War and Religion: The Iran−Iraq War

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyman Asadzade
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Iraq War ◽  
Public Support ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Centered Form ◽  
The People ◽  
Modern Nation State

Religion has historically played a central role in motivating rulers to start and individuals to participate in war. However, the decline of religion in international politics following the Peace of Westphalia and the inception of the modern nation-state system, which built and highlighted a sense of national identity, undermined the contribution of religion to politics and consequently, conflict. The case of the Iran−Iraq War, however, shows a different pattern in which religion did play a crucial role in motivating individuals to participate in war. Although the evidence suggests that religious motivations by no means contributed to Saddam’s decision to launch the war, an overview of the Iranian leaders’ speeches and martyrs’ statements reveals that religion significantly motivated people to take part in the war. While Iraqi leaders tried to mobilize the population by highlighting the allegedly Persian-Arab historical antagonism and propagating an Iraqi-centered form of Arab nationalism, Iranian leaders exploited religious symbols and emotions to encourage war participation, garner public support, alleviate the suffering of the people, and build military morale. The Iranian leadership painted the war as a battle between believers and unbelievers, Muslims and infidels, and the true and the false. This strategy turned out to be an effective tool of mobilization during wartime.

Subversive Archaism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Herzfeld
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Equation Of State ◽  
Urban Slum ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Modern Nation State

In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld explores how individuals and communities living at the margins of the modern nation-state use nationalist discourses of tradition to challenge state authority under both democratic and authoritarian governments. Through close attention to the claims and experiences of mountain shepherds in Greece and urban slum dwellers in Thailand, Herzfeld shows how these subversive archaists draw on national histories and past polities to claim legitimacy for their defiance of bureaucratic authority. Although vilified by government authorities as remote, primitive, or dangerous—often as preemptive justification for violent repression—these groups are not revolutionaries and do not reject national identity, but they do question the equation of state and nation. Herzfeld explores the political strengths and vulnerabilities of their deployment of heritage and the weaknesses they expose in the bureaucratic and ethnonational state in an era of accelerated globalization.

scholarly journals THE ISLAMIC EPISTEME OF POLITIES DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

2020 ◽  
pp. 445-471
Author(s):  
Labeeb Bsoul
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Development And Management ◽  
Modern Nation State

This paper illustrates the contributions of Islamic law to the development of transnational socio-political organisations that transcend racial and geopolitical fixations. Those are best enshrined in the premise of the unıty of believing community and humanity led to the Shari‘ah/Islamic law. Islam advocates the development and consolidation of communities. Thıs study dıscusses the concept of ‘ummah’ (community of believers) according to the tradıtıon of Prophet Muhammad and surveys ıts development throughout the Islamıc caliphates, sultanates, and imamates up untıl colonialısm and modern ‘nation-state’ system. The article argues that there are ontological, epistemological, and normative differences spanning the divide between Muslim and Western worldviews especially concerning the development and management of their polities.

Switzerland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Campbell ◽  
John A. Hall
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Nation State ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Modern Nation State

This chapter examines how Switzerland managed the 2008 financial crisis. It first provides an overview of Switzerland's transition into a modern nation-state before discussing the institutional factors that crystallize Swiss national identity despite cultural differences, including the country's exposure and vulnerability to outside threats. It then considers Switzerland's thick institutions in relation to federalism and direct democracy as well as the structure of the economy. It also describes the oigins of the 2008 financial crisis and Switzerland's response to it in the form of bailouts for banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse. It shows that despite the closed and insulated nature of crisis management, Swiss technocrats managing the crisis were not averse to consulting with outside experts.

A Short History of the Cross-Class Coalition

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
Yael Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
Short History ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Modern Nation State

This chapter begins with narrating the creation of a cross-class coalition to offer all citizens a set of valuable goods and opportunities. It notes that nationalism started as a project of the elites, and in order to materialize it, they had to gather the support of the people. The chapter emphasizes that for social cooperation to prevail, participants need not attain identical goods and benefits; it is sufficient that they secure for themselves significant benefits they could not have otherwise acquired. It argues that membership in the nation became the relevant criteria for inclusion (and exclusion). Wealth, education, skills, and social status were still relevant for the distribution of power but could not be used as benchmarks for participation in the political game. The chapter also examines how the nation-state gave members of all classes a reason to participate in a collective effort to form a national political unit that would benefit (albeit in different ways and to a different extent) all its members. Ultimately, the chapter investigates why the emergence of the modern nation-state paved the way for inclusive social policies.

scholarly journals Radical right-wing parties in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Rydgren
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
National Security ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Ethnic Nationalism ◽  
The People ◽  
Party Family ◽  
Pertinent Feature

