Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

In the post war (developed) world, the term nation-state has gradually accented the state over the nation by allowing numerous outsiders to become citizens and share benefits without necessarily having the ethnic/linguistic/religious ties that have bound national communities. This has unraveled somewhat in the past few years with populist and exclusivist national movements arising in many European countries and especially the United States, whose president has openly articulated such rhetoric. This paper explores why, in an era of incremental globalization when borders have been falling steadily, has there been a sudden resistance to outsiders entering states. This resistance is not necessarily opposed to illegal immigration, since events like Brexit and the popularity of far right movements in France and Germany target legal immigrants and citizens. Why has Benjamin Barber’s Jihad (tribalism) unexpectedly restricted McWorld (global processes)? Why are citizens (a preferred term for some time) losing out to the “nation” – however defined? These questions are explored through the prism of state development, national identity formation, and the rapid pace of globalization. The paper examines four case studies in the United States, Germany, France, and Britain in an effort to explain these questions.