The rise of ethnic nationalism

Pat sees great danger for those who get in the middle of the new rise of ethnic nationalism in the world. If America wants to be bogged down in one war after the next the best way to do that is to take sides in each ethnic group’s call for their own nation state. When the existing nations are weakened by ethic nationalism it will bring violence all over the world.  We have given ethnic nationalism a kick start with our short sighted support of an independent Kosovo and now we will take sides against the Serbs and get ourselves in another sorry situation. The possibilities of this being repeated elsewhere in the world are endless.

The return of ethnic nationalism

Americans, writes Muller, “find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally. Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that this is a product not of nature but of culture. …”But none of this will make ethnonationalism go away.”

Indeed, we see it bubbling up from the Basque country of Spain, to Belgium, Bolivia, Baghdad and Beirut. Perhaps the wisest counsel for the United States may be to get out of the way of this elemental force. Rather than seek to halt the inexorable, we should seek to accommodate it and ameliorate its sometimes awful consequences.

And we should look to our own land. According to Pew Research, there will be 127 million Hispanics here by mid-century, tripling today’s 45 million – and almost 100 million new immigrants. No nation faces a graver threat from this resurgence of ethnonationalism than does our own.