Introduction

Nationalism and the idea of the nation-state are among the most pervasive political phenomena of our age and among the least well understood. So interwoven are they with contemporary social, cultural, economic, political, and diplomatic institutions, so deeply embedded in political psychology, so broadly influential in the shaping of human identity and socio-political behavior, that it is almost impossible to tease nationalism apart from the sundry elements with which it interacts or of which it forms part and to study it as a thing unto itself. Is it an ideology or an anthropological phenomenon? Is it an outgrowth of liberal democracy or is it inherently intolerant and conducive to authoritarianism? Is it an aspect of modernity or a reaction against it?1 These are stimulating and productive questions to ask, but ones to which there is no definitive response because each of them can be answered both in the affirmative and in the negative, depending on what historical context and which manifestation or form of nationalism one has in mind.