Iraq as a New Multinational State: A Cautious Defence

Abstract

This book had its origins in a conference titled ‘Beyond the Nation?’ The question mark was appropriate. Nations, as vehicles of popular sovereignty and as subjects of collective self-determination, are not about to be superseded by novel postnational formats — at least not everywhere, not even in most of Europe. The empirical picture that confronts a sober political scientist at the beginning of the twenty-first century sharply conflicts with the fantasies of liberal cosmopolitan globalization. Political theory should, perhaps, devote at least some of its focus to deep national political conflicts, rather than piously looking forward towards their utter transcendence. The number of nominal nation-states expanded throughout the twentieth century, though mostly in the aftermath of sudden shocks, such as the crushing defeat of one European and two Eurasian empires in 1917–18, or the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. There were apparent counter-tendencies in the growth of confederal and federal organizations, most famously the European Union. But most of these, including the EU, are multinational confederations or federations rather than truly supranational or postnational entities. The end of the formal European Empires in the South after 1960 was supposed to halt the growth of nation-states, but it has not.