ABSTRACT
To critique the nation-state is not to repudiate all forms of nationalism. It is unwise, in particular, to ignore how certain forms of nationalism have served, historically, as legitimate ideologies of resistance and emancipation. In the last half-century, one could cite examples such as the nationalist opposition of local peoples to US involvement in Latin America or Soviet imperialism in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. Not to mention the struggle of European nations themselves against Nazi occupation in the Second World War or the campaigns waged by African nations against supremacist colonial policies. One might also note here that the history of Irish nationalism was itself a relatively noble one-with the exception of the IRA campaign after the 1960s.
