

Question 24

What is our case study for the nation preceding the state?

Answer 24

Germany

Question 25

How was the German nation state born?

Answer 25

German nationalism of the 19th century-initially a response to Napoleonic expansionism-departed from its French counter-part. Long before 1789, there had existed among the German principalities a sense of social and cultural unity. The French Revolution intensified this.

Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) had expounded what in effect might be called a cultural nationalism. He had conceived of humanity as made up of a series of cultures each consisting of a group or a “folk” (Volk) with its own tradition, custom, literature, music, language, and even “soul” (Volksgeist). To Herder each culture represented natural and organic growth. He used a biological analogy in describing cultural groups as living organisms that are born, grow, and mature. He advocated a comparative “physiognomy” of the peoples of the world.

BUT Herder did not call for the creation of nation-states. For him, nationalism was a romantic conception looking toward humanity rather than states; it was devoid of political imperatives. It was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who succeeded in giving Herder’s cultural nationalism a firm political grounding. What Hegel had done in theory and philosophy, Otto von Bismarck and Heinrich von Treitschke accomplished in practice.

In Germany this sense of national identity preceded the state, in France, the state preceded the nation.

Question 26

What type of nationalism spread rapidly throughout the world in the 20th C?

Answer 26

In the 20thC a “new nationalism” took place, for the most part, in colonial areas; and it was, in large measure, a reaction against prior Western policies of imperialism and conquest.

The new nationalism that emerged in Africa and Asia most often either seized or negotiated the occupancy of the state’s structures the character of which often moulded the vehicles of authority. There often lacked a society-wide feeling of commonality.

Question 27

What is non-western nationalism challenged with that western nationalism is not?

Answer 27

One major challenge faced by most non-Western nationalisms is the fact that they have to attempt to integrate foreign values and practices without sacrificing the essential distinctiveness which justifies the practice of colonial peoples calling themselves “nations”. Most Western nations did not suffer the traumas of this ordeal in their development. “Integration” has even more profound implications, therefore, in the non-Western nationalist experience.

Question 28

In what way could non-western nationalism largely be viewed as coming from a negative perspective?

Answer 28

Non-Western nationalism is, at least initially, a protest movement. The doctrinal and attitudinal content of non-Western nationalism is largely negative, signifying a reaction against foreign domination. A related feature of non-Western nationalism lies in the extremely important role played by the intellectual elite. It is dominated by an abhorrence of subjugation rather than from a sense of cultural identity.

Question 29

How do new state nations make up for the lack of one cohesive culture?

Answer 29

The first question for the architects of the new state nations is what integrative cement can serve as a substitute for cultural affinity. The very mixed success of national language acts (e.g., in India and Malaysia) and state religion establishments (e.g., in Burma) casts doubt on the ability of authorities to create cultural affinities by fiat. These state nations’ nationalist movements are dominated by an abhorrence of subjugation rather than from a sense of cultural identity which separates the outsider from the insider.

In Europe nationalism spurred modernisation; in most of Africa and Asia modernisation is looked to as a means of promoting nationalism?

Question 30

Should the dichotomy between Western and non-Western nationalism be read as a dichotomy between ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ entities?

Answer 30

The dichotomy between Western and non-Western nationalism, between nation-states and state-nations, should not be read as a dichotomy between “natural” and “artificial” entities. If nations are collectivities bound together by common allegiances to the whole, then there is no reason why state-nations cannot be as genuine in their “nationhood” as nation-states (however, the nationalism of state-nations has tended to be elitist and officially sponsored, while the nationalism of nation-states has tended to be mass and to an extent spontaneous).

Question 31

What challenge are older nation-states now experiencing in the face of modernisation?

Answer 31

They feel the need to reexamine the territorial and social bases for their autonomy and integration. Older nation-states which consolidated in the national form prior to the “knowledge explosion” and the “technological revolution” are discovering that in order to pursue or keep pace with modernisation they must reexamine the territorial and social bases of their autonomy and integration. The newer state-nations, on the other hand, do not face quite the same necessity for reexamining the bases of their integration because they began to integrate at a time when the need for the pooling of resources was already more apparent. Thus in Africa and Asia the parallel processes of regionalism and national consolidation go along relatively smoothly side by side, whereas in Europe the same two processes generate greater internal strain. The duality arouses greater self-consciousness because it means redefining the proper criteria for autonomy and integration. This increase in self-consciousness may in turn be largely responsible for the seemingly anomalous outbursts of nationalist separatism in Belgium, Canada, and Great Britain.

Question 32

Nationalism takes a variety of forms in different areas of globe depending greatly on the nature and extent of the pressures for mobilisation… what are some different forms?

