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In this article I discuss an approach to teaching about the Russian war in Ukraine that uses the war as a focal point for teaching about topics in comparative politics and international relations. I discuss the pedagogical advantages for political science teaching, including meeting the interests of students, introducing students to theories in political science, and re-centering courses on the region away from Russia. I then discuss how the various political science topics and research questions are related to the war, and I conclude with a section on assignments and methods for student engagement that work well with this type of course.

This paper analyses faculty experiences tackling global knowledge asymmetries by examining the decolonisation of higher education in Africa in the aftermath of the 2015 'Rhodes Must Fall' student uprising. An overview of the literature reveals a rich debate on defining 'decolonisation', starting from a critique of Eurocentrism to propositions of alternate epistemologies. These debates are dominated by the Global North and South Africa and their experiences of curriculum reform. Our focus is on the experiences of political scientists in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. These countries share the same Anglophone political science traditions but represent different political trajectories that constitute a significant condition for the discipline. The 26 political scientists we interviewed acted toward increasing local content and perspectives in their teaching, as promoted in the official strategies of the universities. They noted that what was happening in lecture halls was most important. The academic decolonisation debate appeared overambitious or even as patronising to them in their own political context. National politics affected the thematic focus of the discipline both as far as research topics and students' employment opportunities were concerned. Although university bureaucracies were slow to respond to proposed curricula changes, new programmes were approved if there was a market-based demand for them. International programs tended to be approved fastest. Political economy of higher education plays a role: dependency on foreign funding, limited national resources to conduct research and produce publications vis-à-vis international competition, and national quality assurance standards appeared to be most critical constraints for decolonising the curriculum.

In recent decades, nationalism has emerged from the distant purview of history to become the primary driver of some of the world's biggest news. Given the prominence of nationalist conflict, students in political science increasingly study the subject with modern references in mind. This article describes the design for a timely undergraduate political science course on the causes and consequences of nationalism, with a focus on four central learning objectives: understanding theories and concepts in the study of nations and nationalism; applying theories to contemporary events; exploring issues of identity among a community of learners; and developing analytical and professional skills. I describe in detail two course assignments that exemplify these pedagogical objectives. In the "nationalism in the news" assignment, students give an in-class oral presentation on a current news story, interpreting the event through the lens of course themes. In the "national anthems analysis" paper, students analyze the lyrics of the national anthem of their choosing, linking symbols to interpretations of different nationalism types. I conclude by offering suggestions for adapting these and other course assignments to a range of classrooms and students.

This article examines the responses of former Nazi elite school staff to the pressures of denazification. Teachers of the National Political Education Institutes, known as Napolas for short--boarding schools for the Third Reich's racial elite--were especially affected by the purge of National Socialist supporters from positions of influence, due to the schools' intimate relationship to Heinrich Himmler's SS. The introduction of the Law for Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism in the US occupation zone in 1946, however, allowed Napola apologists to construct a selective interpretation of the past, which rehabilitated the Napolas' postwar image and successfully reintegrated alumni into West German society, in many cases long before the Adenauer government issued a series of amnesty laws.

Recent research on conceptual change has argued that it is insufficient to assume that prior knowledge is the only aspect relevant in order to explain the conceptual change process. In addition, "warm constructs" such as emotions, epistemological beliefs, and values have been proposed to play a determinative role. In this study, we aim to further the understanding of the qualitative aspects of such constructs. By investigating how 20 science students interpret Michael Billig's critical theory of nationalism in written exam papers, we explore how values are involved in university students' meaning making of nationalism. The results indicate that students in different ways bring alternative values, such as togetherness, pride, and personal identity, in their reasoning, and these become a significant aspect of their meaning making in political science. This suggests that the students enter the classroom with their own ideas and principles of what is "good" or "right" when "practicing political science." The study thus provides an example of how conceptual change involves accepting prescriptions of a certain intellectual activity.

