Revival Or Decline Of?

The nationalism wave after World War II marked the high time of nationalism, during which nationalism got fully mature and nation-states repkced empires as the main form of most countries. But its decline during the Cold War era and the dramatic broke-out in the post-Cold War era again rendered nationalism the focus of all the people: what will be the ultimate fate of nationalism?Nationalism is a rather late social phenomenon. The waves of nationalism in the 20' century promoted the research of nationalism. There are many famous theories and theorists about nationalism, upon which some points and ideas of this paper are based. First, through redefining and subdividing the ambiguous concept of nation in Chinese, I make this concept operable and measurable. Second, I apply the method of comparative study to the case of Eastern and Western Europe from two angles of the structure of the modern nation and the relation between nation-building and state-building.Eastern and Western Europe represented the present and future development of nationalism respectively. On the one hand, the successful integration in Western Europe has set an example to East European and other developing modern nations, showing the direction of nationalism. On the other hand, the specific development of Eastern Europe reflected the complication of nationalism in the protean international situation. Through the comparative study of the case of Europe, I analyze the background, reason and essence of the so-called resurgence of nationalism after the Cold War. My point is that as a historical phenomenon, nationalism is not primordial, nor is eternal. Just as Western Europe has proved, with the perfection of the nation-state and modern nation, nationalism will finally accomplish its historical task and then quit forever. And to those developing countries, the key of national problem is the state, which is essential not only to understand nationalism but also to resolve the problem of ethic-nationalism.