NationalismLecture 13: Beyond nationalism?

Pan-Nationalism and FundamentalismProf. Lars-Erik Cederman

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS)

Seilergraben 49, Room G.2lcederman@ethz.ch

http://www.icr.ethz.ch/teaching/nationalism

Assistant: Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3, k-sims@northwestern.edu

Outline

• Pan-nationalism

• Historical examples

• Civilizations

• Implications for the “war on terrorism”

Pan-Nationalism

• Pan-nationalism aggregates many related ethnic identities into one over-arching macro-identity with the aim of promoting interstate cooperation or political unification

• Does not always imply unification• Main basis is a cultural political project• Builds on or opposes lower-level nationalism• Expansionist temptations

Pan-nationalismCommon state?

Com

mon

nat

ion?

No Yes

No

Yes

Phase I:Nation-formation

Division orunification?

Phase II:Pan-Nationalistforeign-policycoordination

Historical examples

• Pan-Europeanism

• Pan-Slavism

• Pan-Germanism

• Pan-Turkism

• Pan-Africanism

• Pan-Arabism

Pan-Africanism (see Breuilly)

• Started in British West Africa by a tiny minority

• “Golden age” in 1950s• Leader Nkrumah (Ghana)• 1963 Organization of African Unity• Support for unification fizzles, in

spite of a strong ideological program

Kwame Nkruhmah

Pan-Arabism(see Barnett, Breuilly)

• Historical origins: Christians in Lebanon, anti-Ottoman opposition

• More powerful than other pan-nationalist movements– Cultural cohesion? Language and

religion?– Anti-imperialism– Anti-Zionism– Leadership: Nasser

The Arab League, founded in 1944

Gamal Abd al-Nasser

Pan-Arabism (continued)

• United Arab Republic in 1958 but collapses in 1961

• Divisions between Egypt and Saudi Arabia

• Military failure and partial peace with Israel => Sadat returns to Egyptian nationalism

• First Gulf War leads to more division• Failure of pan-Arabism opens the

door for Islamism

Anwar As-Sadat

(1918-1981)

Huntington’s civilizations• A civilization is “the highest

cultural grouping of people”

• Combination of objective elements and self-definition; religion crucial!

• According to Huntington, there are 7 or 8 major civilizations:– Western, Confucian, Japanese,

Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin-American, and possibly African

Samuel Huntington

Huntington’s civilizational map

Huntington cont’d

• Civilizational differences engender conflict– Differences are “real” and “basic”– Local identities threatened– West at the peak of its power– Entropy of cultural traits

• Consequences:– Fault lines– Civilizational rallying– The West against the Rest– Torn countries

Critique

• Definitions:– inconsistent traits: role of religion? internal

differences...– self-definition? African civilization?– ignores exchanges

• Role of states

• Overly pessimistic about conflict

• Self-fulfilling prophecy

Islamist Fundamentalism

• Islamist fundamentalism seeks to recapture and apply the fundamentals of Islam in the contemporary world (Barth)

• Political agenda: not in terms of states but– spiritual community: “ummah”– reaction to secular Arab regimes– reaction to Israel and the West– violence: “Jihad”

Fredrik Barth

Defining terrorism

• Terrorism is the “deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or the threat of violence in the pursuit of political change” (Bruce Hoffmann, Inside Terrorism)

• Psychological phenomenon• “Political change” can be, but does not have

to be, about nationalism• Asymmetric conflict: “weapon of the weak”

Three waves of terrorism in the Middle East

• Religion dominant until 19th century

• Wave 1: Post-colonial liberation:– Irgun and Stern Gang fight both Arabs and

British– Model for post-colonial movements

• Wave 2: Internationalization:– PLO– Model for terrorist movements

• Wave 3: New religious terrorism:– Iranian Revolution in 1979– Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda

Menachem Begin

(1913-1992)

Yasser Arafat

(1929-2004)

Implications for the war on terrorism

• Need to attack root causes

• State-led terror also major problem

• Danger of clash of civilizations– risk of anti-Western

mobilization– resist vilification of Islam– against fundamentalism at

home and abroad– problems of nation-building