Paul Kowert, "National Identity: Inside and Out", 1998

Résumé du document

The concept of national identity was emphasized from the beginning of the 1990s as a crucial unit of analysis for scholars of international relations. Indeed, the post-bipolar era is characterized by two opposite trends dealing with the identity issue. First, the resurgence of nationalist conflicts expresses the desire of the states to strengthen national identity. Second, identities are undergoing decisive changes and homogenization with the acceleration of globalization. Thus, a national identity is a highly contradicted concept without any fixed definition. In reality, defining national identity depends on the chosen unit of analysis; be it the State, the Nation, the Region, Society or individuals. In this text, the author's main unit of analysis is the State and, and as a constructivist, he concentrates on perceptions. Thus, Paul Kowert emphasizes on the States' perception of themselves and of other States. According to him, the population upon which the State is sovereign is perceived, in the international system, as a Nation, that is to say a united and coherent human group aspiring to live together. Therefore, coherent Nation-States are reality in the eyes of States and thus he postulates the existence of an internal and an external identity to Nation-States.

Extraits

[...] - It suggests explanations for the emergence of national identity but it doesn't evaluate the relative importance of these explanations, it doesn't explore the connections among them and it doesn't theorize their limits. - It can't answer to the main questions of national identity: which, among the wide variety of possible (national) identities, will a particular national people adopt? What kind of identities will they ascribe to others? II. External distinctiveness It is defined as the nation-state's distinctiveness (as compared with others states), that is to say a persistent sharing of some kind of essential character with others. The central analytical problem in external theory is: how should states behave? [...]

[...] Finally, we will criticize certain aspects of the text's premises and theories. I. Internal coherence Internal coherence is defined by Paul Kowert as the cohesion or uniformity of the nation-state's parts and the way such cohesion manifests itself in loyalty to the Nation-State. It allows telling if a state is able to act coherently, as a unitary actor. The internal coherence of the Nation-State has been explained in three different ways: 1. It satisfies the needs of individuals The author explains how individual desires lead to national cohesion. [...]

[...] Thus, the author presents finally the different theories explaining how states shaped other states external identities. He puts forth Richard Cottam grid of analysis to explain external identities. He believes three judgments are essential: threat or opportunity, relative capability and cultural distance. Hermann's refinement of the theory: Enemy and ally are external identities which derive their meaning from concerns with military capabilities and are distinguished by whether these capabilities represent a threat or an opportunity in the case of high capabilities countries. [...]

[...] other notion, acting to further differentiate nations. For instance, the 9/11 attack in the US provoked a renewed sense of nationalism among all Americans, bringing each citizen together in a shared sense of loyalty to the US. Conclusion The issue of identity is crucial to global governance and security, because identity reveals who exactly is being governed, as well as secured. Thus a definitive theory of identity is necessary to either challenge or defend assumptions of scholars concerning the assumed preferences of nation- states. [...]

[...] Paul Kowert, "National Identity: Inside and Out" Introduction This presentation focuses on Paul Kowert's text, “National Identity : Inside and published in the Security Studies review in 1998. He is an associate Professor at Florida International University and mainly focuses on the issues of identity, security and leadership. If the text emphasizes on national identity, it is only starting from the beginning of the 1990's that this concept became a crucial unit of analysis for international relations scholars. Indeed, the post-bipolar era is characterized by two opposite trends dealing with the identity issue. [...]