ABSTRACT
From the 1990s to the 2010s, it seemed to many observers that nationalism was on its way out. Intellectuals and political commentators alike proposed new alternatives that would replace the nation-state, such as ‘cosmopolitanism’ (Appiah 1997), as a result of an optimistic evaluation of globalization processes (Fukuyama 1992). At present, however, it seems these optimistic evaluations were perhaps premature. From the USA to Russia and China, as well as in a number of smaller European countries, nationalist as well as racist agendas are strengthening and finding more vocal support. The alleged decline of violence and the imminent arrival of total enlightenment predicted (Pinker 2011, 2018) are being countered by military expansion into volatile areas such as the South China Sea, nuclear buildup in North Korea, and decades of violence in the Middle East.
