Chapter Summary for Chapter 23
Nationalism refers to a set of symbols and beliefs that provide the sense of being part of a single political community called a nation. Nationalist movements have been among the most influential social movements in the shaping of the modern world. Gellner argues that nationalism is largely the product of the industrialization process and is therefore a thoroughly modern phenomenon.
However, Smith’s alternative argument suggests that many nations have links connecting them with their earlier ethnie, or ethnic communities, which makes them much older than eighteenth-century industrialization. As nations have diverged from earlier ethnies, we have been left with the phenomenon of nations without states, such as the Basques, Chechnyans and Kashmiris. These tend to relate to their nation-state hosts in different ways.
Guibernau suggests three types of relationship:
- a limited cultural autonomy (UK);
- a regional political autonomy (Quebec, Flanders);
- a forcible denial of recognition (Tibetans, Kurds, Palestinians).
There are clear tensions between centralization and decentralization caused by the globalization of politics. For example, Pilkington argues that established national identities face a dual threat: growing European Union powers create pressure from above, whilst strong ethnic minority identities create pressure from below. These pressures call into question whether the nation-state has a future.
While some groups hark back to earlier local identities to resist globalization, there is still a long list of groups aspiring to nation-state status, which perhaps suggests the nation-state is not finished just yet.
War is the clash of two organized armed forces seeking to destroy each other’s power and will to resist by killing members of the opposing force. Wars are not natural or rooted in aggressive instinct but are engaged in as a result of political calculation and carried out in organized ways. As Clausewitz said, war is the continuation of political intercourse by other means.
The conduct of wars has changed considerably over time. Shaw argues that recent conflicts, such as those involving Western troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, have the character of risk-transfer wars. That is, attempts are made to protect soldiers’ lives to avoid damaging publicity for politicians at home, with the risks of war being transferred to the civilian population, harm to which is often referred to as ‘collateral damage’.
Genocide is a form of war in which social groups (rather than armies) are the enemy and attempts are made to destroy those groups that are identified as enemies.
Kaldor argues that old-style warfare is giving way to new forms of waging war. The industrialized total wars seen in the twentieth century were very different from the smaller localized wars fought in previous times. However, today the revolution in military affairs (RMA) suggests that the use of information technology is transforming war again, bringing about low-intensity conflicts such as that fought in Bosnia, 1992-5. However, the low-intensity conflicts today include many transnational connections involving mercenaries, diaspora volunteers, international peacekeeping forces, and so on, which marks them out as very different types of ‘localized’ conflict.
Terrorism – the use of violence to intimidate civilian populations by non-state actors pursuing political goals – has its roots in the counter-revolutionary response to the French Revolution. However, sociologists disagree about the concept’s neutrality and whether states can also be said to carry out terrorist acts. It is also the case that over time terrorist groups can become part of the establishment, as occurred with the ANC in South Africa.
A distinction can be made between old-style and new-style terrorism. Much old-style terrorism, such as the IRA and ETA campaigns, was aimed at establishing nation-states and was characterized by limited territorial disputes and limited local organization.
New-style terrorism, as practiced by al-Qaeda for example, tends to be global in its ambitions, is organized transnationally using relatively loose networks of activists, and recruits its members internationally. New-style terrorists have also been prepared to use extreme violence against civilians in disparate locations across the world as part of their broader campaigns.
Recent cosmopolitan thinkers suggest that the decentring of the nation-state may present new opportunities for international institutions to be more active in conflict prevention and resolution, opening the way for a global cosmopolitan democracy of equal citizens.
