In Part IV, extreme nationalism is represented by a diverse set of populations and geographical regions, ranging from Europe (Germany, Poland, the Balkans) to the Middle East (Ottoman Empire), Africa (Rwanda), South Asia (Pakistan, Sri Lanka), East Asia (Japan), and Southeast Asia (Indonesia). Extreme nationalism is understood to be the condition under which the perceived needs of the nation are to be maximized at any cost, including the mass murder of presumed opponents. As such, extreme nationalism is a particular kind of political extremism that can be directly activated during interstate war, or some other threat to the nation. Although Nazi ideation initially was a response to perceived injustice and humiliation-shame, as discussed in Chapter 4, it was the threat and fear of reversion during World War II that directly influenced many of the Nazi perpetrators, as will be seen in Chapter 13. The case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka provides a striking comparison with the Indian condition analyzed in the preceding chapter and so will begin the investigation of extreme nationalism.

A stark contrast with India is found in the trajectory of the neighboring island state of Sri Lanka. Since the passage of the Language Bill of 1956 designating Sinhalese as the official language of Sri Lanka, thereby relegating Tamil to the limbo of official nonexistence, communal relations between the two principal ethnicities have deteriorated.