tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/nation-state-25259/articlesnation state – The Conversation2022-09-07T09:15:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1898352022-09-07T09:15:10Z2022-09-07T09:15:10ZDigital nomads have rejected the office and now want to replace the nation state. But there is a darker side to this quest for global freedom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483184/original/file-20220907-18-ap277n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=81%2C54%2C5907%2C3917&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/hand-of-man-use-smartphone-and-laptop-with-technology-of-globalization-connectivity-conceptual-image213531571.html?imageid=FA34637C-3EEA-447E-83C6-F1660031BDF5&p=177357&pn=1&searchId=8f490f8acdd30777ba030c7c63a84da9&searchtype=0">Vasin Leenanuruksa / Alamy</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>A ‘network state’ is ideologically aligned but geographically decentralised. The people are spread around the world in clusters of varying size, but their hearts are in one place.</p>
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<p>In June 2022 Balaji Srinivasan, former chief technology officer of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, published an ebook entitled <a href="https://thenetworkstate.com/">The Network State: How To Start a New Country</a>. It is the latest in a flurry of utopian visions by self-styled digital visionaries, crypto believers and web 3.0 evangelists who are lining up to declare the death of the traditional concept of countries and nationhood. </p>
<p>In one case, a new “virtual” country is already in development. “The nation state is outdated – it’s based on 19th-century thinking, and we aim to upend all of that,” Lauren Razavi tells me over Zoom from a bustling co-working space.</p>
<p>Razavi is the executive director of <a href="https://plumia.org/about/">Plumia</a>, a self-proclaimed “moonshot mission” to build an internet country for digital nomads. Born in Britain to an Iranian immigrant, Razavi sees herself as untethered and borderless, and likens national citizenship and tax to a “subscription” that is very hard to cancel. </p>
<p>“We’re all enrolled into this automatic subscription based on the coincidence of our birthplace or our heritage, and that really doesn’t work in the 21st century.”</p>
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<span class="caption">Lauren Razavi, executive director of Plumia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph: Barbara Jovanovic</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>Freedom for everyone?</h2>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/research-students/dave-cook">anthropologist</a>, I have been chronicling the digital nomad lifestyle – and their <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308275X221120172">tangled relationship with state institution</a>s – for the past seven years. Pre-pandemic, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-nomads-what-its-really-like-to-work-while-travelling-the-world-99345">popular stereotype</a> was of a carefree millennial who had escaped the daily grind to travel the world without hindrance, working on a laptop in some far-flung beach cafe with their only limitation being the quality of the wifi. </p>
<p>As long ago as 2015, I was hearing recurring complaints from these nomads about the ideological and practical frictions that nation states pose – it just hadn’t organised itself into a movement yet.</p>
<p>For a while, COVID-19 appeared to put the brakes on the nomadic dream, as most were forced to head home to western countries and the safety net of healthcare systems. Yet now, the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9781003094937-10/global-remote-work-revolution-future-work-dave-cook">remote working revolution</a> triggered by the pandemic has given this borderless lifestyle “project” a <a href="https://theconversation.com/remote-work-visas-will-shape-the-future-of-work-travel-and-citizenship-145078">new impetus</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>Before COVID struck, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/12/09/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-and-hasnt-changed-the-way-americans-work/">12% of workers in the US</a> worked remotely full time, and <a href="https://post.parliament.uk/the-impact-of-remote-and-flexible-working-arrangements/">5% in the UK</a>. But the pandemic quickly proved remote work was possible for many more people. Workplace norms toppled like dominos: the office, in-person meetings and the daily commute fell first. Countries such as Barbados, Estonia and Portugal started issuing <a href="https://theconversation.com/remote-work-visas-will-shape-the-future-of-work-travel-and-citizenship-145078">remote work visas</a> to encourage geographically flexible employees to relocate to their territories. “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/11/03/small-towns-and-cities-are-offering-up-to-20000-for-remote-workers-to-relocate/">Zoom towns</a>” are another trend, with towns such as Augusta, Maine in the US offering financial sweeteners to attract remote workers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remote-work-visas-will-shape-the-future-of-work-travel-and-citizenship-145078">Remote-work visas will shape the future of work, travel and citizenship</a>
