Nationalist Motivations Research Articles

Navigating Nature’s Transitions: the Bohemian Forest and Its Temporalities in Early Tourist Literature

The article analyses the temporalities attributed by tourism-related literature to transitions of the environment of the Bohemian Forest in the second half of the long 19th century, with a special focus on the gales and bark beetle outbreak that occurred in the 1860s and 1870s. The expansion of both individual and organised tourism in the region from the late 1870s aligned with its economic decline, which followed a period of rapid development associated with eliminating the damage caused by the outbreak, an occurrence that severely affected the health of the forest and the inhabitants of the Bohemian Forest region. The article suggests that tourism acted as a resilience strategy, enabling adaptation to socio-economic uncertainties engendered by living in a more-than-human world. In addition to nationalist motives, the perception of nature and its transitions played a key role in the establishment of tourism in the region, which was often characterised by its forests.

Церковная дипломатия и межправославные отношения в эпоху гонений: опыт святого Патриарха Тихона

Article on the views and actions of Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin) of Moscow and All Russia in the field of Inter-Orthodox relations in 1917–1925. It is shown that this direction was not a priority for His Holiness Tikhon in the context of full-scale persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, especially since he had minimal opportunities to maintain contacts with other Local Churches. Unlike the leaders of a number of other Churches (Constantinople, Romanian, etc.), St. Tikhon in his ministry was guided not by political or nationalist motives, but by spiritual, moral and pastoral ones, adhering to the evangelical and canonical norms of the Orthodox Church. He sought to resolve controversial issues peacefully and amicably (for example, in the case of Georgian autocephaly), but did not always meet with a reciprocal desire to act in the same way. He was alien to any kind of jurisdictional selfishness. The main thing for him was the preservation of loyalty to Orthodoxy on the part of the multinational flock of the Russian Church. This, in particular, determined his rejection of the idea of Polish autocephaly. The warmest relations under Patriarch Tikhon were with the Serbian and Antiochian Orthodox Churches. Most of all, problems arose in the Constantinople direction, due to the extreme politicization of the Fanar and its special tendency to trample on the moral and canonical norms of the Orthodox Church.

The Kaiser’s Silver: German Nationalism and the 1913 Nationalspende for Christian Mission

Abstract In 1913, in honour of the kaiser’s silver jubilee, a group of secular colonial advocates organized a national fundraising campaign to raise money for Germany’s missionary societies. The nationalist motivations of this campaign ran counter to the theological and ideological self-conception of the missionaries, especially the leadership of Germany’s Protestant missions. Despite the ambivalence of the campaign’s declared beneficiaries, the Nationalspende zum Kaisersjubiläum für die christlichen Missionen in den deutschen Kolonien und Schutzgebieten proved to be a definitive success. Organizers mobilized national sentiment and generated a significant infusion of resources into Germany’s mission movement. The Nationalspende’s ulterior motive, drawing the internationalist and independent missions into a secular, nationalist colonial program, was also successful. In the aftermath of the Nationalspende, Germany’s formerly anti-nationalist Protestant mission movement came under new leadership, which began linking the missions more closely to Germany’s secular colonial movement. This article traces the history of the Nationalspende and places it in the context of competition between secular and religious impulses (and their organizational advocates) within Germany’s colonial movement before the First World War.

Память о предательстве: образ коллаборациониста в послевоенном советском кинематографе

Introduction. Researchers have studied manifestations of collaborationism of Soviet citizens during the Great Patriotic War quite well, however, the problem of the perception of collaborators in the postwar period needs additional coverage. Of particular interest is the reflection of this topic in art cinema, which was one of the most important means of propaganda. Methods and materials. The basis of the study was a systematic approach. Historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods were applied, in addition, content analysis was used to identify characteristic characters, images, ideas in films. The study was carried out on the basis of published materials, as well as archival files, which make it possible to compare the motivation of collaborators during the Great Patriotic War with its representation in Soviet cinema. Analysis. The study of the evolution of the coverage of the Great Patriotic War and related events in cinema made it possible to identify the main genre and stylistic devices used to demonstrate the place and role of collaborators. Through the analysis of the motivation of collaborators based on the protocols of their interrogations and investigative cases, as well as the consideration of their behavior in feature films, the functions of this topic in the Soviet propaganda discourse were determined. Results. The study of the methods and forms of demonstration of collaborationism showed this problem was reflected in Soviet cinema throughout the entire post-war period. Cooperation with the Germans was explained by several reasons: nationalist motives, hatred of the Soviet regime, cowardice or a desire to save one’s own life, or pathological manifestations up to mental illness. Authors’ contribution. O.V. Romanko proposed the concept of the article, supervised the research, studied the sources and historiography of the problem, and edited the final text of the paper. E.V. Prosolova carried out analytical work on the analysis of sources, systematization and classification of the image of a collaborator in Soviet cinema, designed the text of the article.

