FROM NATIONALISTS TO INTERNATIONALISTS AND BACK
| Published date | 01 June 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12087 |
| Author | JAN ERK |
| Date | 01 June 2014 |
doi: 10.1111/padm.12087
BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS
FROM NATIONALISTS TO INTERNATIONALISTS AND
BACK
JAN ERK
THE POLITICS OF NATION-BUILDING: MAKING CO-NATIONALS, REFUGEES,
AND MINORITIES
Harris Mylonas
Cambridge University Press, 2012, 273 pp., £53.95 (hb), ISBN: 9781107661998
STATELESS NATIONS: WESTERN EUROPEAN REGIONAL NATIONALISMS AND
THE OLD NATIONS
Julius W. Friend
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 224 pp., £57.50 (hb), ISBN: 9780230361799
GOVERNING THE WORLD: THE HISTORY OF AN IDEA
Mark Mazower
Allen Lane, 2012, 496 pp., £25 (hb), ISBN: 9780713996838
These three recent books take up the enduring power of nationalism, its defunct competi-
tor imperialism, and its persistent but unsuccessful challenger internationalism. While
originating in different analytical traditions, all three employ a long-term historical
framework. Their lessons are particularly relevant to our times as we witness growing
public disillusionment with established politics; widespread anti-internationalist senti-
ment – particularly with institutions like the European Union (EU) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF); unscrupulous populist national leaders taking advantage of peo-
ple’s fears of uncertainty; while modern technology and communication are bringing
us together at an unprecedented scale. Nationalism and internationalism have become
inseparable.
Harris Mylonas’ The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minori-
ties is an outstanding piece of scholarship, and deserves to be among the nationalism
studies canon. The book seeks to explain how non-core ethnic groups have been subjected
to three different nation-building policies by the elites of the host state: accommodation,
assimilation, and exclusion. According to Mylonas, the fate of these unassimilated ethnic
groups is influenced by the host state’s foreign policy goals and its relations with the
external patrons of these groups.
It is an argument prioritizing the geostrategic element behind elite policy choices in
nation-building. But such choices also depend on how international dynamics affect the
(perceived or true) loyalties of the unassimilated ethnic groups: ‘ ...external involvement
Jan Erk is at Leiden University, Netherlands.
Public Administration Vol. 92, No. 2, 2014 (518–524)
©2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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