Global Matrix: Nationalism, Globalism and State-Terrorism

by Tom Nairn, Paul James

Globalization has brought with it many difficult and contradictory violence, deep national insecurities, religious divisions and individual insecurities. This book takes a critical look at three key areas - globalism, nationalism, and state-terror - to confront common mythologies and identify the root causes of the problems we face. Too many commentators still argue that globalization is predominantly a neo-liberal economic phenomenon; that nation-states are on the way out, and that terror is something that primarily comes from below. Global Matrix exposes the limitations of this argument. The authors explore four main -- What is the cultural-political nature of contemporary globalization? -- How adequate, particularly in the context of nation-states, is a politics of democratic nationalism? -- How are we to understand new and old nations in the context of changes across the late twentieth century and into the present? -- Where does national violence come from and what does it mean for a 'war on terror'? Written by two leading scholars, this is a lucid study of what place the nation-state has in a globalizing world that will appeal to students across the political and social sciences.

312 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2005

About the author

Tom Nairn was a Scottish political theorist of nationalism. He was an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University.

Nairn attended Dunfermline High School and Edinburgh College of Art before graduating from the University of Edinburgh with an MA in Philosophy in 1956. During the 1960s, he taught at various institutions including the University of Birmingham (1965-6), coming to prominence in the occupation of Hornsey College of Art (1967–70), after which he was dismissed. He worked at the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam from 1972–76, and then as a journalist and TV researcher (mainly for Channel 4 and Scottish Television) before a year at the Central European University with Ernest Gellner (1994–95) and then setting up and running a Masters course on Nationalism at University of Edinburgh (1995-1999). In 2001 he was invited to take up an Innovation Professorship in Nationalism and Cultural Diversity at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, leaving in January 2010. Returning to the UK, he became a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Durham University in 2009.