This article examines how students' common-sense conceptualizations of "nation," specifically the Swedish nation, operate in teaching situations in which a critical constructivist theory of "nation" is part of the curriculum. Taking its point of departure from discussions of conceptual change, this article examines how students negotiate common-sense notions and how these notions affect students' learning processes. We examine group discussions from two different undergraduate courses at a Swedish university. The article discusses obstacles and opportunities for students to understand the concept of "nation" from a constructivist perspective and to challenge the concept of "nation" as a given and natural entity. We find several discursive repertoires in the material. Three of these repertoires are scrutinized to discover how common-sense notions work. The repertories are multifaceted and can function in ways that facilitate as well as block denaturalization. The results show that common-sense understandings remain with the students even if they learn to account for constructivist perspectives. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that students' understandings of scholarly discussions of "nation" are complex and that resisting the content of a specific theory may, in some cases, be productive in terms of learning. (Contains 4 notes.)

In this article, I recount the many ways in which Harold Guetzkow influenced my career. From the beginning of my graduate studies at Northwestern University in the 1960s into the next century, Harold's guidance has been indispensable. His idea of bridging islands of theory has provided many of us with a broad, integrated vision of social science. His workman-like approach to scholarship has provided us with the tools needed to contribute to the field. As a broad theorist, Harold inspired us to devote a lifetime in pursuit of knowledge. As a mentor, he imparted the essential skills of writing for publication, presenting at professional meetings, teaching and advising, and contributing to the profession. Above all, his values of interdisciplinary and responsible scholarship have been a hallmark of my own research and project leadership. My work on simulation reflects these values as well, with regard to research platforms and classroom learning. Indeed, a recent article in this journal owes much to Harold's influence (Druckman & Ebner, 2008). (Contains 2 notes.)

The book "China Is Unhappy" that made the list of best sellers not so long ago is blowing like an icy wind in spring and is poisoning the nation's mental state as though laden with a virus of unhappiness. Those who are most susceptible to it are groups of underage persons with mentalities that are still fragile and young people who have just come of age. The author argues in favor of a healthy, liberal nationalism that can defend China's interests, and suggests that the book "China Is Unhappy" is a more dangerous book than the 1996 best-seller "China Can Say No"--by some of the same authors--because unlike the first book the more recent volume is capable of mobilizing people to action.

If one puts together "China Is Unhappy" and the book "China Can Say No" of 13 years ago, one is quite likely to get the impression that "China's nationalism is heating up." "China does not wish to lead anyone, and should only think of leading itself"--those are the words printed on the back cover of "China Can Say No," whereas the book "China Is Unhappy," which was hotly debated in the spring of 2009, clearly states that China should have big international goals, "the first of which is to suppress the bad and support the good in this world, and the second of which is to administer more and greater resources than China currently has for the well-being of the world's people." Taken from the popular magazine "Oriental Outlook Weekly," this article features interviews with two of the authors of the best-selling book "China Is Unhappy," as well as an interview with Xu Jilin, one of China's most prominent liberal scholars, reflecting the wide range of opinions on the rise of China and its implications for the world.

In this article, we present the results of a research project where we have tried to elaborate more socially inclusive ways of teaching and learning political science by making use of a specific feminist method of analyzing social relations--memory work. As a method, memory work involves writing and interpreting stories of personal experience, written in relation to a specific theme. The theme we worked with was gender and nation. The article compares memory work to more conventional educational approaches to this specific theme. By focusing on experience and everyday life, we claim that memory work can challenge conventional and gendered understandings of how academic knowledge is produced and what is deemed to be part of the political sphere. We discuss how memory work can open up different forms of knowledge and new ways of learning. At the same time, we put forth the problems encountered and the resistance among the students we worked with. By analyzing the reactions and processes that were initiated by the memory work, we discuss both how gender and nationalism are reproduced and incorporated into understandings of what counts as proper political science and point out under what circumstances these conventional notions can be challenged. (Contains 7 notes.)