New Approaches of Beijing to the Historiography of People’s Republic of China and Communist Party of China: ‘Rectification of Names’ during Xi Jinping Era

The article analyzes the trends in China’s political discourse on the eve of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (autumn 2022) regarding the official historiography of the last hundred years. The conclusion is made that to strengthen Xi Jinping’s position as a national leader, (which includes the legitimacy of extending his mandate for more than two five-year terms), the period of “Reforms and Opening Policy (1980–2010s)” had been thoroughly reconsidered. At the same time, the official rhetoric reinforces nationalist motives, devalues the positive impact of foreign assistance in previous decades, emphasizes the unprecedented challenges China is currently facing and the efficiency with which the current leadership led by Xi Jinping is coping with them. The key document that captured these trends was the so-called “historic resolution” of the 6th plenum of the 19th CPC Central Committee (November 2021), the analysis of which is central to the article. The authors argue the historiographic assessments put forward in the document will determine China's perception of Party history for at least the coming decade. Given the new approaches to recent history, the entire period, which commenced in 2012 should be now called “Xi Jinping Era” or the “New Era,” (xin shidai), which will thus be distinguished from the preceding “Period of Reforms and Opening”.

Flying flags: nationality, sovereignty, and airline liberalization

Nationality is a crucial element of the regime governing international airlines, the industry which is a key means of economic globalization. I argue that economic nationalist motives drive states to harness international economic flows to support sovereignty and national identity. Economic nationalism is conceptualized as a performative phenomenon, describing how states make sovereignty and nations real by enabling and controlling economic practices. Using a mixed-methods approach, I statistically examine an observable implication that dyads which have greater cultural difference tend to have less liberal bilateral air services agreements. I then investigate through analytic narratives how Canada and the EU dealt with the rapid growth and ambitious expansion of the Gulf state airlines, which were themselves economic nationalist projects. Canada restricted traffic rights while the EU has exerted control by enforcing concepts of fair competition and publicizing its scrutiny of foreign ownership and control over EU airlines. A key contribution of this article is to explore how trade policy is driven by symbolic politics, and to raise the possibility that material gains are pursed to support performances of national identity and sovereignty. This has further applications to other sectors with perceived implications for sovereignty.

Between Messianism and Zionism—The Religious Proto-Zionists: Transforming from Theurgic-Symbolic Messianism to Zionist Activism

The 19th century, which began with the immigration to Eretz Israel of 511 disciples of the Vilna Gaon (HaGra) and their families from Lithuania for religious reasons between 1808–1811, ended with the arrival of tens of thousands of Hovevei Zion from Russia and Romania for nationalistic motives, beginning in 1882.This article deals with the differences between the doctrine of redemption of the Vilna Gaon’s disciples and the Zionist ideology of Hovevei Zion in light of the thought of the religious proto-Zionists. Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer and Rabbi Eliyahu Guttmacher who were the proto-Zionists actually served as transformers from theurgic-symbolic messianic activism to realistic Zionist activism through their combined adoption of all these active approaches and the shift in emphasis from the symbolic to the realistic. Putting them all in the traditional messianic camp or the modern national camp distorts the picture. The great innovation of their doctrine was the transformation of the idea.

