Nationalism

8 Pages 2046 Words

he Americans toward the French values proves that when a country feels superior to another, relations between them suffer.
To prove that their nation is superior to another, a ruler must often ‘flex their muscles’. They use nationalism as the “justification for the authority of the state and legitimation of its use of force, both against its own citizens and other states.” (Kohn, 1944, pg 20)Often a leader of a nation displays their country’s power by imposing trade sanctions on other countries. This has both positive and negative effects. Trade sanctions help a nation to become more self sufficient, because it is not able to rely on the other country for its needs. From an international perspective however trade sanctions have negative effects. Not only does it hurt other country’s economies, it also increases the hostility among them. Often when trade sanctions are imposed it is because governments are unwilling to resolve the conflicts and eventually this building tension reaches a climax. Violence is often used to resolve these conflicts that leaders were unwilling to settle peacefully.
One must be careful to distinguish the difference between violence and war. War is a noble fight with noble causes. Violence is just the opposite. It is maleficent. Nationalistic and other nondemocratic ideals are used to justify violence, this type of justification is dangerous, it leads to destruction and death. World War Two is a very good example of fighting for noble causes. When Mussolini and Hitler formed the Rome-Berlin axis, they did so in the hopes that it would increase their respective country’s prestige both nationally and internationally. When the rest of the world realised the nationalistic goals of the totalitarian leaders, they formed an alliance to defeat their undemocratic ideals. This nob...