Minority Nationalism and the Changing International Order

Globalization and European integration are sometimes seen as the enemies of nationalism, sweeping away particularisms and imposing a single economic, cultural, and political order. The book argues that, on the contrary, by challenging the ‘nation‐state’ as the sole basis for identity and sovereignty, such processes open the door for a variety of claims by stateless nations, and provide new ways of managing nationality claims. At one level, they lower the stakes in resisting independence and might permit peaceful transitions to independence. Yet they may also make independence, in the traditional sense, less important and provide ways in which multiple and conflicting nationality claims could be accommodated within new political structures. The chapters in this volume consider these issues from a theoretical perspective, with the help of case studies of stateless nationalisms in Western, Eastern, and Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Quebec. They discuss a wide variety of political experience and show that while there are no easy answers to conflicting national claims, there is reason to believe that they can be managed through democratic political processes.