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</em>
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<p>Having consigned the office to the trash, it makes sense that the nation state is the <a href="https://time.com/6211405/internet-country-plumia-remote-work/">next institution that digital nomads want to recycle</a>. To Razavi, membership of a nation state “offers incredibly poor value … The aspects that are really stuck in the past include citizenship, passports and tax. Our vision is to upload the nation state to the cloud.”</p>
<p>The concept of <a href="https://plumia.org/foundations-for-a-country-on-the-internet/">creating an internet country</a> was dreamt up during a company hackathon. Plumia is owned and staffed by <a href="https://safetywing.com/">Safety Wing</a>, an HQ-less insurance company which sells travel and health cover to digital nomads and remote working teams (tagline: “Insurance for nomads by nomads”). Safety Wing, according to its homepage, is “here to remove the role of geographical borders as a barrier to equal opportunities and freedom for everyone”. </p>
<p>But the realities of life as a digital nomad, and the dream of shedding your nationality for a borderless, paperless version, are full of day-to-day complications, as I have discovered – particularly if you do not belong to the young, white and western stereotype that the media tends to perpetuate.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for an early DNX conference.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Becoming a digital nomad</h2>
<p>I first heard about digital nomads in 2015 while chatting to Thom*, a seasoned traveller in Koh Phangan. Thom was neither expat nor tourist, and rarely seemed to return home. I asked him how people survived while constantly travelling. He had a laundry list of problems, from hassles subletting his apartment in Hamburg to his bank stalking him for a permanent address, and the hell of navigating visa rules. </p>
<p>Later in the conversation, he paused and declared, “You’re talking about digital nomads – I can’t believe you’ve never heard of them!” Laughing, he explained, “It’s someone a bit like me but who thinks the bottom layer of <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760">Maslow’s hierarchy of needs</a> is fast wifi instead of shelter. There’s a digital nomad conference happening in Bangkok in a few months. Let’s go.”</p>
<p><strong>How digital nomads see themselves:</strong></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Work/mobility chart" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482979/original/file-20220906-14-hcnvv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Self-described digital nomads were asked to mark where they see themselves on the above work focus/mobility axes. Their ‘core zone’ is shown in red.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Diagram: Dave Cook and Tony Simonovsky</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Two months later, I was walking up Rangnam Road in Bangkok on a humid morning, looking for the <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/DNXGlobal/dnx-digital-nomad-conference/">DNX conference</a>. Just off the plane and struggling with jetlag, I visited a coffee shop and overheard two German men discussing the conference. Fabian, who was dressed in camo cargo shorts and a black T-shirt, told me he was giving the keynote speech. He planned to share his experiences of driving across Africa playing guitar for charity, and of setting up a borderless tech start-up while travelling through South America.</p>
<p>At the conference venue I found crowds of people checking-in using Eventbrite apps. Lanyards with the slogan “I CHOOSE FREEDOM” were handed out. At this stage, I didn’t question what kind of freedom.</p>
<p>Most attendees were casually dressed men from the global north in their 20s and 30s. Although most carried small backpacks, no one looked like a backpacker. The men were in shorts and navy or khaki polo shirts. The few women present wore neutral sundresses. No one would have looked out of place in a business meeting in an international hotel lobby.</p>
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<img alt="Conference wristband" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482703/original/file-20220905-22-d98seb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">DNX conference wristband.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave Cook</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Digital nomads vigorously differentiate themselves from tourists and backpackers. One nomad told me, “I’d be bored shitless if I hung around on the beach all day getting stoned.” Nevertheless, these two tribes often collide in locations like Ko Pha Ngan or Chiang Mai in Thailand.</p>
