Of the readings this week, I found Bamyeh’s article the most interesting. He addressed globalization and its effect on nationalism. Globalization has become so evident that nationalism has generally given way to post nationalism, in which individual nations begin to identify on a global scale as opposed to separate entities. Post nationalism rose after the Second World War. Nationalism was pretty new to the 20th century, but as Bamyeh noticed, was one of the most devastating ideas humanity had faced due to all the destruction and war it caused. But with the rise of post nationalism, the globalized world has progressed and established multinational economies and organizations.
The most interesting part of Bamyeh’s article was his analysis of the contrast between American and Europe in regards to post nationalism. It is clear that America is still very nationalistic and asserts its own power in all parts of the world (as well as integrating itself into the global society) while Europe has dropped such strong nationalism and embraced post nationalism. It is interesting to follow the nationalistic development of these two regions. While Europe established transnational institutions after WWII which later evolved into the European Union, America persisted with their military after the Cold War and became a more hegemonic power. Why did Europe and America share such different fates? Do you think it's more geographic or because of their foreign affairs?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think there are many reasons why America became more hegemonic and came into "new imperialism". I think one reason is that Europe was more effected, geographically and in terms of population, by WWI and WWII. Also, there had been wars going on between European powers for centuries. I think Europe got to a certain point where creating some interdependence made more sense than keeping its nationalistic, imperialistic tendencies. Keeping with this theme, America, in general is a much younger country and more readily available to assert its power.
ReplyDeleteYour question is really interesting to me. I would also like to build further from it and say that I think that America and Europe's disparate courses of action will ultimately become the reason for their future success or failure. For instance, take a look at the state of our currency. The U.S. dollar was once the strongest dollar, but now, with European powers uniting to create the Euro which has increased its value and buying power where the hegemonic stance of the United States seems to only have resulted in lessened value of the our currency. For this and other reasons, I worry about the future of the United States.
ReplyDelete