Impact of Nationalism - Essay Example

Impact of Nationalism on a Country Introduction 3 What is Nationalism? 3 The positive Impact of Nationalism 4 Negative Impact of Nationalism 5 Impact of Nationalism on USA 6 Conclusion 7 References 7 Introduction Nationalism acts as the binding agent that bin people together. It provides a shared sense of culture, values, achievements and ideals. It is a powerful tool for uniting people together under one banner and their combined force and energy can be steered towards one direction. Such influential force can only be positive if channelized for achieving positive goals otherwise it can be very dangerous and can lead to conflicts. This paper aims at studying the impact of nationalism on any country. It will try to find the healthy and disastrous impact of nationalism. What is more powerful? Is nationalism required in this globalized world? is it only the phenomena of the nineteenth century only that was the era of the rise of the nation estates after colonialism etc. This paper will discuss the impact of nationalism on a country with special reference to Unites States (USA). What is Nationalism? Nationalism is reflected in our everyday life as it is defined as the love for our country. Most citizens of any country reflect their love through different ways such as cheering for their national teams at mega sports events such as Olympics etc. The term nationalism is a relatively new phenomenon developed in the modern world in the nineteenth century. Nationalism as already discussed defines intense devotion to one’s nation. The term nation is not as simple it is a very complex phenomenon. A simplistic definition of nations is that it consists of a group of people who live in a common land and are united by their residence of same country. They share a common heritage and culture and have a common desire to have their own state for present and future. A nation is a much more complex idea than state. State is a just a political organization that has control and authority over a specific territory and its inhabitants. It is not necessary that a nation is a state and often a state is not a nation. United States pose a complex example of development of nationhood. The American Revolution against the Great Britain was based on the ideology of freedom from British Taxation. After the revolution there were group of independent states with no similar background. When they combined to form USA they had to build common things in order to be successful as a nation. The nation was formed but nationalism could not be instilled over night. It developed only gradually. It was developed through certain measures like transportation nationalism i.e. developing common transportation measures and economic nationalism by developing common economic monetary plan called American System in the early days (Richard Allen Sauers). Nationalism is one of the few phenomena in the international arena that revive recurrently so that their roots and origins can be rediscovered. Nationalism although considered by a great number of politicians as a thing of the past and an ailment of the twentieth century but it will show its visibility and make its presence felt even in this fast growing global world. Nationalism is too deep rooted in our psyches to die a silent death as predicted by many (Maiorov). The positive Impact of Nationalism The most important feature of nationalism is the nationalistic behavior. It defines the ability and willingness of a nation to make sacrifices to construct national instruments such military, diplomacy, intelligence, economic etc that are necessary for the survival and integrity of any nation to keep them safe from external threats. This ability to make sacrifices for the country is the most important aspect of any countries foreign policy. The same is true for all aspects of national life. This willingness of the people to make sacrifices and nationalism makes any country more powerful. An empirical study of different cases of the world reveals that this nationalism can be mobilized to identify opportunities and achieving national goals and it can also be channelized to deal with threats to the nation as is the case of USA. Emergence of Nationalism was also observed in Russia and China after the cold war. However in the case of Russia with the disintegration of Soviet Union, the power, prestige, authority and economic independence was lost but Russians gain their identity and could express their love and affection for their nation. This nationalism helped them come out as triumphant from the economic and political turmoil caused by disintegration. The impact of nationalism is so strong that just ten years after the disintegration of Soviet Union, all the countries that emerged from it are very different from each other. They are different even in their manifestations of nationalism (Nodia). China is another populous nationalistic country. Despite its huge population, ethnic diversity nationalism and national identity is an important factor of all China’s policy including foreign policy. It was the nationalism and national behavior which helped China to go through the stringent economic phase. Chinese people willingly compromised for their country to help it come out as an economic power today (Martha L. Cottam). Negative Impact of Nationalism Many scholars have written on the impact of nationalism but not much has been written about its effects on international politics. All the impacts of nationalism discussed above are positive, but this is not always the case. It has some negative implications as well. Nationalism also increases the risk of war. But not all types of nationalism cause war. The risk of war only increases if nations have hegemonic goals, oppress their minorities or there are stateless nations (Brown). Impact of Nationalism on USA The most crucial example of impact of nationalism on any county’s foreign policy is the Second World War. The policy of the two major nations Germany and USA are in conflict with each other. Nationalism in Germany led to expansion policy that costed 50 million people their lives, whereas the nationalism in USA caused American people to prevent Hitler from achieving its goal. In the current scenario the nationalism in USA has led to war on terror that has caused many lives in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The impact of nationalism has been positive as well in USA. The spirit of nationalism allowed American’s to eliminate all discriminatory rules against minorities and grow as a nation. It helped achieve their economic prosperity and grow into a super power. The American nationalism has been highlighted the most after the incident of terrorist attack of 9/11. It shows the impact of nationalism on the foreign policy of the country. American nationalism and its foreign policy depict exceptionalism and universalism. This nationalism of US depicted in its foreign policy is very useful for the American people but poses threats and damage to the rest of the world. (McCarty). Conclusion After studying Nationalism and its various aspects it is concluded that nationalism is a very powerful tool. Nationalism is force which can steered to any direction for good or bad. Nationalism has positive as well as negative impacts. Various examples of different countries were discussed where nationalism helped them achieve their goals. Negative aspect of nationalism is that can lead to conflicts. Same is true for USA. Nationalism in USA has helped them achieve economic prosperity and solve various ethnic conflicts in the country. On the other hand it has also transformed their foreign policy and has led to war on terror after the incident of 9/11 terrorist attacks and has caused many deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. References Brown, Michael Edward. Nationalism and ethnic conflict. USA: MIT Press, 2001. Maiorov, M. "History in the Mirrors of Nationalism." Iinternational Affairs, No 4 (2010): 126-142. Martha L. Cottam, Beth Dietz-Uhler, Elena Mastors, Thomas Preston. Introduction to political psychology. New York: Psychology Press, 2010. McCarty, Paul T. "American Nationalism And US foreign policy from sep 11 to Iraq war." Political Science Quarterly Vol119 No 3 (2004). Nodia, G.O. "The Impact of Nationalism." Journal of Democracy, Vol 12 No 4 (2001): 27-34. Richard Allen Sauers, Jennifer L. Weber. Nationalism. New York: Chelsea House, 2010. Read More