Sense of Nationhood and its Importance in a Globalized World

SENSE OF NATIONHOOD
By Name
Course
Tutor
Institution
Due Date
Sense of Nationhood
Introduction
The nations’ endeavor to enhance and develop their citizens’ social, political, and economic status necessitates their participation in the regional and global associations across the outlined parameters. The quest for sustainable growth and development of individual nations thus serves as the basis for the development and implementation of effective foreign relation policies to guide the nation’s interactions with other countries in the global arena. The same guidelines equally safeguard or rather protect the nation’s interests including its sovereignty in running its affairs as well as upholding its national values, principles, and beliefs. Failure to embrace effective foreign relations policies would expose the nation’s cultural orientation or way of life to foreign elements and thus risking cultural erosion. Nevertheless, globalization proves to be a powerful phenomenon that cuts across the socio-cultural, political, and economic boundaries that safeguard a nation’s sovereignty across the outlined parameters. The fact that globalization is widely perceived as a Western concept that seeks to perpetuate the adoption of Western culture further highlights the phenomenon’s ability to change a nation’s way of life. However, and in the effort to maintain one’s statehood or identity as a nation, countries around the world are mounting a spirited front towards reviving and maintaining national identities amid the enticing wave of globalization. Nationhood emerges as an effective platform for maintaining a nation’s sobriety concerning its identity while engaging in social-cultural, economic, and political interactions and integration through globalization. It is, therefore, also evident that the said interaction among nations at the global stage dictates the interception of the two concepts as an inevitable outcome. The interrelationship between nationhood and globalization thus makes for an important area of study for the development of an informed understanding of the concepts in relation to each other. The integration of the concepts at the global stage equally attracts different views and opinions across different disciplines around the world with scholars and other interested parties developing unique standpoints on the same. A blogger, for instance, stated that “To have a sense of nationhood is to have a sense of devotion to the nation’s culture and interests in light of its independence.” Such notions or perceptions of nationhood form the basis for the promotion and maintenance of national identity amidst the wide range of impacts of globalization. It is for this reason that this paper seeks to investigate the importance of nationhood in the next 30 years of globalization around the world through a comprehensive analysis of the concept and its influence on various elements of globalization.
Nationhood
The blogger's position on nationhood presents a framework for creating a definition of the concept and thus making it easy to establish its interactions with globalization. The definition of nationhood may vary from one nation to the other due to the difference in values, principles, and beliefs upheld by people or citizens of a particular nation. In her lecture at the University of the West Indies, for instance, Kristina Hinds defines nationhood as that sense of belonging to a shared or common language, cultural practices, and traditions, as well as a shared historical background CITATION Hin16 \l 1033 (Hinds, 2016). The scholar further posits that being in possession of shared mythology about people’s belongingness to a given nation is representative of their sense of nationhood. A French philosopher, Ernest Renan, claimed that nationhood entails the incorporation of other dimensions that go beyond the shared commonalities suggested or deciphered from the academic definition of the concept as posed by the likes of Kristina Hinds. According to the French philosopher, nationhood goes beyond the common ties of kinships constituting the nation, religion, language, as well as other shared interests. The philosopher purports that nationhood is synonymous with a spiritual principle or a soul that encompasses both the shared beliefs, values, ideologies and practices and the geographical location of the people upholding the said elements CITATION Sin17 \l 1033 (Sinclair, 2017). The shared elements are characteristic of the identity embraced by people within a particular geographical location. Such a group of people also portray a common sense of consciousness towards their historical background and heritage, which functions to foster a collective desire to enhance coexistence and ensure the perpetuation of the national identity from generation to generation CITATION Sin17 \l 1033 (Sinclair, 2017). In essence, the outlined perceptions of nationhood reiterate the blogger’s notion of having a sense of commitment towards upholding the nation’s culture and interests in light of the country’s sovereignty.
The Importance of Nationhood in a Globalized World
Globalization refers to the interaction and integration of different countries across the social, political, and economic parameters at the global stage. It breaks or rather oversteps the geographical boundaries. Despite facing the growing demands for growth and development across the social, economic, and political aspects, the sustainability of the same within the context of sovereignty rests on the ability of the nation to uphold or maintain its sense of nationhood. It is, therefore, imperative to highlight the importance of the concept of nationhood in the globalized world going into the future. The importance of the concept in a globalized world can be evaluated through the lens of social, political, and economic dimensions of individual nations, which further creates a foresight on the influence of nationhood on globalization in the next 30 years.
* Political Evaluation
Nationhood plays a significant role in the political orientation of a nation amidst its interaction with other nations on the global platform. Globalization advocates for the establishment of political stability through the adoption of good governing practices that promote or rather facilitate the sustainable growth of the global political platform. The sense of belonging to a nation’s political orientation calls for the commitment and perpetuation of the political ideologies and principles of the nation. Democracy, for instance, makes for one of the political ideologies adopted by a majority of the Western nations. The democratic belief system encourages the observation of the freedoms and liberties enshrined in the human rights provisions. Additionally, political development is often perceived as t...