Nationalism In The United States

Nationalism is a powerful force that can unite people working towards a common goal, but when it is taken to the extreme it can cause major disharmony in society, evident in the numerous genocides during the Age of Imperialism, the Fascist party's rise to power, and the Japanese’s unwillingness to surrender during World War II. Nationalism is dangerous, because it warps the minds of the individuals in the organization, creates prejudice and discrimination, and can be easily manipulated into a weapon against humanity.

Internationalism is a unifying force that has the power to impact every nation in the world and allow for their common good to be apprehended. Through ideal internationalism, political life can be regulated at the global level to construct a more peaceful structure. It has the potential to affect people in both positive and negative ways. Overcoming the difficulties that comes from executing internationalism is one of the key aspects of nationalism, it is up to the governing bodies to conquer it or not.

When Americans think of nationalism, most conjecture visions of high-flying flags, soldiers returning from war, and a montage of red, white and blue. Some envision fireworks on the Fourth of July, or a hometown parade on Memorial Day. To many, the term “nationalism,” is just a synonym for “patriotism,” or the emotional allegiance one feels to his or her country. But in fact, nationalism carries a wholly different meaning, one that has earned a negative connotation especially over the past few centuries. Nationalism, at its simplest is the patriotic sentiment for a nation, or aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, generally inhabiting a particular country or territory. Nationalism therefore implies the superiority of a homogenous group of people, whether it be by race, culture, language, etc. Over the years, nationalism has been used to justify, in some cases, the genocide of ethnic or religious groups that fail to fit the national mold of the majority faction. This justification has procured nationalism its unsavory historical connotation, which peaked in Europe during World War II and still remains healthy today in Africa and the Middle East.

Albert Einstein once said,” Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” Nationalism has played a significant role throughout history. Nationalism can be defined as having a sense of belonging and loyalty to one 's state or country. With growing middle classes and their desire to expand political power modern nationalism arose to create equal liberty and equality for all. (Mescevic) In the twentieth century new forms of nationalism emerged. In the United States, the basis of nationalism was not ethnicity, but a shared belief of democracy, principles, rule of law and individual rights. The Soviet Union, an important superpower of the twentieth century, saw a rise of nationalism while trying to expand the idea of communism worldwide. In Nazi Germany, Nazism represented an extreme form of nationalism. Italian nationalism became apparent in World War I and the era of Italian fascism. Growing nationalism in China was used to modernize imperialist encroachment. Imperial Japan saw a spark of nationalism during their westernization period. Arab Nationalism became the basis for alienation and loss of national identity for many indigenous Jews and other minorities of Arab countries. As you can see, nationalism impacted every area of the world. The essence of nationalism is a unifying, all-persuasive act to unify a country and its people as one.

Nationalism gave confidence to the citizens of the moral virtue of their nation, suggesting that it was fair, worthy and without blame.9 Having too much pride can be dangerous as it can cause a person to get blinded by the truth and for them to follow authority or their leader blindly because they believe in them. When one's loyalty and devotion is dedicated to their country, it unifies a country and brings them together, this is the importance of nationalism. However, it also creates competition and conflict between other nations as to who is more powerful and

There are many people supposing that nationalism is a progressive force in international relations. However, there is also much debate in academic materials which are identifying nationalism as a hindrance in achieving the possibilities presented by globalization, as well as a risk factor in war. Therefore, there is a division in terms of if nationalism is progressive or regressive, as far as international relations are concerned. As a response to these conflicting views, this paper will explore the relevant literature to support the thesis that nationalism is a progressive force in international relations.

“For every force, there is a counter force. For every negative there is a positive. For every action there is a reaction. For every cause there is an effect.” By Grace Speare. Nationalism can be defined as the sense of connectivity among the people in a specific group or a nation of people. Consequently, this sense grows as the people have more to group around through social, political, and economic conditions. Therefore, as one of these conditions change it will have a drastic effect on the development of nationalism. The changing conditions that shape nationalism can be summarized as social conditions which describes the living conditions of any social group ,however, social conditions are also the quality of life, the availability of welfare,

Indeed, the emerging ideology of nationalism was hand in hand with the thought of expand into the territories of other countries, this in the 1930s, according to Ip (2017). Nowadays, the ideology of nationalism, merely seeks to reassert control over its own country. A clear example is the recent statements by President Donald Trump, in which he states textually, “There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship. From now on, it’s going to be ‘America First.’” Such statement took by surprise the entire world since nationalism was not strongly reflected in a presidency in the United States. Therefore, the natural outcome of such ideology only can bring divergence among countries willing to work together for a common good and countries that only seek their own interest. Ideologies such as nationalism, promote that representatives of different countries seek to withdraw world organizations. Aforesaid, a clear example of such actions are the decisions of the precedent elected Donald Trump how decided to abandon the North America Free Trade Agreement this past month. Another example of what nationalism can induce is the case of the current French presidential candidate Ms. Le Pen, who seeks to promote nationalism in her country, arguing that globalism does not let France

