AMITAI ETZIONI On Ending Nationalism* N ationalism must be ended. It is a creed that has come to burden the expansion of globalism(as evident for instance in the demonstrations against WTO ); hobbles the growth of the European Com­munity(as seen in the votes against the Euro in Den­mark); stands in the way of resolving violent conflicts (for instance, over the fate of Jerusalem); complica­tes the resolution of differences within existing na­tion-states(for example, in Corsica); and turns refu­gees and immigrants into a threat to the receiving countries. Its ill effects are evident from Kosovo to East Timor, from Chechnya, to Cyprus, to Bolivia. These are, of course, enormously distinct phe­nomena, involving very distinguishable issues. Other factors – economic for instance – also play a significant role in their dynamics. My only thesis is that nationalism importantly hinders progress toward solutions in all of these international and domestic situations as it does in many other ones. Nationalism is a creed that extols the nation, and regards it as an ultimate value. It deeply affects citizens’ sense of self, psychological well-being, and identity; it makes them treat their nation-state as their primary community. The»ism« comes to indicate that reference here is not to moderate commitments to one’s nation as one source of affiliation and loyalty but to a highly intensive and nearly exclusive investment of one’s collective identity in the national state.(In this sense natio­nalism differs from reasonable national commit­ments the way moralism differs from morality.) When in full bloom, people view the state as semi­sacred or even as directly in the service of their God. As it is written in Romans 13:1 ,»Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.« People imbued with nationalism believe that their independence, ability to control their fate as a collective, and cultural distinctiveness and self­determination are all dependent on their nation. (To save breath, such commitments will be refer­red to from here on as defining involvements.) Often at least some sense of superiority over other nations is involved as well as at least some measure of xenophobia. Nationalism tends to be most in evidence when a nation is at war. While nationalism is often most intense in tota­litarian and authoritarian societies, some elements of it, at least in a dormant form, can also be found among the citizens of free democratic countries. The nation, a seemingly remote and abstract social entity, is one for which these citizens – many otherwise quite moderate and self-restrained – are willing to sacrifice their lives and kill others, not merely to defend the nation’s existence and integrity but also to redeem its honor. Attacks by foreigners, even on minor and remote outposts, are framed as profound personal insults, followed by popular calls for revenge. Major reactions to the increasingly distorting ef­fects of nationalism include: the suggestion that the nation-state itself is obsolete, to depict the very con­cept of national sovereignty as old fashioned, 1 to strongly champion the free flow of trade and capital(and to somewhat lesser extent that of people) across national borders, and to support the development of numerous supranational bodies. 2 * The author is indebted to Jason Marsh for research as­sistance and to Shlomo Avineri, Henry Nau, Joel Rosen­thal, and Simon Serfati for comments on a previous draft. 1. Jessica T. Mathews,»Power Shift«, Foreign Affairs, January / February 1997 : 50 ff. See also Saskia Sassen, Losing Control: Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996 ). 2. The term»supranational« is used here to refer to bodies that have the authority to directly act on corpora­tions or individuals in participant nations without having to deal with their government. They differ from inter­national bodies whose legitimacy is derived from the consent of the representative of the participating nations for each and every significant measure – the way, for instance, the United Nations works. 144 Amitai Etzioni, On Ending Nationalism IPG 2/2001