Nationalism and Stunted Regionalism?: Comparing Evidence from Europe and Asia

• In Event: State and Region Formation

Abstract

Does nationalism inhibit the development of regional political and economic institutions? Scholars and policymakers alike have often presumed that deeply-entrenched nationalisms have, for example, obstructed the formation of regional multilateral institutions in Northeast Asia. The birth of supranational institutions in Western Europe, by contrast, is often said to have been associated with a rejection of nationalism and the adoption of pan-European identities. This paper casts doubt on the widely assumed relationship between nationalism and the growth of regional institutions. Following Kocher et al. (2018)’s argument that nationalism is a highly malleable ideology that can be mobilized to support contradictory policies, I show that political leaders in post-World War II France and West Germany advocated European institutions with a keen eye toward promoting narrowly-conceived national interests, whereas nationalistic leaders in East Asia have often rejected substantive moves toward regional institutionalization with astonishingly similar nationalist justifications. In short, I show that the ability of nationalism to explain variation in patterns of regionalism is much more limited than is commonly assumed.

Author

• Ji Min Lee, University of Chicago