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This book explores the origins of nationalism and the ideal of nation/state congruency since early-modern European thought, their transformation over time and endurance in contemporary political thought and IR theory. The author deploys a Lacanian-psychoanalytical reading of nationalism and the nation/state that goes beyond methodological nationalism and state-centrism critiques. He offers a genealogical inquiry into the emergence of the nation/state congruency ideal, thus exposing and problematising the practices that render nationalism and the ideal of the nation/state necessary. Offering a new way to read the ontology and epistemology of the nation/state, this work will be of interest to students and scholars of nations and nationalism, political thought, critical international relations and critical security studies.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Problematising the Present.- 2. The Nation/State Fantasy: From Gellner to Lacan.- 3. The State as One: The 'Union of Men', the 'People' and the 'State' in Early Modernity.- 4. The Fragmentation of the State as Modality of Unity and the Rise of the Fantasy of Nation/State Congruency.- 5. Fantasies of Nationalism: Between Nation/State Dialectic and Liberal Thought.- 6. The Nation/State Fantasy and the Production of the 'International' in IR Theory.- 7. Back to the Present: The Contemporaneous Re-Homogenisation of the 'International'.- 8. Conclusions: Engaging with the Ethico-Political.
About the author
Moran M. Mandelbaum is Lecturer in International Relations in SPIRE (School of Politics, Philosophy, International Relations and Environment), Keele University, UK.
Summary
This book explores the origins of nationalism and the ideal of nation/state congruency since early-modern European thought, their transformation over time and endurance in contemporary political thought and IR theory. The author deploys a Lacanian-psychoanalytical reading of nationalism and the nation/state that goes beyond methodological nationalism and state-centrism critiques. He offers a genealogical inquiry into the emergence of the nation/state congruency ideal, thus exposing and problematising the practices that render nationalism and the ideal of the nation/state necessary. Offering a new way to read the ontology and epistemology of the nation/state, this work will be of interest to students and scholars of nations and nationalism, political thought, critical international relations and critical security studies.
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