Answer 32

Western vs Eastern - state nations often exist outside the west as products of western colonialism (state concept doesn’t work everywhere in the world), except for Turkey and Iran as examples.

Bottom up vs Top down nationalism - Often bottom up in nation states and top down in state nations as the government try and manufacture and force a national identity onto citizens to create a strong government (or born out of resistance - e.g. Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Azikiwe…), often coincides with west vs east dichotomy.

Language based separatist nationalism - language is often central to the nationalism of not yet established nation states as it spurs on separatists and gives them legitimacy (e.g. Catalans, Basques, Corsicans, Welsh…)

Question 33

What is the mainstream idea of the organisation of the world into states?

Answer 33

The world is composed of 195 sovereign states - popular because seen as best way of organising people and governing. Sovereign states fairly new concept.

State has a territory, a population and complete sovereignty within its borders (independent governments). Westphalia led to establishment of doctrine of non-interference. States should not integer in the domestic affairs of other states - UN Charter Article 2(4) and Article 2(7).

This is the Westphalian system.

Question 34

Where did the current system of sovereign states come from? What are some indues with the foundation of this system?

Answer 34

The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia.

The Treaty came out of the 30 years war. 30 years war (1618-48 war involving Sweden, various German states, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Poland… caused great destruction in Europe) = Treaty of Westphalia (1648) = treaty which birthed the sovereign state and a system of sovereign states (statist system). The Treaty was a way out of international confusion, lawlessness, conflict and chaos.

HOWEVER

Westphalian system created in Europe and worked for Europe. But does it work for the rest of the world? Lines across the world drawn by European empires to create a world carved up into sovereign states has led to problems across the entire globe. Is a one size fits all policy right to take?

Question 35

What problematic doctrine did European Empires employ leaving state nations in a difficult state when the Empires withdrew?

Answer 35

Divide and rule.

European empires carved the world according to European rules and European outlooks. Often borders were drawn to DIVIDE strong nations, clans or tribes, or simply just drawn to separate empires as they CONQUERed. (Divide and conquer). Families and people groups divided by the Europeans for European gain.

Divisions further exacerbated through post-colonial states which were left as state nations with all of the problems that being a state nation brings.

Often European powers left state nations with a minority in power (e.g. Shias left ruling Sunni Syria…) so that the governing minority will be thankful to the power as they lack governing legitimacy. State nations are also natural breeding grounds for separatism and secessionist movements (exist across the post-colonial world).

Question 36

What happened after WW2 in regards to new state nations?

Answer 36

Post-WW2 world saw the the fall of European empires and the establishment of dozens of new states (quantitive problem), YET Eurocentric understandings of the world from the imperial age still remained (qualitative problem). States across the globe were built on Eurocentric moulds and standards.

Question 37

How did the Cold War lead to a problematic management of problems within the two camps?

Answer 37

West (American aligned) and East (Soviet aligned) camps kept lids on problems that were to surface later on. The USSR and USA tried to suppress any problems within their camp. Non-aligned states obvious exceptions.

1991-2008 = Unipolar period of American hegemony. Ended due to recession of 2008 and failures in Iraq. Lid fell off and things fell apart to a degree and states are in their current scenario.

Question 38

What is the type of pressure that states in the global south (often state nations) face?

Answer 38

Dual pressures.

Contemporary developing states have domestic challenges along with external challenges.

Question 39

What are the choices of ‘Third World Elites/Governments’ under dual pressures?

Answer 39

-Maintain international order and status-quo
-Security relations and pacts with the West (e.g. weapon deals)
-That helps domestic control (but without legitimacy)
-Developing world elites serving the interests of Western/global elites

Developing state nations face loads of pressures from within, from outside and also pressure to urgently pool resources to modernise (pooling of citizens’ loyalties, allegiances and attentions comes second). State nations rely on top down nationalism eventually to get citizens’ loyalties or they rely on force to sustain the arrangement of the nation state. Often increases divisions which undermines rather than reinforce state’s authority.

Question 40

Is the world in poly-crisis because of the state system left as a legacy of European colonialism?

Answer 40

There is an argument that yes it is.

People (refugees, asylum seekers…) on the move because of failing state nations with ethnic conflict or post colonial states with no economic development… intra and inter state conflicts exist all over the post-colonial world.

Europe had a big hand in causing problems across the globe which have led to conflicts in artificial state nations (defeats “why can’t they all just get along” talking point) and has pushed people out (why are European Right Wingers to close the door on problems largely created by Europe?).

Question 41

Who are the economic and political managers of the international system?

Answer 41

The west.

Many state nations have aspirations of independence from this system. These aspirations are the “products of a historical process of unequal interaction-in military, economic, political, cultural, and technological terms - between the populations (of these states) … and their former colonial masters” (Ayoob 1989, 71).