The politics of a rock ‘n’ road docudrama—genre and intertextuality in Želimir Žilnik’s Oldtimer (1989)

This article examines Želimir Žilnik’s telefilm Stara mašina/Oldtimer (1989) as an example of the politically engaged use of genre and intertextuality in televisual representation. As a road movie, Oldtimer highlights how the journey trope imbued visual representations of movement with ideological and political meanings. At the same time, the film exposes the nationalist motivations behind the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution in Serbia in 1988 and emphasizes television news department staff’s complicity in concealing them. This article argues that, by incorporating television news into its diegetic universe, the film displaced the content presented as informational into the realm of fiction. In this way, Oldtimer not only exposed this case of misinformation but modeled a critical approach to the consumption of television. The paper shows that Žilnik’s work contributed to the broadening of televisual potential for ideological signification, allowing the medium to function not simply as a propaganda instrument but as a space of contestation of different ideological positions. Žilnik’s choice to realize this project as a film for television shows the televisual capacity for self-awareness, and Oldtimer points to the medium’s potential to address the problems that political pressures create.

Economic Nationalism in Intellectual Property Policy and Law

The long-standing battle between economic nationalism and globalism has again taken center stage in geopolitics. This article applies this dichotomy to the law and policy of international intellectual property (IP). Most commentators see IP as a prime example of globalization. The article challenges this view on several levels. In a nutshell, it claims that economic nationalist concerns about domestic industries and economic development lie at the heart of the global IP system. To support this argument, the article summarizes and categorizes IP policies adopted by selected European countries, the European Union, and the U.S. Section I presents three types of inbound IP policies that aim to foster local economic development and innovation. Section II adds three versions of outbound IP policies that, in contrast, target foreign countries and markets. Concluding section III traces a dialectic virtuous circle of economic nationalist motives leading to global legal structures and identifies the function and legal structure of IP as the reason for the resilience and even dominance of economic nationalist motives in international IP politics. IP concerns exclusive private rights that are territorially limited creatures of (supra-)national statutes. These legal structures make up the economic nationalist DNA of IP.

Is Religion Coming Back as a Source for Antisemitic Views?

The most violent American and European antisemites in the 21st century, including not only Jihadists but also white (and black) supremacist terrorist, made some reference to religion in their hatred of Jews. This is surprising. Religious antisemitism is often seen as a relic of the past. It is more associated with pre-modern societies where the role of religion was central to the social and political order. However, at the end of the 19th century, animosity against Judaism gave way to nationalistic and racist motives. People such as Wilhelm Marr called themselves antisemites to distinguish themselves from those who despised Jews for religious reasons. Since then, antisemitism has gone through many mutations. However, today, it is not only the actions of extremely violent antisemites who might be an indication that religious antisemitism has come back in new forms. Some churches have been accused of disseminating antisemitic arguments related to ideas of replacement theology in modernized forms and applied to the Jewish State. Others, from the populist nationalist right, seem to use Christianity as an identity marker and thus exclude Jews (and Muslims) from the nation. Do religious motifs play a significant role in the resurgence of antisemitism in the 21st century?

Deployments of Memory with the Tools of Law – the Case of Poland

Recent invocations of the past in the service of ideology, based to a large extent on nationalistic motives, are a particularly disturbing phenomenon in the area of the European “duty to remember” and memory laws. One of the most telling examples of this trend was Polish legislation introduced in January 2018 (partly repealed in June 2018) that penalized defamation of the Polish State and the Polish Nation by claiming their responsibility or co-responsibility for crimes committed by German Nazis in occupied Poland. Although the idea of opposing the falsification of history appears valid, the structure of the law left room for also bringing to trial those daring to ask uncomfortable questions challenging the heroic vision of Poland’s past. This article claims that legal provisions such as the Polish law represent a dangerous tool of strengthening the feeling of national community understood very narrowly and limited to one nationally, religiously and ethnically homogeneous group. This approach is directly connected with promulgation of the narrative of a “besieged castle”, which defends itself against “the Other” and demands indisputable recognition for its past sufferings. The reasons, mechanisms and consequences of recent implementation in Poland of legal and political discourse regarding the past, are discussed here.

