The Post Cold-War Nationalism And Its Impact On European Union

In the past two hundred years, nationalism theory and nationalism movements have made tremendous impact on the process and the face of the world as one of the world's political hot topic. In the period from the end of World War II to now, there are quite many regional conflicts and local wars and other "hot wars" erupting in the world. The majority of these conflicts and wars are because of nationalism issues. In 1990s, the third wave of nationalism, which was caused by the breakup of Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, was first happened in Europe which is a relatively stable region of the world. The great wave triggered the political situation of this region to be tense and volatile. It first swept across Central and Eastern European countries, then crept to Western European region, and finally spread to other parts of the world. This nationalism wave, whose characteristic is national conflict, national separation and national country disintegration, has brought about continued disputes of many countries and regions, huge losses of lives and property, and a serious threat to the world peace and development. However, with the highlights of the negative effect of nationalism, the positive effect of nationalism also shows in a number of countries and regions. This positive effect is prominently revealed in the aspects of the increasingly growing of European Union and the rapid development of European integration.On the basis of discussion about the characteristic, the reason and the influence of nationalism especially post-cold-war nationalism and the development of nationalism and specific expression of nationalism problems in Europe (Central and Eastern Europe region and Western Europe region), this paper mainly expounds the performance and effect of nationalism in EU countries. It is the conclusion that nationalism has two kinds of effects on EU, one is the positive effect of convergence, and the other is the negative effect of separation. Thus, we can draw a lesson from that conclusion, which can sever as an effective guide to our nationalism.