The readings this week look at the international aspects of nationalist movements. When first discovering this in the reading it felt like an oxymoron, nationalist by nature should be sceptical of any internationalism but yet there seems to be a long track record of nationalist groups working together throughout history.
As the photo above demonstrates, I shouldn’t have been surprised about the international flavour that nationalism can have. Tucker Carlson (famed American nationalist), has made headlines this year by doing live shows from authoritarian that countries such as Hungary and Brazil. These shows are often spent fawning over whatever recent policy or authoritarian move Orban or Bolsonaro made, talking them and their governments up to his FOX audience. This move makes sense for both the nationalist movement in the United States and for the nationalist movements in the host countries. It aggrandizes their movements while promoting and garnering support from the worlds “leading nationalist movement”.
The move to be supported by a larger nationalist power/movement is one that is seen throughout the readings. In the reading by David Motadel, he describes how anti-colonial nationalists came to Nazi Berlin to garner support for there movements against their colonial oppressors. Though the Nazis and Hitler did not hold individuals from the anywhere but Europe in high regard they aided them as an effort in their wartime strategy. This idea of mutually beneficial relationships despite glaring differences is a key aspect of nationalistic internationalism.
The mutually beneficial nationalistic International relationships are highlighted in Motadel’s new York Times piece. In it he talks about the growing number of right wing nationalists being elected to the European Parliament. He discusses how French and Italian nationalist parties have begun to unite with eastern European nationalists to create a right wing voting bloc within the parliament. Though they are united on certain issues such as immigration, the way each nation wishes to deal with these problems differs vastly. This is the central issue with the nationalist internationalism, as they all wish to put their own nation first, their priorities and solutions are rarely aligned with one another or they are outright butting heads. On the issue of Russia Western nationalists are much more sympathetic to Putin and his invasion of the Ukraine in comparison to the eastern European nationalists who greatly distain Putin and his continued threat to their nations sovereignty.
What I have taken from these readings is that we must be conscience of the continued internationalism that nationalists use to bolster their own and nationalist movements around the globe. We must also be aware of the major potholes they must navigate themselves on major global issues that can tear these budding coalitions apart.
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