The Japanese and Korean Martial Arts: In Search of a Philosophical Framework Compatible to History

The popular discourse about Asian martial arts has often been surrounded by an aura of esotericism, so pervasive that it even influenced the academic discussion to some degree. Moreover, nationalistic motives to promote certain martial arts narratives often prevail. This article focuses on the frequently flawed philosophical and historical discourse surrounding the Asian martial arts. In particular, this study concentrates on the academic discussions of the Japanese and Korean martial arts, and the search for a philosophical framework compatible with historical narratives. The Japanese created a romantic but also nationalistic martial arts narrative that aligned with the ideals of the Meiji Restoration. This romanticized image was naively accepted in the West, often imported along with esoteric ideas of the East. And, as most modern Korean martial arts originated in Japan, the Korean martial arts discussion aligns with that of Japanese martial arts, and this alignment has been a point of heated dispute. Discussions of Korean martial arts reflect a search for a definitive identity of the Korean martial arts community as well as the desire to establish a martial arts tradition independent of those of Japan as well as China. However, the discourse has often been influenced by western, albeit biased and perhaps faulty, historical views, and ideas about martial arts traditions.

Nationalism, Collaboration, and Resistance: France under Nazi Occupation

Does nationalism produce resistance to foreign military occupation? The existing literature suggests that it does. Nationalism, however, also can lead to acquiescence and even to active collaboration with foreign conquerors. Nationalism can produce a variety of responses to occupation because political leaders connect nationalist motivations to other political goals. A detailed case study of the German occupation of France during World War II demonstrates these claims. In this highly nationalistic setting, Vichy France entered into collaboration with Germany despite opportunities to continue fighting in 1940 or defect from the German orbit later. Collaboration with Germany was widely supported by French elites and passively accommodated by the mass of nationalistic French citizens. Because both resisters and collaborators were French nationalists, nationalism cannot explain why collaboration was the dominant French response or why a relatively small number of French citizens resisted. Variation in who resisted and when resistance occurred can be explained by the international context and domestic political competition. Expecting a German victory in the war, French right-wing nationalists chose collaboration with the Nazis as a means to suppress and persecute their political opponents, the French Left. In doing so, they fostered resistance. This case suggests the need for a broader reexamination of the role of nationalism in explaining reactions to foreign intervention.

The nationalist interpretation of nuclear deterrence: evidence from the Kargil War

Why did Pakistan initiate the Kargil War with India, so soon after the two states reached overt nuclear status? Existing theories attribute war between nuclear states either to the strategic opportunities of limited conflict or to a closing opportunity of preventive war to destroy the nuclear capabilities of nuclearizing states. However, strategic opportunities explain the possibility of, but not the motivation for, war; after all, the nuclearization of India began long before the war. To develop a better explanation, I propose an original theory of how the theoretical mechanisms of nuclear deterrence can be altered by nationalist conflict. The Indo-Pakistani nationalist conflict not only motivated Pakistan to initiate the war because of its perception of a threat, but also caused both states to overestimate their own deterrence credibility and underestimate the other’s capability and resolve to conduct war. These nationalist motivations and estimations enabled the war between the two nuclear states. The article suggests that nuclear weapons may have different effects on different types of conflict.

OpenStreetMap in Israel and Palestine – ‘Game changer’ or reproducer of contested cartographies?

In Israel and Palestine, map-making practices were always entangled with contradictive spatial identities and imbalanced power resources. Although an Israeli narrative has largely dominated the ‘cartographic battlefield’, the latest chapter of this story has not been written yet: collaborative forms of web 2.0 cartographies have restructured power relations in mapping practices and challenged traditional monopolies on map and spatial data production. Thus, we can expect web 2.0 cartographies to be a ‘game changer’ for cartography in Palestine and Israel. In this paper, I review this assumption with the popular example of OpenStreetMap (OSM). Following a mixed methods approach, I comparatively analyze the genesis of OSM in Israel and Palestine. Although nationalist motives do not play a significant role on either side, it turns out that the project is dominated by Israeli and international mappers, whereas Palestinians have hardly contributed to OSM. As a result, social fragmentations and imbalances between Israel and Palestine are largely reproduced through OSM data. Discussing the low involvement of Palestinians, I argue that OSM's ground truth paradigm might be a watershed for participation. Presumably, the project's data are less meaningful in some local contexts than in others. Moreover, the seemingly apolitical approach to map only ‘facts on the ground’ reaffirms present spatio-social order and thus the power relations behind it. Within a Palestinian narrative, however, many aspects of the factual material space might appear not as neutral physical objects but as results of suppression, in which case, any ‘accurate’ spatial representation, such as OSM, becomes objectionable.