<p>Talks at the conference often repeated the word “freedom”. Freedom to live and work anywhere, freedom from the rat race, entrepreneurial freedom, freedom to take control of your life and destiny. Other well-worn themes included “life hacks” enabling nomadic businesses to function efficiently on the move, the role of co-working spaces, and inspirational travelogues.</p>
<p>In the conference introduction by DNX founders Marcus Meurer and Feli Hargarten (also known, respectively, as Sonic Blue and Yara Joy), a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOAIXwUZdU8">YouTube video</a> entitled The Rise of Lowsumerism was played. The video claimed that excessive consumerism was being replaced by a superior sharing economy which “prioritises access over ownership”. This is what Razavi now calls <a href="https://medium.com/curious/the-rise-of-subscription-living-21356d69a1dd">subscription living</a>.</p>
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<p>Despite the video’s critique of “mindless consumerism”, it used a visual style that could have been selling luxury apartments. It all sounded fun and expensive. The video ended with the phrase: “Earth is not a giant shopping centre.” The conference was hosted in a mall.</p>
<p>Some talks got into the gritty minutiae of global living in surprising detail. Natalie Sissons, whose personal brand is <a href="https://suitcaseentrepreneur.com/about/">The Suitcase Entrepreneur</a>, used her presenting slot to share her digital productivity strategies, projecting her yearly schedule on the vast conference screen. She explained how her digital calendar app, <a href="https://calendly.com/">Calendly</a>, automatically translated timezones, flattening national time differences into global, bookable and productive meeting slots and projects. She was also a frisbee champion and loved doing handstands.</p>
<p>Then came Fabian Dittrich’s keynote. He was billed as a travelling tech entrepreneur, walked on stage still dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, and was sincere and intense. He recounted how his school careers adviser told him he needed to “fit in like an adjusted citizen” – but that he “rejected the system and a well-paid job in London [because] it was a workstyle, not a lifestyle”. He linked this dissatisfaction with office life to his rejection of his national identity.</p>
<p>Both Dittrich and Sissons appeared to be living incarnations of the lifestyle extolled by Tim Ferriss in his seminal 2004 self-help book, <a href="https://fourhourworkweek.com/">The 4-Hour Work Week</a>. Their logic pathologised the office and the nation state – both were cast as threats to untethered freedom.</p>
<p>In the closing section of the conference, Dittrich turned his anger directly on the nation state. He clicked to a PowerPoint slide 25-feet wide which parodied the Ascent of Man. His visual depicted human evolution from an ape to a digitally liberated human taking flight, presenting digital nomadism as a future trajectory for humanity.</p>
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<img alt="Speaker on stage in front of presentation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482705/original/file-20220905-14-5b6pwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fabian Dittrich’s keynote speech at the 2015 DNX conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave Cook</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>His next slide showed two globes: the first covered with national flags headed “What people think I am”; the second without flags titled “What I really am”. Dittrich explained that his personal identity had nothing to do with his nationality. His performance made me think of Diogenes’s proclamation: “I am a citizen of the world.” The audience erupted into applause.</p>
<p>After the main conference, there were after-parties and workshops. I found out that many delegates were new to the nomad scene. Everyone wanted the secret formula of a blissful life combining work and global travel.</p>
<p>When it was over, in my imagination, all the delegates jetted off to their tropical hammocks. I trudged back to the UK winter, my day job, and to my mother’s hospital bed which I had left four days earlier. I found her in the same bed, recovering from cancer surgery which had saved her life, provided by the UK’s National Health Service.</p>
<h2>Being a nomad can be taxing</h2>
<p>It is apt that the prototype virtual state of Plumia is owned by a travel insurance company. Both digital nomads and sceptics of this lifestyle agree that challenges to sustaining a nomadic existence are 90% practical. Visa rules, tax obligations and healthcare are common nomad pain points.</p>
