Nationalism is used to describe two phenomena, the attitudes that citizens of a particular nation have when they care about their national identity and the steps that these citizens are willing to undertake so that the can attain self-determination 1 . Therefore, basing on these two descriptions, a difference between a nation and a state is seen whereby a state has a great degree of sovereignty making it a political entity while a nation is made up of an ethnic or cultural group.
Nationalism should not be confused with patriotism. For patriotism, people have a healthy type of pride in them about their nation which makes them have loyalty to it. These citizens also have the willingness to work with other citizens and help them out in case they have shared problems. For nationalism, people believe that loyalty is only shown to those with whom they share a history or culture. Nationalism leads to the unification of such individuals as one against others. Throughout history, nationalism has had grave consequences for various nations all over the world. It has led to the creation of new nations and also the collapsing of empires 2 .
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The most common events that follow nationalism have always been genocide. According to the UN resolution, “genocide is the denial of the right of existence if entire human groups.” The UN Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide 1948 declared genocide as a crime under universal law and this did not matter whether it was committed during a war or in a time of peace. Since the act of killing involves destroying a particular group of people either through killing them or other methods, it can be termed as a warfare. However, this warfare is not state focused but a war perpetrated by one group of people against another basing on their national identity. This is what brings about the link between nationalism and genocide.
Throughout history, nationalism has always led to genocide acts. A good example is seen in the case of nationalism uprising in Germany after the signing of Treaty of Versailles that blamed Germany for causing the World War I. Germany had to part away with huge tracts of land that were returned to France and new countries also were formed such as Poland. Germany was also forced to pay large amounts of money to countries that had suffered the effects of the war. After Adolf Hitler had taken over the leadership of Germany, he cultivated nationalist feelings among the citizens and encouraged them to be proud of their country. In the long run, a mass genocide was seen at Holocaust.
Another genocide that made headlines throughout the world involved the mass killings of the Tutsi ethnic community in Rwanda. More than 800,000 people were innocently killed by the Hutu ethnic community members. The Hutus had a deep hatred towards the Tutsi’s and even referred to them as ‘cockroaches”. According to the Hutus, they believed that the Tutsis were the cause of the social inequalities that they were going through. As a result of this, the Hutus united together by their ethic and cultural backgrounds so as to eliminate the Tutsi who were evil 3 .
Following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the Pentagon and Twin Towers, it brought forward about how the USA was vulnerable to attacks by international terrorist organizations. There have also been other terrorist attacks in London and Madrid which made the West feel like it was under attack. Due to this, The USA and other European countries have waged a “war on terror” mainly on Islamic nations as they claim that they are “wiping out” terrorist hide-outs and protecting the world from the terrorists. However, this response to terrorism by these nations is based on nationalism whereby they believe that Islamic nations harbour terrorists. The USA on its part has also invaded Iraq with a claim that it was destroying weapons of mass destruction that can be used to facilitate terror attacks. However, the consequences of this “war on terror” are rather catastrophic for along the way, millions of innocent civilians including children have lost their lives following the military actions in Islamic nations such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen.
The current on-going attacks on Syria are referred to as “humanitarian intervention” by the Western countries. However, one thing that remains unanswered is the thousands of innocent lives that are being lost as the Western nations try to fight the terrorist. The USA General is even quoted arrogantly stating that “we do not do body counts.” This situation undertaken by these western countries is similar to the genocide actions that were carried out by the Nazi after the World War II whereby they are never held accountable for the amount of innocent bloodshed their military strikes bring fourth 4 .
In today’s world, there is also a wide spread of genocide and mass killings occurrences that are directed to various groups defined by their race, religion, culture or political affiliation. Different ideologies can give rise to the existence of enmity between different groups making them turn against one another. In the long run, this will lead to the emergence of genocide and mass killings perpetrated by an individual group against another 5 . An entire country can also be forced to have varied opinions about another thus end up calling for military strikes against its perceived enemy. This is evident in the case of the Western countries attacks in most Islamic nations. After the Second World War, following the genocide cases caused by nationalism such as the crucifixion of about six million European Jews by the Nazis and the Holocaust incident, most people saw this as the end of such inhuman acts. However, this was not the case for in the half periods of the 20th century.
Nationalism has brought about various genocide attacks as seen in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, Chile and China. This indicates that there is a need for countries to come together and find out means of preventing the spread of nationalism amongst countries. This is because such incidents will still continue to happen in the 21st century as seen in the case of Western military strikes against Islamic nations. However, other factors such as poverty also played a significant role in making people turn to ethnic, cultural or other “identity” groups as they try to look for help and security. Once this is combined with the different ideologies adopted by the “identity” groups nationalism will still continue to prevail hence will genocide.
A good means by which nationalism can become sustained so that it does not cause genocides is through nations ensuring they observe strict human rights policies. These can include the protection of the minorities who might become subject of attacks by the majority ethnic groups. People should also be ready to accept that there is the existence of economic inequalities within the society. People should elect leaders whose views have no nationalistic stands, and they should be ready to allow their countries to engage in global partnerships. Through this, the leaders will share positive ideas on how they can maintain peace in their nations. More developed nations can also help other countries that are struggling economically to become more productive and be able to offer equal opportunities for its citizens.
References
Aspel, Joyce. Educating a New generation: The Model of the Genocide and Human Rights University program”. Human Rights Review , 12 no.4 (2011): 465-486.
Bloxham, Donald and A.Dirk Moses. The Oxford handbook of genocide studies . Oxford: Oxford University press, 2010.
Kiernan, Ben.”Myth, nationalism and genocide.” Journal of Genocide research 3, no, 2 (2001): 187-206.
1 Kiernan, Ben.”Myth, nationalism and genocide.” Journal of Genocide research 3, no, 2 (2001):187
2 Kiernan, Ben.”Myth, nationalism and genocide.” Journal of Genocide research 3, no, 2 (2001):202
3 Bloxham, Donald and A.Dirk Moses. The Oxford handbook of genocide studies . Oxford University press, 2010 pp. 90
4 Bloxham, Donald and A.Dirk Moses. The Oxford handbook of genocide studies . Oxford University press, 2010 pp. 100
5 Kiernan, Ben.”Myth, nationalism and genocide.” Journal of Genocide research 3, no, 2 (2001):pp. 200
