People Nation And State

Nations in the developed world are no less immune from these complex issues - whether they involve Scottish nationalism, the rival national identities of Northern Ireland, the uneasy integration of former GDR citizens into a united Germany, the perennial problems of Afro-Americans and Hispanics in the USA, not to mention the myriad factors raised by the disappearance of the Soviet Union.

"While conflicts of class, ideology and political systems have receded in the post-Cold War world, divisions based on group identity - cultural, ethnic, religious, and national - have assumed new importance. From Bosnia to Belfast and Burundi, from California to Kosovo, the difficulty of defining and reconciling group identities, and of relating them to state structures, has become one of the central problems of our time. Nations in the developed world are no less immune from these complex issues whether they involve Scottish nationalism, the rival national identities in Northern Ireland, the uneasy integration of former GDR citizens into a united Germany, the perennial problems of Afro-Americans and Hispanics in the United States, not to mention the myriad factors raised by the disappearance of the Soviet Union. Leading scholars and writers such as the late Ernest Gellner, Bhikhu Parekh, Olivier Roy, Michael Ignatieff and Professor Adam Roberts of Oxford University have collaborated with Edward Mortimer to illuminate the issues of ethnic and national identity which have emerged as central to the politics of today's world. They examine definitions of ethnicity; the relationship between nationhood and nationalism; sexual politics relating to nationalism and ethnicity; the problem of national identity in a multicultural society as well as surveying the problems and opportunities thrown up by different kinds of nationalism. By exploring various perspectives on a highly topical subject this book makes an important contribution to a better understanding of the workings of politics in today's world."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Modern Armenia reviews Armenian politics and political thinking from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and the evolution of Armenians from peoplehood to statehood. Written by a key governmental advisor in the early years of Armenian independence, this book analyzes the internal dynamics of the revolutionary movement, the genocide, the Armenian Diaspora, its recovered statehood and recent independence, as well as the relationship of these developments to processes in the Ottoman/Turkish, Russian, and Western states. It also explores current dilemmas and future choices independent Armenia faces today. Libaridian concludes with an overview of Armenia and Armenians during the past two decades, including the rebirth of independent Armenia, its foreign and security policy options, its position within the region, and its relations with the Diaspora. Fascinating and timely, Modern Armenia will be of interest to students and scholars of Armenian history, independence movements, the dissolution of the Soviet empire, foreign relations, and political science.

Ernest Renan was one of the leading lights of the Parisian intellectual scene in the second half of the nineteenth century. A philologist, historian, and biblical scholar, he was a prominent voice of French liberalism and secularism. Today most familiar in the English-speaking world for his 1882 lecture “What Is a Nation?” and its definition of a nation as an “everyday plebiscite,” Renan was a major figure in the debates surrounding the Franco-Prussian War, the Paris Commune, and the birth of the Third Republic and had a profound influence on thinkers across the political spectrum who grappled with the problem of authority and social organization in the new world wrought by the forces of modernization. What Is a Nation? and Other Political Writings is the first English-language anthology of Renan’s political thought. Offering a broad selection of Renan’s writings from several periods of his public life, most previously untranslated, it restores Renan to his place as one of France’s major liberal thinkers and gives vital critical context to his views on nationalism. The anthology illuminates the characteristics that distinguished nineteenth-century French liberalism from its English and American counterparts as well as the more controversial parts of Renan’s legacy, including his analysis of colonial expansion, his views on Islam and Judaism, and the role of race in his thought. The volume contains a critical introduction to Renan’s life and work as well as detailed annotations that assist in recovering the wealth and complexity of his thought.

René Grotenhuis analyses policies intended to bring stability to fragile states and shows how they ignore the question of what gives people a sense of belonging to a nation-state.

Throughout history, humanity has borne witness to the political and moral challenges that arise when people place national identity above allegiance to geo-political states or international communities. This book discusses the concept of nations and nationalism from social, philosophical, geological, theological and anthropological perspectives. It examines the subject through conflicts past and present, including recent conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East, rather than exclusively focusing on theory. Above all, this fascinating and comprehensive work clearly shows how feelings of nationalism are an inescapable part of being human.

Can the nation state survive the internet? Or will the internet be territorially fragmented along state boundaries? This book investigates these questions.