International Politics and the Global Odyssey of the Nation-State Concept

• In Event: Law, Power, and Governance of the International

Abstract

The recent resurgence of ethnic nationalism reinforces widely held assumptions that new nation-states arrive mainly due to nationalist activism and mobilization. Several important recent studies on nation-state proliferation spanning comparative politics, sociology, and international relations likewise tend to prioritize nationalist activism or mobilization (Wimmer and Feinstein 2010; Wimmer 2013), including the role of segmented political institutions in facilitating the demands of particular groups (Roeder 2007).

Yet, a growing body of historical research challenges these assumptions for the emergence of new states (Judson 2006, 2016; Zahra 2008; Brown 2013; Anscombe 2014; Yosmaoğlu 2014; Hajdarpasic 2015). These works align with the concept of “national indifference” initially emerging within recent historical work on the Habsburg Empire. National indifference refers to the resistance of ordinary people to the ideas of bourgeois nationalist activists, namely their definitive categorization as a particular nationality, for reasons of disinterest or situational opportunism. Recent work on empire also urges the relinquishment of attachment to the nation-centric view of history (Burbank and Cooper 2010, Kumar 2017, Judson 2016, Berger and Miller 2015). Philipp Ther points out that most national movements developed and even thrived within empires, with the European powers possessing a broad array of ways to repress, decelerate, or integrate developing national movements (Ther 2015). Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper observe accordingly that: “In British North America, the French Caribbean, Spanish South America, and elsewhere, struggles for political voice, rights, and citizenship took place within empires before they became revolutions against them. The results of these contests were not consistently national” (Burbank and Cooper 2010).

At present, works aligned with the national indifference framework dominate recent historical research on the eras witnessing the rise of nationalism. Yet, this innovation has not yet penetrated social scientific analysis on the proliferation of new states – though Bridget Coggins’ studies of secessionist movements draw much needed attention to external recognition of sovereignty (Coggins 2011, 2014). Decades ago Walker Connor noted the chasm between ideology and reality in observing that political and ethnic borders rarely coincide (Connor 1967). Recent developments in Western European states, once the epicenter of the nation-state concept, show the ongoing strength of regional identities, calling into question whether even these countries could be accurately defined as nation-states. The historical record shows the nation-state principle to be an ideal-type with few actualizations.

The paper I propose serves as the introductory chapter to a book bringing the insights of a now large body of recent historical research aligned with the national indifference framework to social scientific studies of state proliferation. Tentatively entitled “International Politics and the Global Odyssey of the Nation-State Concept,” the book does not assume the existence of nation-states when only a handful might make the cut. Instead I focus on repeated 'applications of the nation-state concept,' particularly during times in which great powers recognize new states or resist recognizing states-in-the-making. ‘Application of the nation-state concept’ refers to actors’ imagining that a particular national community dominates – or should dominate – cultural, political, and economic life within a particular contiguous and defined territorial area. The imagining assumes that a national community actually exists, when fragmented networks of individuals may be more likely to exist with potentially weak links with co-nationals. An important example comes from WWI when the great powers turned towards the nation-state concept primarily to undercut imperial competitors by supporting particular nationalist activists’ goals of independence or to reach agreement on post-conflict settlement. Allied policy-makers were inclined to support nationalists offering troops that could effectively serve their respective war aims.

While applications of the nation-state concept may extend for a long-period of time, the study’s space constraints require limiting focus to the context in which new states emerge – or fail to emerge when conditions appear opportune. The paper’s primary areas of geographic consideration will include the Americas, Europe, and the Balkans – mainly the initial waves of state proliferation and application of the nation-state concept after the era of modern state-building in western and northern Europe.

Author

• Lynn Tesser, Marine Corps University