Understanding Nationalism, Nations, and States

Understanding Nationalism, Nations, and States

• Nation, state, and country are often used interchangeably, but incorrectly
• The United Nations is technically a "society of states" rather than a union of "nations"
• It is a mistake to refer to groups like "Chinese," "Americans," or "Russians" as nations
• Nations evolve organically from similar ethnic communities, revealing themselves through myths, legends, and songs
• Nations form a community joined by shared identity and social practices

Defining Nation: Objective vs. Subjective

• Objective definitions include language, ethnicity, religion, territory, history, shared descent, and common culture
• Stalin defined a nation as a historically constituted, stable community of people with a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up in a common culture
• Subjective definitions include solidarity, self-awareness, loyalty, and collective will
• Examples of subjective definitions include "a soul, a spiritual principle" (E. Renan) and "a community of sentiment which would adequately manifest itself in a state of its own" (M. Weber)
• Other subjective definitions are "a group of people who believe they are ancestrally related" (W. Connor) and "a relatively large group of genetically unrelated people with high solidarity" (M. Hechter)

Benedict Anderson's Definition of a Nation

• A nation as an imagined political community, inherently limited and sovereign
• In socio-political analysis, what people believe matters more than factual reality
• A subconscious belief in the group's separate origin and evolution is important for national psychology

Ethnicity vs. Nation

• The key difference is the political element: nations are self-defined, not other-defined
• Nations are self-aware, self-defined ethnic groups
• Ethnicities cultural communities are older than nations, forming their bases
• Nations have defined territories, unified legal and economic systems, and public cultures, which ethnicities lack

Nationalism

• Is the most influential force in international affairs
• Nationalism has caused revolutions and wars globally and has collapsed empires and created new borders/states
• It has reshaped regimes and has been a powerful component in new states' emergence
• Nationalism's triumph is the rise of the nation-state as the basic political entity

Defining Nations and Nationalism

• Questions to consider include when nations first emerged, how they developed, and why they exist
• Nationalism implies the right to statehood/self-government
• It involves identity, consciousness, redrawing boundaries, and conflict while reconfirming the state system
• Considerations include whether nations have the right to their own states, with examples like the Roma, Palestinians, and Israel

The Nation State

• It is a state and a nationality with national sovereignty
• Katzenstein described Germany's evolution from a semi-sovereign to a sovereign state
• Milward saw the European Union as rescuing the nation-state

Rise of the Region State?

• Post-nationalism involves the rise of nationalism and transnational developments
• Examples include the European Union, Latin America?, and Pan-Arab nationalism
• It is important to consider connections between supranational development, democratic representation, regional identity, and nationalism
• Glocalisation?

Evolution: Nation vs. Nationalism

• Evolution of the European state system included revolutions in British North American colonies in 1776 and France in 1789 serving as models
• As an example of 'we the people', the French overthrew the old order, adopting liberty, quality and brotherhood

Congress of Vienna

• The Congress of Vienna in 1815 occurred after the Napoleonic Wars
• In 1815, European national communities demanded political inclusion
• Liberal Nationalism in the early 19th Century was the first part of the century, marked by far-reaching domestic and international political implications
• Undermined European empires' legitimacy
• In 1848 Europe's map was redrawn as people demanded self determination
• Examples being the Fins, Bulgarians and the Serbs wanting independent states
• Italy was unified after being divided into separate city-states in 1861

Other Conflicts Contributing

• The First World War saw self-determination acknowledged from 1918, leading to most Europeans forming nation-states
• The term 'international' was coined in 1789 by Jeremy Bentham
• The international system continued following the Westphalian model
• Nation-states asserted equal sovereignty

Implications in Contemporary Politics?

• In contemporary international politics, nationalism and its essence is highly questioned along with the role of the nation states
• Nationalism has an emerging narrative with post-Cold War religion, ethnicity and culture, plus S.P. Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' all as alternatives to Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History'.

Understanding International Relations

• International relations are not just an academic field but integral to everyday international lives
• The impact of international relations is tremendous
• The sitcom and soap opera industries allow participation in culture different than your own
• International air services is subject to airspace agreements and contributes to global warming

Historical Evolution

• In 1789, Jeremy Bentham first used the term international, largely within law, philosophy, and history
• WW1 saw the rise of International Relations as an academic pursuit, beginning with University of Wales in 1919
• International Relations describes a range of interactions including people, groups, associations and states

Forms of interactions

• Interactions take place between entities in different regions or locations, which might concern territories, states, or nations
• These activities include tourism or mailing
• These activities seem personal and private, but are of key international concern
• Other interactions are very public, such as the Olympic Games
• But in all cases interactions can affect relationships between groups, states or international organizations

Other Events Impacting IR

• These include international conflict, inter-national conferences on global warming and international crime
• Participation in international relations is unavoidable for individual, state or nation
• Everyone is in a minority because there is no common sovereign
• Every state has to account for foreigners because there is no ultimate ruler

International Law

• International law rests on competing legal systems and depends on the realm of self-help due to the lack of monopoly of force
• Some states are stronger than others
• In international politics, divided peoples don't share the same values
• What once were purely domestic policies are now impactful to International politics

The Complex Nature of International Relations

• Complicated by Philosophical disputes, like Hobbes vs Locke
• Realist vs idealist, as well
• Hobbes's, from 1651, took a more pessimistic interpretation
• Locke took a more optimistic view

Competition and Maintaining Order in IR

• Stiff competition: concerned with achieving group needs despite opposition
• Competition is limited by groups ability to impose groups demands and it involved delicate adjustment of power
• Maintaining Order/status quo: IR and politics are expanding, marked by multiplication of states
• There were no international organizations in 1800, contrasted by 51 states signed UN charter in 1945 and nearly 200 member states now.

