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11 - Nationalism and war

from Part 2 - The traditional agenda: states, war and law

Gavin Mount
Affiliation:
Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales
Richard Devetak
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Anthony Burke
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Jim George
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
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Summary

Introduction

This chapter examines two debates that have divided scholars on the meaning and significance of nationalism as a force that has profoundly shaped modern international society. The first debate concerns the terminological confusion surrounding the composition of national identity and whether nations and nationalism should be regarded as pre-modern or distinctively modern phenomena. The second examines the paradox of why nationalism has been characterised as both a progressive force that helped to build international society and a destructive force that causes war. From the perspective of the study of international relations in an Australian context, these debates continue to have significant practical implications for understanding some of the most challenging practical problems confronting contemporary global politics.

What is a nation?

The terms nation, nationality and nationalism are all notoriously difficult to define. Scholars disagree on whether the most important characteristic of nations should be its physical, spiritual or social characteristics, whether it is old or new, whether it is imagined or real, whether it is separate from the state or not and so forth (see Box 11.1). As political ideologies, nationalisms have been characterised as democratic or authoritarian, imperial or anti-imperial, forward looking or backward looking, state-led or state-seeking and pre-modern or postmodern. In fact, the only thing that scholars on nations and nationalism seem to agree upon is that the concepts are ‘impossibly fuzzy’ (Kamenka 1975: 3) and that attempts to arrive at a coherent universal definition of these words are at best ‘foolish’ or at worst, ‘a bootless exercise of definitional imperialism’ (Nash 1989: 125; also see Comaroff and Stern 1997; Connor 1994; Seton-Watson 1977).

Type
Chapter
Information
An Introduction to International Relations
Australian Perspectives
, pp. 133 - 143
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

Gurr, Ted R. 2000, Peoples versus states: minorities at risk in the new century, Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press. Wide-ranging analysis of ethnic and nationalist conflicts since the 1990s.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, John and Smith, Anthony (eds) 1994, Nationalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Valuable collection that includes some classics in the field.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, John and Smith, Anthony (eds) 1996, Ethnicity, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Valuable collection on the topic of ethnicity.Google Scholar
Mayall, James 1990, Nationalism and international society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Important book on the role of nationalism from an international relations perspective.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pick, Daniel 1993, War machine: the rationalisation of slaughter in the modern age, New Haven: Yale University Press. A historical account of war with interesting observations on its relationship to nationalism.Google Scholar

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  • Nationalism and war
    • By Gavin Mount, Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales
  • Edited by Richard Devetak, University of Queensland, Anthony Burke, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Jim George, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book: An Introduction to International Relations
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168557.013
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  • Nationalism and war
    • By Gavin Mount, Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales
  • Edited by Richard Devetak, University of Queensland, Anthony Burke, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Jim George, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book: An Introduction to International Relations
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168557.013
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Nationalism and war
    • By Gavin Mount, Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales
  • Edited by Richard Devetak, University of Queensland, Anthony Burke, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Jim George, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book: An Introduction to International Relations
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168557.013
Available formats
×