European Nationalism And European Integration

In the article, we studied the relationship between European Nationalism and European Integration, focusing on the causes and means of interactions between the two. The three main questions we posted and answered are:1. What is European Nationalism?2. How does European Nationalism impact European Integration? And in return what impact does European Integration have on European Nationalism?3. What is the development trend for the future of European Nationalism? And thus, what’s the future of European Integration?The content of this article can be summarized as the following:First, we established the definition of European Nationalism. By examining its emergence and development, we further investigated the two key factors that impact European Nationalism:national identity and national interest optimization.Secondly, we pointed out that the continuously changing and developing European Nationalism is one of the reasons for the startup of European Integration. The strong emergence of Nationalism in Europe has led to much competition and many conflicts among European nations. The development of European Nationalism toward extreme directions has caused plenty of negative impact to European nations, which forced Europeans to come back to the peace issue in Europe and therefore promoted the creation, enrichment and development of the idea of a peaceful one-Europe. This development provided the ideological basis for emergence of European Integration. After World War II, European Integration finally started with the weakening of extreme Nationalism and the positive progression of European Nationalism.Thirdly, we pointed out that the still young European Integration was able to make a lot of progress is partly due to the fact that European Nationalism became the main concept of European community and that European Nationalism plays a more and more positive role in the process. However, because the "native" features still exist in nationalism, "narrow" nationalism would inevitably exist in the process of European Integration and therefore hindered the progression of European Integration due to the negative impacts. How to resolve the "narrow" nationalism issue thus became a critical task during the process of European Integration. To a certain degree, eventually European Integration was able to further progress is because that the "narrow" nationalism issue was resolved.Furthermore, we investigated the impact of European Integration on European Nationalism. When people discuss Europe, European Community, or European Union they refer to Europe as one entity. This is the result of the progress in European Integration and it has helped people in the acceptance of one-Europe concept. During the European Integration process, national identity, one of the two key factors for European Nationalism, will be affected. It will be expanded from the original identity of a nation or a state to Europe identity. The other factor, national interest optimization will also be affected because European Integration helps to optimize the national interests and helps to promote cooperation for the member nations of EU. The overall development is that European Integration helps the transition of Nationalism in Europe toward Nationalism for Europe as a whole.Lastly, we investigated the current development of the European Nationalism and the impact to the prospect of European Integration. Because of the strengthening trend of Nationalism of Europe as a whole, overall European Integration will continue to progress. In the mean time, during the development process of integration, "narrow" Nationalism will also continue to exist for a long time, which means that European Integration will not be easy or smooth.We concluded that European Nationalism has profound impact on the startup and development of European Integration, and will ultimately determine the future development trend of European Integration. European Integration will continue to progress as Nationalism of Europe as a whole continues to strengthen.