State Actors

• States are the main actors in politics
• There are no fewer than 195 states, each being called Sovereign
• They conduct relations with other states, negotiate treaties, declaring war, concluding peace etc

Non-State Actors

• Includes MNCs, and international governmental/ non-governmental organizations

Individual Level in IR Analysis

• Study of International relations from the lens of the individual
• Look at behaviors, beliefs, orientation, motivations and psychology
• Personality is and important part of understanding foreign policy

Group Level in IR Analysis

• Looking into the behaviors of groups and their relation to the state

State Centrism

• Studying states foreign policies through their politicians and behaviors

The System-Level of Analysis

• The system level is above the state and focuses on patterns and interactions
• The system level of analysis in international relations examines the structure or context within which states cooperate, compete, and confront each other in pursuit of their national interests
• Unipolarity (domination by one power), bipolarity, (two powers) and multipolarity are examples
• These patterns are all linked with the distribution of power among states

International political power

• Is distributed into three main systems: unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar
• These systems reflect the competition of powerful states and their hierarchical relationship
• The unipolar system has one state with political, cultural and military power and ability to exert high control
• The bipolar system has two superpowers and other states that join either side, creating alliance and counter-alliance formations.
• Zero-sum makes bipolar systems very vulnerable to which, if one party wins the other must lose

Multipolar Systems and Power

• Multipolar systems various equally powerful states competing for power
• They make it more possible to bring change without gaining or losing power, a typical model of international order throughout much of history
• Power determines the relative influence of actors and shapes the structure of the international system
• Robert Dahl the relational definition when 'A's' ability to control is used by 'B", power tends to vanish

Anarchy in IR

• Anarchy is an absence of overarching authority at the global level.
• Meaning power is decentralized
• And that there is a decentralized structure among different parties
• In the anarchical world then people care about one another system

Sovereignty

• Is an expression of internal and external authority, within their entity along autonomy and freedom with domestic affairs

Theories of International Relations: Idealism/Liberalism

• Referred to as a 'utopian' theory it views humans as innately good,
• It holds that peace and harmony among nations is achievable and desirable
• In the late 18th century, Immanuel Kant argued that liberal states should not have justification for wars, saying the more liberal states there were, the less wars would be fought

Democratic Peace Theory

• Modern liberal democratic peace theory dictates that democracies don't fight democracies
• Liberal internationalism from 1919-1930 that wars are a mistake and the enlightenment is something

Kant vs The Balance Of Power

• The 18th Century German philosopher believed in democracy over aristocracy, free trade, and mutual security replacing the balance of power
• Two ideas are Kant's Perpetual Peace and governing relations of cooperation including collective security

Why the league Collapsed

• The League of Nations collapsed due to WW2 in 1939 because these events ran contradictory to this ideals

For liberals

• International law has norms to ensure collaboration

International law functions

• Guarantees cross border communications

Legal Standard

• Is controversial because its moral in nature

Realism

• Argues that the idealism assumed after WW2 was futile
• It is connected to Carr's "Twenty Years' Crisis" that says that world internationalism is foolish
• Values are Context Bound and Morality is Determined by Interests.
• Realism as a thought came back in WW2

Realism

• This centers on the view that the international system is 'anarchic'
• Anarchy is seen as devoid an all-encompassing authority.
• Relates to the works of Thucydides and Hobbes, and political science is

Thomas Hobbes

• Argues that civil law made civilization but also made chaos

Neo Realism

• Kenneth Waltz, 1959, states that, from the international system, we can see the dynamics of what states do
• Hobbes, 1959, dictated that states should act the way that they do by stating they are inherently self serving-entities

Idealism vs. Realism

Structuralism/Marxism

• Believes capitalist society is divided across class
• Working the Proletariat and Business owning Bourgeoise

Marxism Alternative Modes

• In the 1960's Marxism became increasingly popular due to Vietnam

Exploitation in Marxism

• Economic relations in developing countries led to exploitation
• This means other groups exist such as elite that can manipulate systems and make wealth and not be free

Exploitation of the Elite

• Financial relations in developing countries make it seem like they are a nation when in reality global forces are manipulating society

Most state are not free because?

• People exist who profit to control the ideology and force economic

Imperialism

• It is the exploitation of capitalism that controls the flow of currency and also causes problems

Constructivism

• Highlights the importance of values and sharing of interests between individuals
• Alexander Went says that the agents affect constructivism Constructivism is the idea of not controlling power but affect its behavior as we want

Constructavist Thought

• "Anarchy is what states make of it"
• the main point is what people do through interactions, so there is a connection between the behaviors, interactions,
• Because some humans are involved then their is not just any more than that

Post- Colonialism

• Relates to global economics and colonialism in world politics/IR