Nationalism and the Multination State

211 Pages·2016·1.453 MB·English

by  Alain Dieckhoff

Table of contentes

PART 1 - THE CALL OF NATIONALISM?
1. Nationalism and Globalization
2. The Nation as a Community of Culture
3. Culture, a State Affair
4. The Appeal of Nationalism?
PART 2 - MULTINATIONALITY: A CHALLENGE FOR THE STATE
5. The Imperfect Trinity
6. Self-Determination without Territory
7. Territorial Autonomy
8. The Secessionist Temptation
9. The Future of Pluralism
Conclusion: The Future of Pluralism
Title Pages
Nationalism and the Multination State
Alain Dieckhoff
Print publication date: 2017
Print ISBN-13: 9780190607913
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2017
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190607913.001.0001
Title Pages
(p.i) Nationalism and the Multination State
(p.ii) The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies
Nationalism and the Multination State
Series editor, Christophe Jaffrelot
The series consists of original manuscripts and translations of noteworthy
manuscripts and publications in the social sciences emanating from the foremost
French researchers.
The focus of the series is the transformation of politics and society by
transnational and domestic factors—globalisation, migration and religion. States
are more permeable to external influence than ever before and this phenomenon
is accelerating processes of social and political change the world over. In
seeking to understand and interpret these transformations, this series gives
priority to social trends from below as much as to the interventions of state and
nonstate actors.
(p.iii)
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Title Pages
(p.iv)
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Alain Dieckhoff.
Nationalism and the Multination State.
ISBN: 9780190607913
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Page 2 of 2
Dedication
Nationalism and the Multination State
Alain Dieckhoff
Print publication date: 2017
Print ISBN-13: 9780190607913
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2017
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190607913.001.0001
Dedication
(p.v) For Milena
“Milena, what a rich, heavy name!
almost too full to be lifted!”
            Franz KAFKA (p.vi)
Page 1 of 1
Dedication
Nationalism and the Multination State
Alain Dieckhoff
Print publication date: 2017
Print ISBN-13: 9780190607913
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2017
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190607913.001.0001
Dedication
(p.vii) To the memory of Ernest Gellner (1925–1995),
who was able to take nationalism seriously
from an intellectual standpoint
without ever departing from true humanism (p.viii)
Page 1 of 1
Foreword
Nationalism and the Multination State
Alain Dieckhoff
Print publication date: 2017
Print ISBN-13: 9780190607913
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2017
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190607913.001.0001
(p.xi) Foreword
Alain Dieckhoff
, Cynthia Schoch
Throughout the Cold War, national issues, which had been so preponderant in
the interwar period, receded into the background, dwarfed by the bipolar
ideological confrontation that was tearing the world in two. Nationalism
probably had not vanished from the political horizon during that time, national
liberation movements having provided the impetus for decolonization. But the
specifically national character of these movements tended to be masked by
Marxist-leaning rhetoric and buried under an internationalism of convenience.1
From China to Yugoslavia and Cuba, this strategy of dissimulation proved crucial
for Third World communists and was also adopted by other anti-colonial leaders
such as Nasser in Egypt and the supporters of the Syrian Baath Party. These
leaders eagerly combined a fervent nationalism with an equally vibrant “Arab
socialism” whose primary objective was essentially to nationalize the economy.
The Cold War thus unfolded under the banner of a euphemized form of
nationalism.
The fall of the Berlin Wall unleashed a dramatic transformation. The abrupt end
of the ideological and military struggle between the “socialist camp” and the
“free world” reopened the national question on the European continent, as the
Baltic states reasserted their independence and Germany promptly began the
process of reunification. Elsewhere, in Yugoslavia as well as the Caucasus,
confrontations between nationalisms took a violent turn. The air was suddenly
filled with talk of the revenge of nations and the awakening of nationalisms. The
prevailing discourse—often carrying alarmist undertones—saw this return of
repressed nationalism as insufferably archaic.
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Foreword
This assessment was obviously over-simplistic, primarily because it is part of a
teleological, linear notion of progress according to which nationalism will
necessarily be surpassed by universalistic ideals—liberal democracy and
communism (p.xii) alike. This longstanding belief was irrevocably disproven by
the unparalleled exacerbation of nationalisms throughout the twentieth century.
That does not mean that nationalism is eternal. However, it clearly must not be
discarded too quickly, as it has been by a large number of inveterate rationalists
in both the liberal and the socialist camps.
Viewing nationalism merely as a primitive form of tribalism astray in the modern
world obscures the reality that its persistence, contrary to the opinion of its
zealous critics, is due to the fact that nationalism is a key configuration of
modernity, even if it sometimes takes on appalling forms. As an ideology and a
movement, nationalism has left a deep mark on the history of the past two
centuries, for better and for worse. Any survey of the history of the notion must
