Trajectories of Nationalisms in East Asia

Abstract

Globalization is a concept that has dominated much of the intellectual discourse on world affairs in the United State and Europe in the last decade. This notion of globalization has even penetrated the popular consciousness in recent years. Globalization implies the process of becoming one—the integration of the peoples of the world into a collective unit. Some thinkers have argued that the forces of globalization are irresistible, and that these forces are weakening the nation-state, which will eventually lead to its irrelevance, or even to its demise. Much of the discourse on globalism, however, is driven by Americans and Europeans. While Westerners stress the onslaught of the forces of globalization—this process of the peaceful international integration of ideas, world views, and cultures as well as goods and products—the appeal of nationalism, national assertiveness, and national military power have been growing alarmingly in East Asia in the last two decades. In other words, there is much evidence to indicate that the recent massive wave in the globalization of manufactured goods, capital flows, and service industries and the wealth that all this has brought to East Asia is not contributing to a convergence of fundamental value systems and world views. On the contrary, it has fueled nationalist ambitions and expectations, exacerbated long-smoldering historical hostilities, and spawned new nationalist passions among East Asian nations.