The Rational Choice Clue: Curing Epistemological Amnesia

Abstract

Although the impacts of nationalism seem to be on the rise in all parts of the world in the post–Cold War era, it has not become a familiar concept to students of international politics until very recently.¹ For those political scientists dedicated to neorealist analyses, research on nationalism could potentially be unscientific for its tendency to reduce analyses of “international” politics to the “national” level.² Or, it could potentially be counterproductive to neoliberal analysts for its inclination to distract attention from the institutionalization of common interests in the process of regime formation.³ It is thus conventional for realist and liberalist to treat nationalism as a cover of some other genuine values,⁴ a policy instrument to mobilize support,⁵ or a nostalgia for history writers,⁶ but not a topic that has intrinsic academic value in itself.