A great deal of research has addressed the tension between economic globalization and local cultural identity, and the tension between convergence in global policy objectives and divergence in local practices, but research has not explored the impact of the complex interactions between these tensions on an individual university, especially in relation to university autonomy. This paper attempts to bridge this gap. Based on a case study of Tsinghua University in China, this paper explores the university's role in three interrelated processes: the incorporation of international experience into higher education, in order to respond to economic globalization; the reinforcement of political education, as a means of preserving the state-prescribed cultural identity; and the quest for autonomy, to facilitate the university's move towards world-class status. Tensions raised by the interaction of these processes will also be discussed. This paper concludes by applying the concept of "glocalization"--i.e., "thinking and acting both globally and locally"--as a means of understanding the complex interrelations of global, national, and local factors that inform the translation of global imperatives into local realities in the context of Tsinghua. (Contains 1 note.)

In recent years the idea of Aboriginal nationalism has been creeping into public language in Canada through the widespread use of the term "First Nation." The idea that Aboriginal peoples are "Nations," not just "cultures," has also begun to influence the Canadian government, the courts, and the study of law and political science. The principle that Aboriginal peoples have the right and responsibility to determine their own paths is an ancient one, however.

Examines the ways in which political scientists use and misuse the terms "nation" and "nationalism." Misuse occurs primarily in works such as introductory textbooks, that use the terms in passing, despite a growing convergence of expert opinion around standardized definitions. Proposes a definition for each term. (DSK)

Describes the somewhat contradictory movements towards political and economic integration and political decentralization in the European Union (EU). Discusses the implications of those trends for the future of the sovereign state, specifically for Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. Maintains that political power is being wrested away from core states. (MJP)

Within the context of German history and reunification, considers what occurs when a traditionally authoritarian culture is exposed to freedom. Explores the impact of this cultural change on education and the development of a free press in Eastern Europe. Examines issues of minority rights, antisemitism, and nationalism. Provides questions and resources for classroom discussion. (CH)

Using data (N=377) collected at two international meetings of social scientists held shortly after the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas conflict, this article assesses the objectivity of British, Argentine, and North American social scientists' views of the conflict. It concludes that the sample showed national/regional bias and that such bias is characteristic of the social sciences in general. (JDH)

Examines John F. Kennedy's negotiations with Egypt's Gamel Abdel Nasser as he attempted to improve U.S.-Arab relations and prevent the spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East region. States that Kennedy's failure to meet his Middle Eastern objectives resulted from his inability to reconcile the many factions dividing the Arab world. (GEA)

Traces trends in political science research and teaching from the more traditional past when American political scientists were committed to formal-legal studies of nation states to recent times when they became interested in studying other types of issues (social justice, interdependence) using different sorts of data. (DB)

Points out dominance of political as opposed to other types of history in General Certificate of Education (GCE) and Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE) papers, considers alternative approaches to the content of those papers, and suggests means of implementing the suggested changes. (CM)

In much extant scholarship, Dante is either misused as the prophet of the modern Italian nation-state or dismissed as a naive imperialist. This paper steers clear of both these characterizations and gives serious consideration to Dante’s own understanding of nationhood. I examine the construction of language and national community in De vulgari eloquentia and then place Dante’s idea of the nation in the context of his argument for world government in Monarchia. Grappling with the received view that for Dante, as for Aristotle, language is inherently political, the paper suggests that Dante’s nation is first and foremost a kind of psychological bond arising from the experience and use of common language; it is not embodied in political-juridical institutions, nor is it a suitable sphere for human self-realization through civic discourse and participation. The recovery of Dante’s ‘non-political’ understanding of the nation cautions against a blanket dismissal of premodern ideas of the nation and offers a more nuanced perspective on language, national identity, and the future of nation-states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can territorial disputes within countries be a basis for affective polarization? If so, how does it vary across territories? A burgeoning literature on affective polarization has largely focused on partisan divisions; we argue that contentious political issues such as those relating to territorial integrity can also be a basis for such affective polarization, where citizens feel concord with those sharing such policy preferences and animus for those who do not. We specify hypotheses about territorial‐policy‐based affective polarization and bring comparative survey evidence from three European regions with salient and contentious territorial claims: Scotland, Catalonia and Northern Ireland. While these three cases encompass different outcomes of territorial disputes, our results show strikingly similar levels of affective polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how belonging to the sovereigntist public in Romania is associated with a range of perceptions regarding the international environment. It especially examines how the sovereigntist vote correlates with the opinion on current events and characteristics of the international environment. The methodology on which the article is built is the quantitative secondary analysis of sociological survey data.