<p>Healthcare is the obvious first hurdle. Nomads need insurance that covers them for things like scooter accidents and patches them up on the road, so they can make it back to a co-working space or their next destination. Historically, most standard travel insurance covers a maximum of 30 days, so for Safety Wing, longer-term healthcare and travel insurance for nomads is a gap in the market.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482600/original/file-20220903-14-jjp2ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The realities of digital nomadism can feel very different from the stereotypical image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bird-view-remote-online-working-digital-1742840084">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tax planning doesn’t make for sexy blog posts – but it did teach me a lot about the struggles of becoming a digital nomad, and what it really means to be the member of a nation state. I met Ben in a Thai co-working space. He was fresh-faced and idealistic, but also stressed and strapped for cash.</p>
<p>Ben had left the UK as a backpacker, staying in Australia under the working holiday visa programme where he worked on a sheep farm in the outback. Bored with nothing to do in the evenings, he stumbled across a <a href="https://www.digitalnomadsoul.com/start-a-dropshipping-business/">digital nomad blog</a> promising a life of travel, work and freedom. When Ben left the farm to backpack with friends, his mind kept returning to that blog which said “earn money whilst travelling the world”. He told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All my friends wanted to do was get drunk in the next hostel. They knew they’d run out of money and have to go home. I realised I could continue travelling whilst working, instead of going home broke and having to look for a job.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ben headed to a co-working space in Thailand and taught himself website design. But the Australian government was pursuing him for unpaid taxes because he had overstayed his visa while working. Unfortunately, one tax woe led to another.</p>
<p>Faced with the dilemma of paying the Australian government or risking not being able to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, he used his new design skills to earn some money. He had befriended the owners of a Thai guesthouse and told them he could create a cheap website for them. The owners “were delighted”, but the manager of the Thai co-working space found out and told Ben it was illegal for someone on a tourist visa to work directly with Thai clients. If the co-working space was found to be hosting illegal workers, they could be prosecuted and shut down.</p>
<p>To become successfully “free”, digital nomads must become experts in keeping ahead of state bureaucracies. Most learn the hard way when they run into trouble. Before the pandemic, Thailand seemed like the perfect digital nomad location due to its Instagram-worthy beaches, fast internet and low cost of living. Imagine Ferriss’s 4-Hour Work Week merged with Alex Garland’s The Beach, only with a different ending.</p>
<p>Yet visa rules and worker protections in Thailand are strict, if not always rigorously enforced. Around 2018, the Thai state became acutely aware and suspicious of digital nomads. In answer to the question “can digital nomads work in Thailand without a work permit?”, a <a href="https://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/thailand-digital-nomad-visa-and-work-permit">Thai legal website</a> stated: “In order to work in the kingdom, a foreigner needs to: be on an appropriate visa, obtain a work permit, and pay taxes.” The website went on to question the very meaning of work:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What is work? A digital nomad working on his laptop in a co-working space, is that considered work? A businessman sitting in his hotel room preparing for a seminar? When does the Work Permit office consider this to be work? This is a hard question to answer with a straightforward yes or no.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Ben and other fledgling digital nomads, tax and workplace protections were the rug-pull that caused their digital nomad dream to topple. Many nomads give up at this stage. For others, however, the digital nomad dream can become a recurring nightmare.</p>
<h2>The roots of digital nomadism</h2>
<p>One key component of digital nomadism is the concept of “<a href="https://www.nomadichustle.com/what-is-geoarbitrage/">geoarbitrage</a>”, which is a fancy term for wielding a western wage in a lower-cost, developing country. Some folks find the idea unethical but for entrepreneurs having to wait tables while bootstrapping a business, it makes sense to live somewhere cheaper than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley">the Valley</a>, London or New York.</p>
