Conclusion

Abstract

The previous chapters have examined three modern national societies and the nationalist movements which they sustain. Each is rooted in historical experience, yet each has reshaped its strategy in accordance with contemporary reality. The title describes these as new nationalisms. They represent a response to the changes in the capacity and legitimacy of the host state, and the reconfiguration of territorial politics in the post-war era. This has permitted the emergence of multiple political and policy making arenas, as well as multiple identities. Yet these nationalisms are not the mere product of changes in the political and economic environment. They are the result of nation-building strategies, conducted within the shell of the existing state; and they draw on historic traditions and identities. Nation building has not been the work only of conscious nationalists. Much of it has been a response to policy problems and the search for pragmatic solutions to territorial or cultural questions. These are both old and new nationalisms, and they show how the past can be pressed into service as an instrument in confronting the future. They have largely managed to escape being trapped in the past; they also realize that modernity does not mean the erasure of the past.