Radical right-wing parties are gaining strength on the political scene in France (Rassemblement national, RN), Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AFD), Italy (Lega Nord, LN; Fratelli d’Italia, FdI), Poland (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), Hungary (Magyar Polgári Szövetség, FIDESZ) and so on. The above political entities have been elected by the European citizens in the EU institutions to oppose certain policies and reform the EU from within. For a long time, Spanish democracy was distinguished by the absence of a radical right-wing discourse, but this exceptionality came to an end in 2018, with the penetration of Vox into the political institutional framework. This study aims to outline the trajectory of Vox, the defining elements of its ideology, and especially the role of history in weaving its narrative.

European radical right parties (RRPs) have recently experienced strong electoral success and have strengthened their positions within the European Parliament. While their Eurosceptic positions are well documented in the literature, the fact that most RRPs refer not only to their nations but to Europe in general in order to ground their nationalist visions remains understudied. We investigate this issue by analyzing the discourses of MEPs from 24 radical right parties in the 8th legislature of the European Parliament (2014–2019). Relying on a vast corpus (36,413 speeches) and using quantitative text analysis, this research sheds light on the various notions of Europe that are used by radical right MEPs. We find evidence of three visions of Europe: as a civilization; as an ethno-religious community; and as a liberal society. The use and preferences for these visions vary according to ideological positions, strategies and national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successes of right -wing populist parties in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as a repeated distancing from the European Union, raise the question of whether there is such a thing as European citizenship at all. Citizenship is not understood as formal nationality, but as a sense of belonging. This ties in with the considerations of political cultural research. This article uses representative surveys to address the question: What about European Citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe? The results show that the feeling of belonging to the European Union in Eastern and Central Europe is better than its reputation and not lower than in Western Europe. However, there are differences in the recognition of plurality between the majority (not all) of Eastern European states compared to the majority of Western European states. In particular, the integration of Muslims is more strongly rejected. The same applies to the social acceptance of homosexuality. This partly explains the success of right -wing populists in Central and Eastern Europe and marks a certain cultural difference, which is primarily directed against a wet model of democracy that is considered too open to plurality. In short: Central and Eastern Europeans also see themselves as Europeans and EU members, but their ideas of a European democracy differ from Western ideas – especially in peripheral regions.

The upcoming presidential elections of November 2024 brought back into focus a phenomenon that has been manifesting in American society at least since the beginning of the XXIst century – societal polarization. Social scientists have measures. Campaign strategists have lore. The best measures have the indisputable virtues of being precise, objective, and portable – from place to place and election to election. Without pretending to be an exhaustive analysis, this article proposes a brief review of America’s national and religious identity, and of the causes derived from these two variables that have led to the current polarization of society. Participatory observation is the primary source of this parsimonious exposition, while specialized literature and surveys dedicated to the study of identity constitute the basis of secondary sources. The covenant, the creed and the crucible are the recurring symbols by which Americans have tried to make sense of their differences – and their similarities, and most of the arguments of this article are built around these variables.

