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12 - War and nationalism

The view from Central Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

By
René Lemarchand
Edited by
John A. Hall  and
Siniša Malešević
John A. Hall
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Siniša Malešević
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
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Summary

[T]he clue to an understanding of nationalism is its weakness at least as much as its strength. It was the dog who failed to bark who provided the vital clue for Sherlock Holmes. The numbers of potential nationalisms which failed to bark is far, far larger than those which did, though they have captured all our attention.

Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (1983: 43)

The most obvious conclusion to be drawn from these wide-ranging inquests into the nexus between nationalism and war is the indeterminacy of the relationship. This is made reasonably clear in a number of chapters in this book. Chapter 7 by Michael Mann is one example among others: on the basis of the evidence from the First and Second World Wars, he points to the importance of the time frame and identity of the protagonists as major variables. In one instance nationalism was the product rather than the cause of the hostilities, and in the other Japan and Nazi Germany were the most obvious exceptions to the rule.

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Nationalism and War , pp. 306 - 320
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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