Chapter Fifteen: Identity Politics: Nationalism And Ethnicity

Review

This chapter highlights the role of culture and identity in global politics. The chapter begins by defining identities and how they shape political behavior. It then examines how political elites can manipulate identity to pursue political objectives. The chapter then looks at nationalism, one of the most significant political identities in global politics. This is followed by an examination of religious, ethnic, and tribal identities all of which have regained significance as of late. The chapter turns to the breakup of Yugoslavia to demonstrate how identities can lead to conflict. It ends with an analysis of the idea that we are entering an era in which civilizational identities will become a source of conflict.

1. Identities

Identities are those features that somebody recognizes as defining his- or herself and that, when shared with others, define a group. Each individual has multiple identities, each with its own set of political interests.

a) Conflicting identities and the threat to national unity

1. For much of the past three centuries, people viewed citizenship as their principle political identity. In recent decades, other identities have gained salience: ethnic, tribal, and religious identities in particular, but also newer identities like gender, race, and profession.
2. For some countries, conflicting identities pose a growing problem. In Europe, large majorities of Muslim migrants are alienated from Western culture and think of themselves as Muslims first and citizens of their country second.
3. Many European states, including France and Britain, are confronting challenges to what it means to be “French” or  “British.”

b) Divided loyalties?

1. People have many identities, but few are politically salient at any given time. An identity only assumes importance when a political issue affects members of a political group.
2. Sometimes issues force individuals to choose between competing identities.

c) “We” versus “them” in global politics

1. People are united by common identities and one of the most basic facts in global politics is that the world is divided into groups that often mistrust one another.
2. In-groups are moral communities in which members feel strongly obligated to one another but not to non-members. In-groups often blame out-groups for their woes.
3. This mistrust can be a source of conflict. Many of today’s most intractable conflicts involve people in competing identity groups. The greater the psychological distance between these groups, the more likely they will come into conflict with one another.

d) State erosion and technological change

1. The pace of technological change in recent years has made it increasingly difficult for the state to foster a unifying national identity.
2. Nonstate groups use technologies like the Internet to mobilize groups they claim to represent, often against existing regimes. These technologies allow groups to operate across national boundaries.
3. Such technologies also undermine local cultures, sometimes triggering a backlash against globalization.

2. Manipulating identities

a) Increasingly, political leaders are able to manipulate people’s identities—commonly through rituals, myths, and parades—to increase their political power and to mobilize their followers.

b) Bosnia and Chechnya are cases where identities have been manipulated to foster identity wars.

3. Nationalism

Nationalism is the most important political identity. It is based on the belief that the world is divided into distinctive “peoples” and it is borne in the minds of the people.

a) The bases of nationalism

1. A sense of nationalism may involve shared features such as language, common history, ethnicity, and religion.
2. Nationalism has taken various forms:
   1. Liberal nationalism in the tradition of Mazzini,
   2. Malignant nationalism as represented by Treitschke in the nineteenth century and, in the twentieth century, by fascism and Nazism.

b) Nations, states, and nation-states

1. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, nationalism reinforced state-based identities creating what are called nation-states.
2. Recent decades have witnessed a separation of nation and state, and nations like that of the Kurds can threaten the integrity of existing states.

4. Religious identities

a) Religion has historically played a major role in global politics.

b) Religious identities, especially Islamic fundamentalism, today constitute a major challenge to state-based loyalties.

5. Ethnic and tribal identities

a) Tribal and ethnic identities have proliferated since the end of the Cold War, and have produced an upsurge in global violence.

b) These identities threaten the integrity of states in both the developing and developed worlds.

6. The brutal break-up of Yugoslavia

a) The violent destruction of Yugoslavia into Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia represents one of the bloodiest cases of ethnic conflict in recent decades.

b) Yugoslavia collapsed under the weight of ethnic wars, first in Bosnia and then in Kosovo, where NATO forces expelled Serbian troops who had engaged in extensive ethnic cleansing of Muslim Albanians.

7. The clash of civilizations?

a) Ethnic violence among Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and Serbians in Bosnia encouraged Samuel Huntington to put forward a theory about clashing civilizations.

b) Huntington believes that interstate warfare in the West is being replaced by wars among competing civilizations, that Western dominance of global politics will be threatened by an alliance between Confucian and Islamic civilizations, and that American values have been eroded by an influx of Hispanic immigrants.

c) Historically, however, clashes between civilizations are less common than the exchange of ideas and culture between them.

Focus Questions