Over the last century, the world has seen a great deal of conflict; and it seems as though today is no exception. The one constant in this conflict, the apparent justification, the rationale given is that of nationalism – whether it be ethnic conflict in Rwanda between Tutsis and Hutus, the Kurds demand in Iran, Iraq and Turkey for independence, or the conflict in the Northern Ireland for a more British perspective. In this essay, I will deal with the theoretical issues with nationalism and some of the more practical cases when weighing up the good and the bad – I will not address the different conceptions of nationalism as much. I will begin by examining the conceptual issues defining nationalism, its incoherence so to speak. I will then show that nationalism can provide political …show more content…
In addition, I will show that a world full of nationalist, nation states creates and fosters aggression, as well as fostering authoritarianism, notably with a look at the State of Israel. Before examining the effect and merits of nationalism, it is important for us to examine it conceptually point of view – fundamental inconsistencies and problems can be found with the concept nationalism when taking a closer look at it. Firstly, when it comes to defining a nation or national identity, there are multiple determinants of national identity that come into conflict. For example, in Belgium three languages are spoken: Dutch, French and German. According one theory of the nationalism Belgium should be three different nations (In France the only national language is French, and was imposed over many regional dialects in the ‘building of Frenchmen’ in the 1800s). However, in this case culture and geographical factors have seen to the building of the nation leaving open the question as to what the natural basis of the state is. Secondly there is no obvious