Eric Storm: ‘Nationalist politicians have a more international orientation than traditional parties’
Nationalism is so prevalent in our society that we hardly realise it once didn’t exist. In his new book, senior university lecturer Eric Storm reveals the global history of the phenomenon. ‘Nationalist movements have always influenced each other.’
‘One of the reasons for populists being so successful with nationalism is that it’s totally ingrained in society,’ explains Storm. ‘We’re completely accustomed to the world being divided into nation-states, each with its own supposedly unique character. If we go out to eat, for example: we go to a Chinese restaurant, or an Italian or to the traditional Dutch pancake boat. It’s seen as your patriotic duty to identify with your nation. Anything that diverges from this is an anomaly. As a result, migration immediately becomes a problem: those people don’t “belong” here.’
In reality, there has always been migration: from the population movements of the Germanic peoples who came to the present-day Netherlands, to the small boats that arrive in Italy today. Nationalism and the nation-state, on the other hand, are more recent in nature. The French Revolution of 1789 is often seen as the starting point, but Storm strongly disputes the idea that nationalism is a European invention that spread only slowly across the rest of the world.
‘This Eurocentric approach assumes that nationalism was first taken up in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and only gained a foothold in Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, more than 150 years after the French Revolution. Many studies have now shown that the French Revolution actually had a tremendous impact immediately, including in the area around the Indian Ocean, for example. I wanted to demonstrate this in my book: that people have always been well aware of nationalist developments in the rest of the world. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, for example, a king in Madagascar starts wearing a French uniform and eating with a knife and fork, because he wants to adopt all kinds of elements of the French nation-state. He knew exactly what was happening there.’
Strong international network
This exchange can still be seen today. Although many populists argue for a stronger nation-state, they paradoxically form a stronger international network than traditional political parties. ‘Wilders has close contacts with Orbán and Le Pen,’ says Storm. ‘If one of them is successful in agitating against “woke”, the rest of them will do the same. This makes it a highly globalised network, which also includes Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, and Narendra Modim, the prime-minister of India, for example. They all promote more or less the same kind of nationalism.’
Efficiency and modernism
This return to nationalism is remarkable, because the opposite could be seen for a long time after World War II. Storm: ‘In the name of modernisation and efficiency, everyone was building the same concrete monsters and engaging in land consolidation. Countries started to look more alike, and they would then build a new modernist capital city, for example, which again looked very much like the others.’
All this changed in the late 1970s. Storm explains: ‘At that time, you have the oil crisis, the rise of neoliberalism with the election of Thatcher and the rise of political Islam in Iran. At the same time, in the United States the evangelicals try to gain influence over the Republican party.’
The combination of religious identity politics and neoliberalism is a fertile breeding ground for nationalism. ‘Neoliberalism actually stands for globalisation, opening markets, a single world trade system, but this also has the effect of encouraging competition,’ explains Storm. ‘In order to compete in that global market, countries have to present a clear profile. If they want to attract tourists, for example, they have to show what makes them unique. As a result, national differences are deliberately strengthened.’
End of a cycle?
Does he think nationalism will decline again in the near future? Storm: ‘It’s a pendulum motion, with periods averaging around 30 or 40 years. This would suggest that we’re currently at the end of a cycle. At the same time, however, we see that the AfD is winning in Germany and the importance of identity politics appears only to be increasing; on the other hand, there’s been a change in Britain, the populists didn’t win in France and the election race in the United States doesn’t seem to be over yet for Trump.’
The Dutch translation of Nationalism. A world history will be published in September by Alfabet Uitgevers. The English original will follow at the end of October, published by Princeton University Press.