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Scholars generally argue that nationalism and secessionism pose important dilemmas for national, regional and global order. Yet, there is inadequate discussion on the varied contexts of nationalist secessionist movements and how they influence or are influenced by domestic and global forces. Addressing this concern, this article undertakes a three‐case comparison of the Western Togoland separatist movement in Ghana, Southwest and Northwest (Anglophone) Cameroon's secessionist movement and the movement for independent Catalonia in Spain. These dissimilar cases—both from Global South and North—enable a broader examination of how themes such as political history, state capacity and regional/continental organisations affect nationalist‐induced secessionist movements and the measures to address them. Using a thematic comparative approach, this article examines the relevant literature on secessionism, nationalism, regionalism and cognate fields to demonstrate that the dynamics and consequence of secessionist movements depend largely on four interwoven factors: (a) the internal organisation and support for the nationalists' course, (b) state capacity to handle uprisings, (c) political conditions and conflict context of neighbouring countries and (d) interest and (re)actions of regional bodies and international allies. The comparative approach thus offers nuance, illustrating the critical angles of variations and intersections in secessionist movements and the effect on global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article "Tocqueville's Dilemmas, and Ours: Sovereignty, Nationalism, Globalization" by Ewa Atanassow, the author explores the tensions between liberalism and democracy through the lens of Alexis de Tocqueville, a 19th-century French liberal thinker. Atanassow highlights Tocqueville's belief that a rich civic life of non-state associations could alleviate the tension between liberty and equality. However, she also emphasizes Tocqueville's alternative solution of a strong sense of nationhood. By examining Tocqueville's ideas on democratic nationhood, Atanassow aims to connect his theories to contemporary issues of illiberal democracy and exclusionary nationalism. The article delves into Tocqueville's background, his writings, and his views on democracy, equality, and the role of the nation. Atanassow concludes by discussing the challenges that nations and liberals face today, such as finding national cohesion in diverse societies, encouraging patriotism while discouraging jingoism, and navigating the survival of liberal nations in a non-liberal world. While Atanassow's study provides valuable insights, it also raises questions about the applicability of Tocqueville's thought to present-day challenges. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the gender undertone of China's nationalist discourses, especially in familial metaphors of nationalism, and how such an undertone shapes people's understandings of state authority and state‐citizen relations. Conventional nationalist discourse of the 'motherland' evokes the image of an insulted and raped mother as the symbol of national humiliation and calls for actions from patriots (masculinised in the discourse). In recent years, however, we have seen the emergence of a new discourse that depicts the nation‐state as a rich, powerful and masculine 'daddy'. Using discourse analysis and Foucauldian genealogical methods, this article argues that the discursive development has to be analysed against China's historical backgrounds, especially considering new standards of masculinity and femininity in the era of economic reform. Capital is equated to masculinity and righteousness, whereas femininity is shaped by the middle‐class values of consumerism and political disengagement. The 'daddy state' discourse conjures strong paternalistic power from China's economic capacity that can be projected onto challengers of state authority, while also constructing the nationalist public as feminised consumers whose consumerist enjoyment relies on patriarchal state protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What fuels both enthusiasm for increasing "American" birth rates and fears about their decline? Citing the prevalence of fertility campaigns in authoritarian regimes characterized by ethno‐nationalist Christianity, we theorize that, in addition to patriarchal attitudes, perceived ethno‐cultural threat and desire for ethno‐cultural dominance substantially drive "nationalist pronatalism" (promoting fertility to strengthen "the nation" and avoid national decline). We expect pronatalist ideology focused on American births is associated with (1) belief that dominant cultural group members (Whites, Christians, men) are threatened and (2) White Christian nationalism—an ideology that looks to conform American identity and values to those of a traditionalist, ethnicized Christianity. Recent, nationally representative data reveal Christian nationalist ideology is the second strongest predictor of support for nationalist pronatalism, second only behind patriarchal attitudes. This association is stronger for men and virtually non‐existent among Blacks. The belief that Whites or Christians face "the most discrimination" as opposed to various minorities also predicts nationalist pronatalism. Contemporary support for pronatalist ideology focused on American births is thus undergirded not only by attitudes that subordinate women but also (1) an ethno‐racially contingent ideology that insists the United States should reflect and institutionalize traditionalist Christian culture and (2) perceptions that Christians and Whites are persecuted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an ongoing academic debate about the question whether sub‐state nationalist parties should be considered as niche parties, focusing almost exclusively on their core issue of centre‐periphery relations, or whether their electoral appeal can be considered as multidimensional. In that case, these other dimensions can vary with regard to the specific ideological position, historical circumstances and strategic considerations. In this article, we address this