ABSTRACT
The nation-state, nationality and nationalism are the central features of modernity. Expressed differently, modernity is inconceivable without the nation-state, the nation-state system, and the related phenomena of nationality and nationalism. Certainly, this is true of Korea. For many who see the world through the modernist lens, the nation-state is the locus of territorial political authority, and the central political agent structuring global conditions. Some admit that the character and capacities of the nation-state are undergoing significant changes, reflecting the commercial and technological globalization of society. Perspectives advocating the existence of a postmodern condition emphasize globalism and localism, contextualism and difference, and question the contemporary relevance and even desirability of the concept of nation-state for social theory. This debate between modernists and postmodernists about the status of nation and its cognate concepts can be better appreciated by taking a historical view of the debate and examining the contested nature of nationalism.