imperatively take into account its true multiplicity.
Nationalism is a complex sociological object that cannot be reduced to its most
extremist, hysterical or homicidal expressions. Focusing on these more salient
manifestations (with their strong xenophobic and racist components) inevitably
leads to disqualifying nationalism outright, thereby making it impossible to gain
a grasp on its true driving forces. It is unlikely that nationalism would stir such
passion if it were a wholly negative phenomenon. In fact, it has often served a
liberating function by enabling peoples to assert their historical, cultural and
social specificities.
It would be difficult to deny that engagement in national struggles was an
absolutely necessary step for the Polish, Jewish or Irish peoples, just to name a
few. Whether oppressed, persecuted or massacred, the only means by which
they were able to overcome their existential vulnerability was to pursue
nationalism to its logical conclusion by building a state whose sovereignty could
provide them the collective security that they so ardently sought. Arguments
that discredit nationalism too hastily should thus be avoided. In the words of
Jewish historian Simon Dubnow, who nevertheless lost his life to an outbreak of
nationalist hatred, “Are Kossuth’s or Garibaldi’s nationalist ideals reprehensible
because chauvinists such as Schönerer and Wolf or Drumont and Rochefort also
acted in the name of nationalism?”2 A century later, his admonition could be
rephrased without any loss of impact: “Are the nationalist ideals of Lech Walesa
in Poland or Ibrahim Rugova in Kosovo reprehensible because populist
demagogues such as Gábor Vona of Hungary’s Jobbik party and Jean-Marie Le
Pen of France’s National Front proclaim themselves nationalists?”
Because nationalism is such a complex configuration that includes excessive
forms as well as liberal variants and is fundamentally polysemic, constructing
(p.xiii) a general theory of nationalism is hazardous. There have nevertheless
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Foreword
been some commendable attempts.3 I personally will not venture in this
direction, preferring to focus on a more narrowly defined phenomenon: the
universalization of nationalism. Association of the two terms might appear
surprising at first, in that nationalism is a principle typically used to defend
particularism. This ideology for mobilizing specificity has expanded
phenomenally in the past two centuries, however—at first in Europe, then
gradually spreading to other continents. The club of initially European nation-
states has subsequently become worldwide, and although proletarian
internationalism remains a dream, the universalization of nationalism has
become a reality, continuing to produce a cascade of effects.
My longstanding acquaintance with the Middle East, and particularly with
Israel/Palestine, “the holy land of antagonistic nationalisms,” has certainly
contributed to nourishing sensitivity to the question of national identities, their
crystallization and their development in both ideological and practical terms. All
of my previous work has revolved around these topics in one way or another. The
present book thus represents in many ways the extension of an abiding
intellectual interest, albeit with a new scope, because it is grounded in a
comparative approach primarily focused on Europe and North America.
The objective of the book is to suggest avenues for reflection on dissociative
nationalisms; in other words on “nationalitarian”4 movements at work within a
constituted state that demand political autonomy or even independence, in the
name of a human group described as a “nation” and sharing certain specific
characteristics, such as history, culture, language, shared past, or territory.
This peripheral, breakaway nationalism is the most active form of contemporary
nationalism, from Quebec to the Balkans, via Catalonia, Flanders and Corsica.
This is certainly not to suggest that the centralist, unitary nationalism forcefully
proclaimed by strands of the populist extreme right—the National Front and the
Austrian “Liberal” Party, for example—have disappeared. But while these
nationalisms fit by definition within existing state frameworks, breakaway
nationalisms strive to create new political spaces, and in that sense, they help to
give new impetus to the spread of nationalism.
I will endeavor to present what I believe are the driving forces behind this
phenomenon and to analyze how they have manifested themselves, before
examining, in the book’s second part, how states can respond. (p.xiv)
Notes:
(1.) As Benedict Anderson noted, “Since World War II, every successful
revolution has defined itself in national terms—the People’s Republic of China,
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and so forth—and, in so doing, has grounded
itself firmly in a territorial and social space inherited from the revolutionary
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Foreword
past.” Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism, London: Verso, 1983, p. 12.
(2.) Simon Dubnow, Lettres sur le judaïsme ancien et nouveau, Paris: Le Cerf,
1989, p. 150. Dubnow was murdered by a Latvian soldier in December 1941
during the Nazis’ liquidation of the Riga ghetto.
(3.) See, among others, Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Oxford:
Blackwell, 1983; Anthony D. Smith, National Identity, London: Penguin Books,
1991; Benedict Anderson, op. cit.
(4.) The term was coined in the 1970s to designate left-leaning regionalisms that
combined criticism of the nation-state with a denunciation of capitalism. I use it
here in a broader sense, as a synonym for “dissociative nationalisms,” as
opposed to centralist nationalisms.
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