GENERAL EDITOR
George Ritzer
University of Maryland

Social theory has approached nationalism most as a political
ideology structuring relations of power and conflict. It has
focused on nationalism’s relationship to ethnic violence
and war, on the production of beliefs that one’s own country
is the best, and on the invocation of national unity to override
internal differences. It has seen nationalism first
through bellicose international relations and second
through projects by which elites attempt to mobilize mass
support. This has been an influential view both among
scholars of nationalism (such as Michael Hechter) and
among general social theorists (such as Jürgen Habermas)
who have tended to see nationalism largely as a problem to
be overcome.