<p>Geoarbitrage was popularised by Ferriss in his book and to some, the book summarised everything that was right with globalisation: the idea that the entire world should operate as an open, free market. To others, it pointed to a nightmare.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M3gmC7WmB4Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In the wake of Ferriss’s book and also <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Digital+Nomad-p-9780471974994">Digital Nomad</a> by Japanese technologist Tsugio Makimoto – who is widely credited with coining the term – digital nomads gravitated to tropical locations with lower living costs. Thailand and Bali were early hotspots but digital nomads aren’t sentimental. If a better place offers the right combination of welcoming visas and low living costs, or catches the attention for some other reason – as El Salvador did in 2021 by becoming the first country to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-57398274">classify Bitcoin legal currency</a> – digital nomads are likely to appear, with carry-on luggage.</p>
<p>To survive as a nomad requires skill, tenacity and the privilege of holding a “<a href="https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php">strong</a>” passport, a point that Razavi has <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/PlumiaCountry/status/1488895849002418184">highlighted on Plumia’s Twitter feed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A passport is no longer a physical document but a set of rights and inequalities programmed into a computer. To me, that means this is the moment where this has to change. In a world of remote work, this makes no sense whatsoever.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tourist visas are often short, so nomads travelling on them need to change location regularly, sometimes as frequently as every two weeks. Some do visa runs to the nearest border (to extend their visas) or leave and apply for longer-term visitor visas. But this means additional travel and disrupts <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40558-020-00172-4">work routines</a>. Established nomads often explain how they have learned from past mistakes. As they become more road savvy, they slow down their travel patterns, refine their tax and visa arrangements, and make sure they are not worrying about breaking local immigration laws.</p>
<p>Juggling work and travel is both a dream and a headache. A high percentage of nomads I’ve met abruptly disappear from the scene, and their social media posts about nomading cease. Yet that doesn’t stop the next generation of dreamers turning up in Bali and Chiang Mai. And no dream, perhaps, was more alluring than the practice of “dropshipping”. It’s also hugely controversial – even in nomad circles.</p>
<h2>The darker side of digital nomadism</h2>
<p>Between 2016 and 2018, “<a href="https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/what-is-dropshipping">dropshipping</a>” was the most popular get-rich-quick scheme I came across in Chiang Mai. This online business model involves people marketing and selling products they may never have seen, produced in countries they may never go to, to customers they will never meet. The products are often <a href="https://smallbiztrends.com/2022/08/dropshipping-business-ideas.html">niche items</a> such as kitchen gadgets or pet accessories.</p>
<p>Typically, dropshippers promote their products on social media and sell them via Amazon, eBay, or by creating their own online stores using software such as Shopify. Dropshipping is catnip to aspiring digital nomads because it is borderless and offers the promise of “passive income”. As one nomad explained to me, “why wouldn’t you want to earn money while you sleep?”</p>
<p>But many committed digital nomads hate this darker side of digital nomadism. Both Razavi and Pieter Levels, creator of the website <a href="https://nomadlist.com/">nomadlist.com</a>, have declared that dropshipping is “bullshit”. Another British expat described it as “the snake oil that greased the wheels of a thousand start-ups in Chiang Mai”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=205&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=205&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=205&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482593/original/file-20220903-13382-9iwbby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How dropshipping works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/dropshipping-process-how-dropshipment-work-vector-1548306857">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young nomads often confided to me that they were perfecting their dropshipping business model. Some showed me spreadsheets displaying more than US$5,000 a month of passive income. But I also learned more about the emotional and economic costs.</p>
<p>At one unofficial dropshipper meet-up in Chiang Mai in 2018, I was told that if you wanted to be really successful, you had to become expert at manipulating big e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay. Some talked about trying to evade local health and safety laws when selling niche products like kitchen gadgets while tapping into a pool of global cheap labour.</p>
<p>Competing with other sellers who troll you with bad reviews was a dark art, I discovered. Two men confided that their Amazon seller accounts had been suspended after being accused of posting suspicious reviews. Several admitted they had got friends to review-bomb their competitors.</p>