Abstract In this paper I discuss, critically, the literature on populism and the extent to which it applies to the contemporary radical right-wing parties in Europe. These parties are often – and increasingly – referred to as populist parties. I argue that it is misleading to label these parties ‘populist parties’, since populism is not the most pertinent feature of this party family. These parties are mainly defined by ethnic nationalism, and not a populist ideology. In their discourse they are primarily preoccupied with questions pertaining to national identity and national security – and their ‘negative’ doubles immigration, multiculturalism, Islamist threat – and they consistently pit ‘the people’ mainly against elites that they view as responsible for a cultural and political threat against their idealized image of their nation state. The ethnic nationalism of European radical right-wing parties is more important for their discourse and tends to influence the populist elements.

scholarly journals EDITORIAL FOREWORD

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-202
Author(s):  
Israel Gershoni ◽  
Sara Pursley ◽  
Beth Baron
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Country ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
The People ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Editorial Foreword

As this IJMES special issue on “Relocating Arab Nationalism” is going to press, democracy movements in the Arab world have toppled the old regimes in Tunisia and Egypt; uprisings in Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya are shaking the foundations of their respective governments; and protests in Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, and Oman have sent rulers scrambling to respond with some combination of reform and repression that they hope will ensure their survival. The events have had reverberations in Iran, sub-Saharan Africa, and elsewhere; but they have clearly, at least so far, reverberated most strongly from one Arab country to another. This is reflected, among many other ways, in the protesters' self-conscious borrowing and repetition of chants and slogans, such as tūnis huwwa al-ḥall (Tunisia is the solution) and the ubiquitous al-shaʿb yurīd isqāt al-niẓām (the people want the fall of the regime). In showing how Arabist symbols, discourses, and identifications can be mobilized for purposes that are not only cultural but also deeply political, even when they do not involve any project to create a Pan-Arab nation-state, the protests sweeping the Arab world have made the recurring themes of this special issue more timely than we had imagined.

THE FORMATION OF A JAPANOCENTRIC WORLD ORDER

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arano Yasunori
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
World Order ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Nation State

Two major phenomena helped define Japan's foreign relations in the early modern period: the ban on international maritime travel and trading, and the Japanese adaptation of a Sinocentric rhetoric governing foreign relations with tributary states. In this article I will describe and analyze how these phenomena emerged and evolved, with special emphasis on the role they played in shaping Japan as an early modern nation state and forming for it a sense of “national identity.” My examination will focus on them especially in the context of Japan's relationship with its East Asian neighbours, and I place particular emphasis on four points.

Equality and Difference

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Seyla Benhabib
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Modernity ◽  
Alternative Institutions ◽  
German Jewish ◽  
Equal Citizenship ◽  
Modern Nation State

This chapter explains how in the German—Jewish encounter with political modernity, the contradictory presuppositions constitutive of every nation-state are revealed. Now that the weaknesses of the Westphalian state-system are becoming increasingly apparent, whereas the alternative institutions that ought to transcend this system are still remote, scholars can identify some of these paradoxes more vividly. The dignity of equal citizenship for all and the sovereignty claims of the nation are the dual sources of legitimacy in the modern nation-state, and the tensions among them have accompanied and enframed the people's political experiences since the bourgeois democratic revolutions of the eighteenth century. The chapter shows how Jewish political and legal thinkers of the twentieth century have grappled with both dimensions of this paradox.

Embracing multiculturalism of Canada: the roots & the present-day realities

2017 ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Valentyna Bohatyrets
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Digital Diplomacy ◽  
Equality And Diversity

The paper provides the framework for embracing multiculturalism as a source of national identity, a political ‘profession de foi’, and an engine for a government to gain positive outcomes, leading to better immigrant integration and economic advantages for any country in the world. Noteworthy, Canadian federal policy of multiculturalism, since its official adoption in 1971, is witnessed to work stunningly and in contrast to developments elsewhere – in Canada, public support for multiculturalism is seeing unprecedented growth. Currently, the diversity of the Canadian populace is increasing faster than at any time in its history; Canada’s ethnic makeup has notably altered over the time due to changing immigration patterns. According to the latest poll findings, 84% of Canadians agree with the statement that ‘Canada’s multicultural makeup is one of the best things about this country’; 61% of Canadians believe multiculturalism ‘strengthens national identity’. Moreover, released data from Environics reveals that 27% of Canadians believe ‘multiculturalism is the one characteristic about Canada that most deserves to be celebrated on its upcoming 150thanniversary. Undeniably, people around the world tend to view Canada as “good”. Importantly, the election of Justin Trudeau is viewed as an excellent opportunity to invigorate brand Canada. Noteworthy, brand Justin Trudeau is currently composed of his belief in and promotion of the values of tolerance, equality and diversity. While recognizing the value for society of the human dignity inherent in each individual, Trudeau’s government aims to push beyond mere tolerance to mutual understanding and respect. Keywords: Multiculturalism of Canada, immigration, digital diplomacy, brand, national identity, poll, ethnic groups

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