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The New Nationalism

SIMON LAMBERT / HAYTHAM-REA / REDUX

Patriot Games:…

REVIEW ESSAY March/April 2019 Issue

Building a Better Nationalism

The Nation’s Place in a Globalized World
By Yael Tamir

In This Review

A
t a rally in Texas last October, U.S. President Donald Trump was
delivering his familiar “America rst” message, complaining about
“corrupt, power-hungry globalists,” when he tried out a new line: “You
know, they have a word—it sort o became old-fashioned—it’s called, ‘a
nationalist.’ And I say, ‘Really, we’re not supposed to use that word,’” he added,
grinning. “You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, OK? I’m a nationalist.” As the
crowd cheered, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” Trump nodded. “‘Nationalist’: nothing wrong
with it. Use
This site usesthat word!”
cookies to improve your user experience. Click here to learn more. CONTINUE
As Trump correctly noted, in recent decades, “that word,” and all it suggests, has
fallen out o favor. For most political thinkers and elites in the developed West,
nationalism is a dangerous, divisive, illiberal impulse that should be treated with
skepticism or even outright disdain. Yes, nationalism helped give rise to the
modern state system, served as a liberating force in anticolonial independence
struggles, and fueled anti-Soviet sentiment during the Cold War. But surely, the
thinking went, nationalism was a phase that the rich democracies o the world had
outgrown—and in those places where it still thrived, it posed more problems than
solutions.

Today, however, many elite assumptions about politics have come under assault,
including those about nationalism. A small but increasingly vocal group of
American and European thinkers have begun to mount defenses o nationalism—
some modest, others more full-throated. One o the most enthusiastic advocates is
Yoram Hazony, an Israeli philosopher and political theorist. His latest book, The
Virtue of Nationalism, has brought him to prominence in some American
conservative political circles. In it, he presents a spirited defense o nationalism
and the nation-state. Although he does not ignore nationalism’s aws, he rightly
contends that Western intellectuals have been too quick to dismiss it and that the
topic deserves a more balanced and nuanced analysis than what the academy has
o ered in recent years.

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