We’ve had several class discussions about the relation of the nation to the state. There are, in fact, many more nations than there are states (193 nation-states are members of the United Nations). The forces that rip apart established nation-states into smaller units more closely identified with specific nations is called, appropriately, nationalism. Nationalist forces are a constant feature of world politics, and the contemporary period has witnessed the emergence of nationalist movements in a number of nation-states that were once thought of as seamlessly unified: Scotland, from Great Britain; Quebec, from Canada; and the Flemish people in Belgium.
There is a very, very faint glimmer of hope in Syria. The UN’s (and Arab League’s) special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimki, was in Iran trying to broker a three day cease-fire to coincide with the religious holiday, Eid al-Adha, which begins on 25 October. A three day cease fire may not sound like much, but it could provide an opportunity for the UN to administer humanitarian aid and to establish some sort of foundation for a more sustained presence. I would not get my hopes up. Much depends on the response of the US and Turkey, as well as the Sunni Arab states who would be very suspicious of any plan hatched in Iran.
No one really knows how the process of globalization will unfold. The first wave of globalization in the 19th century ended in the disaster of World War I and it did not restart until 1945. In the last twenty years, this second wave of globalization has accelerated beyond belief, and many of our current policies simply assume that it will continue unbroken. There are, however, some analysts who believe that globalization carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. This essay is an example of such thinking.
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