<p>These dropshippers feared Amazon’s algorithms more than border and customs inspections. Manipulating its review system was particularly tricky because, according to Larry, an ex-marine who manufactured his own “top secret” product in China (dropshippers rarely share what their niche products are), “Amazon processes and algorithms seem to know everything.” </p>
<p>“They know if your cousin gives your product a five-star review,” Ted added. Everyone nodded vigorously.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482602/original/file-20220903-9501-9nmm55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chiang Mai was a dropshipping hub in the late 2010s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/digital-nomads-freelance-working-on-job-655389331">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Every dropshipper selling on Amazon.com (its US domain) complained about <a href="https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/proposition-65-list">Proposition 65</a>, a list of toxic chemicals regulated in California that are widely used in Chinese plastic manufacturing. Some had entire product categories (their whole “seller listing”) deleted in California. These battles with local laws and tech giants show how the lines between nation states and corporations can become blurry for digital nomads. Or as Ted put it: “Fuck the west coast. You’re stuck between health and safety and the tech giants.”</p>
<p>Amazon is very clear about <a href="https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/help/hub/reference/external/G201808410?locale=en-GB">its dropshipping policy</a>: “We do not allow a third party to fulfil orders from other retailers on a seller’s behalf, unless the Amazon seller of record is clearly identified on the packaging,” a spokesperson told me. “Our policies also prohibit reviews abuse.”</p>
<p>Pete, a dropshipping veteran using multiple platforms, told the Chiang Mai meet-up that he had more than US$10,000 worth of stock “at sea or in transit” and had built his own e-commerce store. He also hinted that he would turn a blind eye to the possibility of child labour. “I’m getting more involved with the manufacturing,” he half-whispered to the room. “I sent an agent to check how things were going, and I heard that kids were packing the orders.” Another dropshipper chipped in: “Well, it is China … what can you do?” Half the room shrugged.</p>
<p>Some dropshippers bragged to me about hacking into the global pool of cheap, educated virtual assistants (VAs) – often from the <a href="https://www.outsourceaccelerator.com/articles/5-reasons-why-you-should-hire-a-filipino-virtual-assistant/">Philippines</a> where English is widely spoken. Zena, who sold home decor to a “design-savvy clientele back in the US”, explained how “Instagram was her killer sales funnel”, but that she soon realised “I was killing myself between the order fulfilments and socials [social media posts]”. </p>
<p>So Zena found a VA living on the outskirts of Manila and outsourced everything to her. “[It took] a month to get her fully up to speed – she has an MBA, her English is great. The time investment was totally worth it; I get everything done better than I could do it myself.”</p>
<p>Zena would not divulge how much she paid her VA, in case someone tried to poach her. Two male dropshippers chipped in. “They all have MBAs, bro,” one laughed. The other added, “Some accept less than [US]$500 a month. I’ve heard as low as $250, but that’s too low even for me.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-countries-ranging-from-indonesia-to-mexico-aim-to-attract-digital-nomads-locals-say-not-so-fast-189283">As countries ranging from Indonesia to Mexico aim to attract digital nomads, locals say 'not so fast'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Levels says dropshipping is a “terribly dark story”, pointing out that aspiring dropshippers can be victims too. He claimed on <a href="https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/830620053305335808">Twitter</a>: “What’s dire about dropshipping is that these people from poor areas in the US pay thousands of dollars for courses that don’t deliver.” </p>
<p>Fresh-faced nomads often told me they were excited to start online courses, but others told me the content didn’t teach them much. While it’s debatable whether these courses were <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dropship/comments/d093wc/is_all_dropshipping_a_scam/">deliberate scams</a>, many young nomads were disappointed to discover that dropshipping was a very difficult way to earn money.</p>
<p>For many, it became a brief fever dream before they moved on to more ethical or sustainable ways of earning while they travelled. The dropshipping scene in Chiang Mai started to dwindle before the pandemic hit. At the same time, as one nomad told me in 2020, “cryptocurrency has stolen the limelight.”</p>
<h2>‘A lonely, miserable existence’</h2>
