NATIONALISM YIELDS TO NEW REGIONALISM
Barnes, Harry Elmer
Second Of A Series On The Next Stage In Political Evolution Nationalism Yields To New Reaionalism By HARRY ELMER BARNES THE outstanding phase of political evolution since the Middle Ages has been...
...All this made for international anarchy and unsettled relations in world affairs...
...The na-I tional state threatens us with devast-I ating bellicosity, and it has created a i centralized political unity with public i problems which have proved too vast and complex to be solved through democracy and party government...
...Further, it would seem that the most sensible beginning- of regionalism would come in the way of an economic union of logical portions of a continent, leaving actual political federation for a slower and more natural development...
...Whatever virtues it may have, they certainly do not warrant the perpetuation of a system which, invites, if it does not provoke, successive world wars and the imperiling of all civilization...
...Indeed, it is doubtful whether nationality possesses any greater inherent virtue than the more or less identical tribal feelings and integrity of the American Indian tribes, which we did not hesitate to break up and suppress in the course of our national evolution...
...It finally blew up in 1939 with the coming of the second World War...
...Most Sensible Beginning The most popular and sensible program of political readjustment, which would involve the control if not the suppression of nationalism, is that which is generally known as Regionalism...
...After 1919, there were no less than 30 national states in Europe, as against the 18 that existed in 1914...
...It was thought that men who were ardent disciples of nationalism in their home capitals would somehow be transformed into earnest custodians of internationalism when they arrived at Geneva to attend sessions of the League of Nations...
...At least, it should be possible to provide some more rational form of political organization than the national state and, at the same time, protect those traits and manifestations of nationalism which are of demonstrable and permanent value to mankind...
...This is a somewhat loose and confused conception because many different ideas are included under this term...
...These expressions of nationalism took the form either of the repression of the sentiment of nationality by dominant powers, or ardent strivings for national independence on the part of lesser and subject nationalities...
...They supported the principle of nationality as a sort of holy sentiment and intensified and legalized the expressions of nationality...
...The latter was at first monarchical and tyrannical...
...ment, and, finally, in the 19th and i 20th Centuries, it became democratic, i In our day, however, nationalism ! is proving quite inadequate to the in...
...The experience of the last generation has made realists somewhat more sensible about the principle of nationality...
...stitutional conditions brought into i being by our urban, industrial world ! civilization, which has been built up i by 3 industrial revolutions...
...As pointed out by G. Lowes Dickinson and others, extreme manifestations of nationalism played a leading influence in producing the first World War...
...Again, some regionalists have in mind the unification of a relatively small area—some natural organic portion of a continent or group of islands...
...It was vainly hoped that this new extension of the national principle would be held in leash by the League of Nations...
...It is the opinion of many well-informed publicists and historians, even of liberal and radical temper, that the second World War will usher in the end of the period of nationalism, or will at least provide the prelude to its extinction and the creation of more logical and realistic forms of political organization...
...In other words, it was believed that we could have an extreme manifestation of nationalism in the political composition of the world, and, at the same time, enjoy the benefits of an international point of view in world policy...
...This contradictory political program was doomed to failure...
...then it was slowly adopted to representative govern...
...In short, political policy in the peace settlements of 1919 constituted a colossal example of attempting to have one's cake and eat it too...
...It would appear that geographically and organically affiliated portions «f a continent constitute the most logical areas in which to launch the first stage of the evolution from the national state to regionalism...
...Doomed To Failure But those who presided over the peace settlement seemingly learned no lessons from the pre-war period...
...Some regionalists have in mind, at least for the time being, only some loosely formed economic union, while others envisage a strong and highly centralized federation of former national states...
...Indeed, some would include within regional organization a structure as vast as North, Central, and South America...
...Second Of A Series On The Next Stage In Political Evolution Nationalism Yields To New Reaionalism By HARRY ELMER BARNES THE outstanding phase of political evolution since the Middle Ages has been the suppression of feudalism and the rise of the national state...
...Other regionalists are more ambitious and envisage mo less than continental unions...
...It provoked innumerable clashes and interminable diplomatic maneuverings...
...Ultimately, continents may be united, and, at some distant period, a federation of the world may be achieved...
Vol. 9 • June 1945 • No. 25
