Nationalism and aggression

Abstract

The term "nationalism," in its neutral, general sense, refers to the set of ideas and sentiments that forms the conceptual framework of national identity. National identity is one among many, often coexisting and overlapping identities occupational, religious, tribal, linguistic, territorial, class, gender, and more. But in the modern world, national identity constitutes what may be called the "fundamental identity," the identity that is believed to define the very essence of the individual, which the other identities one may have modify but slightly, and as a result these other identities are considered secondary. The world community today is a community of "nations"; modem societies are "nations" by definition, those societies that do not view themselves as nations are believed to be not (yet) modern, and, in many cases, loyalty to the "nation" lies at the basis of social solidarity and represents the strongest motive behind political mobilization. All contemporary "nations" are derived from entities that previously possessed quite different identities. The first nation was England, which became one in the sixteenth century. The United States of America, France, and Russia defined themselves as such in the eighteenth century. Most others followed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.1