Political Devolution and Resistance to Foreign Rule: A Natural Experiment

Do foreign occupiers face less resistance when they increase the level of native governing authority? Although this is a central question within the literature on foreign occupation and insurgency, it is difficult to answer because the relationship between resistance and political devolution is typically endogenous. To address this issue, we identify a natural experiment based on the locally arbitrary assignment of French municipalities into German or Vichy-governed zones during World War II. Using a regression discontinuity design, we conclude that devolving governing authority significantly lowered levels of resistance. We argue that this effect is driven by a process of political cooptation: domestic groups that were granted governing authority were less likely to engage in resistance activity, while violent resistance was heightened in regions dominated by groups excluded from the governing regime. This finding stands in contrast to work that primarily emphasizes structural factors or nationalist motivations for resistance.

Resistance to Foreign Rule: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Do foreign occupiers face less resistance when they increase the level of native governing authority? Although this is a central question within the literature on foreign occupation and insurgency, it is difficult to answer because the relationship between resistance and political devolution is typically endogenous. To address this issue, we identify a natural experiment based on the locally arbitrary assignment of French municipalities into German or Vichy-governed zones during World War Two. Using a regression discontinuity design, we conclude that devolving governing authority signicantly lowered levels of resistance. We argue that this effect is driven by a process of political cooptation: domestic groups that were granted governing authority were less likely to engage in resistance activity, while violent resistance was heightened in regions dominated by groups excluded from the governing regime. This finding stands in contrast to work that primarily emphasizes structural factors or nationalist motivations for resistance.

From “Great History” to “Small History”: The Genesis of the Zionist Periodization

The article examines the genesis, in the late 1910s and early 1920s, of the current Zionist periodization, which separated the early decades of Zionist history into distinct immigration waves [ Aliyot ], and numbered them from the first to the fifth. The anticipated mass immigration to Palestine right after the Balfour Declaration was numbered the “Third Aliya”, following the two biblical immigrations from Babylonia. Later, the linguistic convention of the “Third Aliya” was changed from a long-range perception of history to a short-range one, and two preceding immigration waves were retrospectively pinpointed in the late Ottoman era. The new periodization was disseminated in the Yishuv during the 1920s, when the sequence of immigration waves was extended with the beginning of the Fourth Aliya in 1924. The new Zionist periodization established the concept of Aliya as the measure for assessing Zionist history, employing a judgmental distinction between the oleh driven by nationalist motives, contrasted with the Mehager whose concerns were personal or limited to family well-being. It thereby explains the magnitude of the pioneer ethos in the middle class Yishuv society, and demonstrates the political, cultural, and social implications of linguistic processes.

Kurdish Rebellions and Conflict Groups in Turkey during the 1920s and 1930s

This paper is about Kurdish rebellions and conflict groups in Turkey during the 1920s and 1930s. The study defines these rebellions and conflict groups as local, sporadic and segmented. They were local as they underwent regional forms and variations. Yet, the values and actions of rebellious actors were not reduced to only local realities since it is possible to observe that they exceeded local frames by religious and nationalist motivations. Second, they were sporadic because they did not have temporal continuity. Most importantly, they were segmented in the sense that Kurdish actors in the revolts were not fully integrated. Even though they had almost identical conflictual relationships with state power, they were not present together in the same revolt. These major characteristics determined the nature of mobilization as well as the boundaries of Kurdish conflict groups and rebellions.

Motive Structures and Violence among Young Globalization Critics: A Statistical Typology of the Motives for Protest at the 2007 G8 Summit

The results of a questionnaire survey of 3,578 young protesters aged 15 to 24 were used to create a typology of the motive structures of the young globalization critics who participated in protests against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June 2007. Eight groups with different motive structures identified using cluster analysis reveal the spectrum of motives of the young demonstrators, ranging from social and political idealism to hedonistic fun-seeking and nationalist motives. Despite the diversity of motives, two cross-cluster motives can be identified: the results clearly show that the majority of respondents were motivated by political idealism and rejected violence. Two overlapping minorities were found: one where political idealism was largely lacking, and another where violence was a prominent motive.