Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 11:57:02 -1000 Sender: Fred Riggs From: Fred Riggs To: Diarmuid Maguire Subject: Re: (Fwd) nationalism conference In-Reply-To: <4DBB024829@bullwinkle.econ.su.oz.au> Dear Diarmuid: Thanks for the information about your conference. I'd like to forward it to ETHNIC-L, a network of which REVS is a member, through which information about conferences, research and teaching programs, publications, etc. that relate to ethnicity (including nationalism, refugees) are re-distributed on a global bnasis. I assume you would like me to do this, but please let me know. Let me add on a personal level that I have been doing research for some time on the historical dimensions of ethnonationalism as a rising and major phenomenon in the world today. We need to see that the rise of "state nationalism" whereby centralizing states like France, UK, Germany, Italy, and America used a "melting pot" approach to build nations after states had been launched contrasts with the pervasive rise of "ethnic nationalism" in the wake of the collapse of the empires these modern industrializing states created. The successor states of the collapsed empires contain multi-national mixtures and segments of divided nations each of which, potentially, can mobililze as would-be sovereign states. Ethnic nationalism involves the effort to transform nations into states, whereas state nationalism sought to transform states into nations. It's a fundamental difference which gets obscured when we just speak of "nationalism" without distinguishing between these fundamentally different forms. Incidentally, the former led to inter-imperial wars culminating in the two great Wars of the 20th century, and the Cold War. I think we will not see any more such great wars -- but we will see a host of "turmoils" (involving terrorism, gangsterism, and ethnonational wars) that arise locally but can spread and generate external interventions, but without conquests in the traditional form -- contrast the contemporary case of Somalia (or Bosnia) with that of Poland when it was partitioned between neighboring empires. If you are interested in seeing some of the papers I've written on this subject, I'll be glad to send them to you. I'm only sorry it will not be possible for me to come to your conference. All best wishes, Fred ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FRED W. RIGGS, Professor Emeritus Political Science Department, University of Hawaii 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A. Phone: (808) 956-8123 Fax: (808) 956-6877 e-mail: FREDR@HAWAII.EDU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Century-old Cosmopolitan Club motto: ABOVE ALL NATIONS IS HUMANITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~