In many societies in America people fall into one of three categories, a nationalist, globalist, or hybrid. The nationalist is a person who tends to prioritize their own country over others on many world matters. The globalist is looking out for the betterment of the world at large, therefore, they have a world view. Then the hybrid who picks and chooses whatever seems best at the time. While nationalism seems like it will pay off at times a country will end up being either selfish or a bully to other countries. This will likely lead too few large world powers that don’t care about other countries, unless the other country can provide benefit to them. Globalism, while sounding nice in theory, it will be difficult for it to be effective unless the entire world is on board and for many reasons that isn’t realistic. One of the reasons is that each person has a different culture, religion, or set of principles that they live by. If one country keeps giving while other countries only take, then the country giving will go bankrupt. At some point they won’t be able to give anymore and then chaos is bound to erupt. The hybrid in my opinion has the right idea, the idea is to be considerate without getting into other peoples ' business. I strongly feel the balance of mainly nationalism with the right amount of globalism will help us reach the most positive outcome on both a national and global level.

SIn every nation or state in the modern world, there can be found some form or another of nationalism. At the most basic level nationalism is a modern concept used to describe the passion one feels for the nation they belong to and their willingness to defend it. Today, there are two types of nationalism that are heavily prevalent in nations across the globe as a way to unite the citizens with the common pride of nation. First, there is “rational” nationalism, which subscribes to the idea that a nation is legal-political community and all those who are born there or reside there are all citizens of said community and desire a common culture and religion to unite the people and give the nation political legitimacy. The other most common

The concept of nationalism is in essence an odd organization that has had significant impacts in world history through shaping the political and social aspects of the society. As an important aspect in the development of the society, the concept of nationalism has basically been analyzed based on its impact on the emergence of nation-states across the globe. In most cases, these analyses have been conducted to determine the influence of nationalism on imperial breakdown i.e. the dissolution of empires. While the actual extent of the impact of nationalism on the imperial breakdown is uncertain, this concept has played a major role in the dissolution of empires. Generally, the transition to nationalism has contributed to significant effects in world history through shaping the political and social aspects of the society.

In many societies in america people fall into one of three categories, a nationalist, globalist, or hybrid. The nationalist is a person who tends to prioritize their own country over others on many world matters. The globalist is looking out for the betterment of the world at large, therefore, they have a world view. Then the hybrid who picks and chooses whatever seems best at the time. While nationalism seems like it will pay off at times a country will end up being either selfish or a bully to other countries. This will likely lead too few large world powers that don’t care about other countries, unless the other country can provide benefit to them. Globalism, while sounding nice in theory, it will be difficult for it to be effective unless the entire world is on board and for many reasons that isn’t realistic. One of the reasons is that each person has a different culture, religion, or set of principles that they live by. If one country keeps giving while other countries only take, then the country giving will go bankrupt. At some point they won’t be able to give anymore and then chaos is bound to erupt. The hybrid in my opinion has the right idea, the idea is to be considerate without getting into other people business. I strongly feel the balance of mainly nationalism with the right amount of globalism will help us reach the most positive outcome on both a national and global level.

It is difficult to identify one’s nationality because understanding the concept of a nation is an abstruse procedure. Given that defining a nation is perplexing, and the characterization of a nation is imperative to define nationalism, it becomes a convoluted process to determine the meaning of nationalism. Furthermore, nationalism is a human construct, which makes it inconsistent across the world. Different individuals would have different views on the definition of nationalism. When the concept of nationalism is indefinite and obscure, it would inevitably lead to conflict amongst individuals within a nation and foreign to the nation due to a difference in opinion

Nationalism is an ideology that shapes actions and provides legitimatization for a state based on national identity (Smith, 1991, 18). National identity stems from shared characteristics, including ethnicity and a mass public culture (Smith, 1991, 14). Nationalism has been on the rise lately, as evidenced by the increased popularity of nationalist European political parties, posing a threat to global stability in the near future (Pappas, 2016, 27). Specifically, the polarization of nationalism causes this threat. An experiment found that there is some natural human tendency to form groups, creating a division between group members and those who do not belong to the group due to not sharing a common culture (McRaney, 2011, 2). The creation of in and out-groups forms solidarity between group members but the exclusion of others makes them outsiders and a potential threat, strengthening polarization (McRaney, 2011, 4). It is nationalism, more so than great power conflict or nuclear weapons, that poses the greatest threat to global stability because nationalism has increased recently and creates polarizing in and out-groups. In turn, this polarization increases the likelihood of war and isolationism, and is a strong motivation for a great power conflict or nuclear attack. Nationalism, particularly based on ethnicity, can lead to wars of expansion while polarization causes aggression between states. Moreover, nationalism’s focus on national self-interest can promote isolationism

Some may ask, “What is the difference between nationalism and imperialism?” Nationalism is a political, social, and economic system that is characterized by indorsing the interests of a nation, particularly with a goal of gaining and maintaining self-governance, or full sovereignty, over the group's fatherland (Webster 1). Whereas imperialism is the policy or practice, of spreading the power and territory of a nation by territorial acquisitions and by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas (Webster 1). Nationalism and Imperialism are two separate terms that are to be understood in different ways. Nationalism is based on