The execution of Covid-19 vaccination drives in former Yugoslavia’s successor states has been disappointing. The rapidly evolving literature on the Covid-19 pandemic suggests the levels of support for vaccination are correlated with education, trust in public-health institutions, and exposure to the negative economic and health effects of the pandemic. The explanations of the political foundations of vaccination hesitancy, however, need better empirical grounding. We shed light on this subject by analyzing the results of a survey conducted on more than six thousand respondents from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, as well as a combination of public-health, economic, and sociodemographic data across more than five hundred municipalities in Croatia. Most notably, we find the political sources of vaccination hesitancy to be strongly related to people’s support for the ideas of political parties committed to nationalist populism.

Copyright of Ayer: Revista de Historia Contemporánea is the property of Asociacion de Historia Contemporanea and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The United States is enduring an identity crisis characterized by a polarized political climate precipitating an American culture war. In this battle the Republican Party has been overtaken by "Anti‐wokeism" allied with antidemocratic "states' rights" beliefs claiming an exclusive, antipluralist definition of republic. The extremist right in America insists that America is not a democracy, but a "republic" built to respect the status of a minority characterized as white, nationalist and Christian. "Anti‐wokeism" is an extension of Trumpism and MAGA (Make America Great Again), gathering together antidemocratic forces, fueled by resentment and theories of racial displacement known as the Great Replacement Theory. These forces are overwhelming the modern Republican Party, inspiring homophobia, misogyny, racism, book bans, and violence. This essay addresses the following four elements of this crisis with an eye to a renewed vision of America: (1) the difference between an 18th Century and 21st Century definition of a republic; (2) the antidemocratic states' rights movement; (3) the nature of strongman populism in American politics; and (4) a vision of diversity as the core principle of the American Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Does nationalism increase the probability of international conflict? An affirmative answer has intuitive appeal: Nationalists promote force to protect their land and people from foreign threats. Research on nationalism in international conflict implicates elites, masses, and political interactions between these actors when asserting its status as a powerful force that raises the risk for interstate wars. Yet both micro- and macro-level evidence cautions against drawing broad conclusions about how nationalism affects conflict. Nationalism sometimes prompts aggression. In other contexts, nationalism produces restraint. Systematic knowledge about how nationalism relates to international conflict therefore requires answers to questions about which nationalisms promote conflict and whose nationalism matters. This article first reviews theory and evidence about nationalism’s conflict-causing potential. We discuss the microfoundations that link nationalism to foreign policy attitudes before describing research that implicates nationalism as a cause of militarized conflict. Next, we argue that understanding the complex relationships between nationalism and conflict requires theorizing the causal processes that connect various stakeholders’ nationalism to foreign policy outcomes. Moreover, research on identity content suggests that nationalism is compatible with a variety of foreign policy preferences. Throughout, we centre research that features nationalism as a principal independent variable or causal mechanism precipitating conflict. Any review about nationalism must contend with the delicate matter of conceptualization — the field contains nearly as many definitions for nationalism as articles about nationalism and war. The research we discuss variously describes nationalism as an identity, ideology, or belief, for example. For our purposes, nationalism captures a set of sentiments related to a national group and its superiority. This broad perspective centers the phenomenon implicated in international conflict research.

While the scholarship on the role capitalism played in the genesis of nationalism is relatively coherent, our understanding of the relationship between those two phenomena once they have emerged is much more disjointed. Are capitalism and nationalism inherently conflictual or is their relationship a symbiotic one? Under what conditions is one of those two patterns more likely? Clues about this dimension of the link between capitalism and nationalism are not readily available in existing accounts of either phenomenon. The goal of this article, therefore, is to cull and systematize various strands of ideas about how these two phenomena might be connected.

The relationship between religion and nationalism has received increasing scholarly attention since the late 1990s. An article I co-authored a decade ago provided a detailed review of this literature as it intersected with macro-culturalist and micro-rationalist theories of violence. Since that time, the field has kept expanding and other reviews covering this topic have been published. In this review, I will follow in their footsteps by providing the reader with coverage of the most influential debates on religion and nationalism.