{"id":3,"date":"2019-07-01T10:08:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T14:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/world-politics-fall-2019\/?p=3"},"modified":"2019-10-27T19:01:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T23:01:43","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/world-politics-fall-2019\/2019\/07\/01\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to World Politics!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We are living in interesting times!<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a time when the most exciting development in world politics was the American boycott of French fries.<\/p>\n

Those days are long behind us. Now, the contemporary world order as we know it seems to have reached a breaking point. Consider what happened over this past summer alone—Kim Jong-un’s new rocket tests; white supremacy and terrorism in the US; populist governments in Italy and Holland, neo-Nazi \"\"marches in Norway; mass demonstrations in Hong Kong and the threat of invasion by the Mainland; the continuing, irrational denial of the scientific consensus on global climate change; Boris Johnson and Brexit, Brexit, Brexit; and growing tensions between the US and Denmark!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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All of these developments have one thing in common. They are all manifestations of the ongoing and necessarily conflictual evolution of a novel form of political organization known as the Modern nation-state<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This course is about the Modern nation-state<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Modernity<\/strong><\/em>, I mean a revolution in epistemology, human identity, organization and political reality\u00a0 By Nation-state,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0I mean a \u201csymbolic community to which people voluntarily devote their primary political loyalties despite the many particularistic loyalties\u2013religious, cultural, ethnic, political, social, economic, gender, and athletic\u2013that otherwise divide them.\u201d\u00a0Modernity<\/strong> and the\u00a0Nation-state<\/strong><\/em> are abstract terms.\u00a0 But they are useful tools. Like the best tools, they help us make sense of the evolution of global politics.\u00a0 They also alert us to the fragility of our world and the possibility that we may be the cause of its ruin.<\/p>\n

My story\u00a0 is divided into five interlocking chapters. First, in the segment called\u00a0Modern<\/strong>\u00a0Politics,<\/strong><\/em> I introduce you to some basic concepts about modernity and the Modern nation-state<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Second, we travel down the road the West\u00a0has taken toward a particular form of the nation-state: Liberalism.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Third, we consider an initially credible but ultimately failed path:\u00a0Leninism.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Fourth, we confront the pathos and anger of people living in the fractured\u00a0Postcolonial<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0world of weak nation-states. \u00a0Finally, we return to our starting point to examine the ecstasy and agony of the nation-state in an age of\u00a0Global Politics<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The study of politics is always interesting. However, much of the world today is experiencing a crisis<\/em> of political identity.\u00a0 As citizens, we cannot afford to ignore the fact that the US, as well as most of Europe, is deeply polarized. Fundamental values, such as liberty, equality, and tolerance, are at stake.<\/p>\n

Throughout our course, I shall also refer to two themes that I consider particularly troubling:<\/p>\n

1) the politicization of facts–and fact-seeking–<\/em><\/strong>in democratic politics. If we can’t agree on facts, there can be no democracy.\u00a0 There is no such thing as an “alternative fact”!<\/p>\n

2) the threat to\u00a0Liberal democracy<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0represented by\u00a0Populist politics.\u00a0Populism<\/em><\/strong> is not another form of politics.\u00a0 It is anti-politics. In an extreme form, it can kill democracy.<\/p>\n

My pedagogical\u00a0goals are ambitious and extend far beyond introducing you to the field we call \u201cpolitical science.\u201d\u00a0 I aspire to:<\/p>\n