ABSTRACT
Ethnolinguistic nationalism, the foundational mechanism for creating and maintaining the sociopolitical reality of nation-states in Central Europe, entails the normative isomorphism (or tight spatial and discursive overlap) of language, nation, and state. Apart from a few outliers elsewhere in Eurasia (for instance, Iceland in the north Atlantic, Turkmenistan in Central Asia, Bhutan in South Asia, or Japan in East Asia), most states fulfilling the requirements of this normative isomorphism are located in Central Europe, where ethnolinguistic nationalism emerged as the foundational principle of state building, legitimation, and maintenance after World War One. Another cluster of isomorphic polities (that is, states built in line with the principles of ethnolinguistic nationalism) is located in Southeast Asia (SEA) and emerged in the wake of World War Two and subsequent decolonization.