theoretical question by relying on the case study of the sub‐state nationalist parties in the Flemish region of Belgium, where they jointly obtained 44% of the vote in the most recent elections. Comparing election surveys from 2009, 2014 and 2019 suggests that the electoral appeal of these parties rests on a mixture of nationalist issues, right‐wing economic policies and a restrictive attitude towards immigration. These results suggest that sub‐state nationalist parties are not purely niche parties, but should be seen as multiple issue parties, and this broader electoral appeal can explain the discrepancy between electoral results and public opinion on the core issues of these parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars, historians, and researchers who are keenly interested in Burmese studies have not paid enough attention to the considerable roles Christian missionaries played in the history of precolonial and colonial Burma. This article explores the neglected and hidden history of the Western missionaries who introduced modern education to Burma and who educated some of the best minds of the Burmese at that time. Despite missionaries being underrated and criticized by some Burman nationalists and politicians, they made a remarkable contribution to education in Burmese history. Education was and has always been crowned in Christianity, and advancing education remains indispensable to Christian mission in Burma and elsewhere. Public knowledge of this constructive story in history would be helpful for Buddhist–Christian relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article challenges the existing view of Mt Athos, a centre of Orthodox Christian monasticism, as a hotbed of Russian and Balkan nationalism at the turn of the 20th century. It proposes to analyse that complex situation using the concept of "national indifference," that is, prioritisation of concerns and loyalties different from the agendas pursued by nationalist activists. The article suggests that the motivations of most Russian and Greek monks in that autonomous monastic republic were dominated by traditional piety, corporate interests, mundane economic concerns, regional and dynastic loyalties. I will rely on Greek and Russian archival sources to discuss chronologically how those alternatives appeared to take the upper hand around several flashpoints from the return of significant groups of Russian friars in 1839 after a late medieval hiatus to the end of over four centuries of Ottoman control of the area in 1912. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the ways in which Kurdish claims to national rights and borders have been structured around transnational and virtual spaces to coalesce into music. It focuses on issues such as migration, diaspora, border, ethnicity, transnationalism, and nation‐building through Kurdish music and Kurdish musicians. The concept of the borderscape provides a theoretical lens through which to understand how music has been politicized and positioned between the non‐existence of a Kurdish nation‐state and the enduring existence of Kurdish as an ethnicity, a language, and a homeland in the Middle East. By giving examples from songs, lyrics, and the virtual world of Kurdish music, the study elaborates on how Kurds reinforce the territorial imagination of 'Kurdistan' as the rightful homeland of a Kurdish nation. Focusing on music as a resource for political action, nationalism, and for the identification of national borders, this study thus adds to the border studies and ethnomusicological literatures by linking music to ethnicity, nationalism, and transnationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right‐wing Hindu nationalist "Hindutva" movement in India has political control of the world's most populous democracy. To gain insight into the tools of the movement, this paper examines Hindutva framing rhetoric. Social movement framing entails the crafting of movement messages to motivate collective identity and collective action. This paper takes a new approach to studying social movement framing by using the social psychological principle of metacontrast as an organizing theoretical framework. Metacontrast involves minimizing differences within the group (intragroup homogenization) and maximizing differences between groups (intergroup polarization). We argue dual homogenizing‐polarizing frames work in concert to construct a unified collective identity and mobilize concerted collective action. Using qualitative content analysis of two Hindutva organization websites, we find Hindutva framing rhetoric simultaneously homogenizes and polarizes through two framing strategies: a threat‐counter threat frame that portrays an antagonistic outgroup that must be countered with a unified ingroup, and a striking positive‐negative intergroup contrast that paints the ingroup as a moral protector and the outgroup as a vilified adversary. Notably, key to these efforts is the minimization of deeply entrenched, rigid caste differences. Our findings have implications for the study of social movements, nationalism, collective identity, collective action, and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the 'nationalist movement' of Ahıska, a forcibly displaced people who have been arriving in Turkey from various parts of the former Soviet Union since the early 1990s. I focus on how members of this community attempt to define the Turkish nation, how they invoke migration to Turkey as a patriotic and nationalist act, how they criticize the state's responses to this migration as insufficiently nationalist, and how they respond to the movement of non‐Turkish others into the territorial and documentary space that they seek to inhabit. This nationalist movement, albeit small in number, demands our attention because it is born of a phenomenon that is intimately familiar to displaced people and not commonly associated with nationalism – the longing for rest. This longing animates Ahıska efforts to organize themselves and engage with the Turkish state. What possibilities and limitations does this genre of nationalist movement hold for displaced people across the world? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]