<p>The digital nomad on the beach might have become a cliche, but what’s not to like about living and working in paradise? Quite a lot according to Andrew Keen, author of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-not-the-answer-review-andrew-keen">The Internet Is Not The Answer</a>. Keen is critical and dismissive of the digital nomad lifestyle – and when Razavi interviewed him for a Plumia livestream event, the conversation, in Razavi’s words, “got salty”.</p>
<p>When Razavi asked Keen about digital nomads and his “views on global mobility”, Keen replied: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m not in favour of tearing up your passport and being ‘anywhere’ … I’m quite critical of this new precariat, the new workforce existing on so-called sharing platforms like Uber and Lyft to make a living … I’m not sure most people want to be nomads. I think it’s a rather ugly, miserable, lonely existence. The problem is that technology is pushing us in that way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Behind the inspirational blogs and stock images of hammocks, digital nomadism divides options, often angrily. Razavi believes mobility is a human right, while Keen believes politics needs places. This plays out in national politics, too. At the 2016 Conservative Party conference in the UK, the new prime minister, Theresa May, famously declared: “If you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.” It was a battlecry inviting people to take sides.</p>
<p>In March 2020, COVID and its associated global lockdowns briefly seemed to challenge the idea of freely existing “beyond nations”. Yet now that remote working has been normalised, the digital nomad dream has been supercharged – and every week, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-countries-ranging-from-indonesia-to-mexico-aim-to-attract-digital-nomads-locals-say-not-so-fast-189283">new country or city</a> seems to launch a remote work or digital nomad visa scheme.</p>
<p>According to Razavi, Plumia “are talking to a number of countries but that’s confidential … We are speaking to emerging economies.” She does name the government of Montenegro, however: “That one’s quite public because it’s on <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/PlumiaCountry/status/1536282012570501120">social media</a>. I see there being opportunity there.”</p>
<p>Estonia was the first country to pioneer a digital nomad visa. Having only gained independence in 1991, it has positioned itself as a digital society where 99% of government services can be accessed online. According to Estonian entrepreneur Karoli Hindricks, founder of <a href="https://jobbatical.com/about">Jobbatical</a>, a job-finding service for remote workers: “Where you were born is like a statistical error.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1488895276010016770"}"></div></p>
<p>The idea of creating a new nation by hacking and reassembling old ideas is nothing new, of course. The <a href="http://www.sealandgov.org/">Principality of Sealand</a>, located on a concrete platform in the North Sea, tried to <a href="https://sealandgov.org/50-years-of-independence/">claim sovereignty in 1967</a> with mixed success. Some digital nomads obsessively research maritime law, others go on digital nomads cruises. One nomad confided to me that they wanted to buy an island in Brazil.</p>
<p>And while the idea of an internet country without any territory, or future plans to claim any, is a radical concept for most, history teaches us that ideas, given the right tailwinds, can morph into reality.</p>
<p>In 1996, for example, John Perry Barlow published <a href="https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence">A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace</a>, in which he wrote the following missive to “outdated” governments: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Within four years the dotcom bubble grew exponentially and then burst – proving both its evangelists and critics right.</p>
<h2>A new religion?</h2>
<p>I discussed where digital nomadism may be going with the documentary film director Lena Leonhardt, who like me has spent years chronicling the digital nomad lifestyle. Her film <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/roamersfollowyourlikes">Roamers - Follow Your Likes</a> tells four astonishing stories of nomads combining travel, work and chronicling their adventures on social media.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7b33QB2vuDw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The film’s main character is Nuseir Yassin – or <a href="https://nasdaily.com/#history">Nas Daily</a> as he is known to his followers, because he made a one-minute film everyday for 1,000 days while travelling. At the start of the movie he is seen on a stage, urging his audience not to waste their lives: “I worked as a software engineer for PayPal but I hated my job and I hated my life.”</p>
<p>Yassin wears a T-shirt with an infographic showing his life as 33% used-up. “I had this revelation,” he explains. “I am one-third dead with my life.” The rest of the film documents how he and other nomads turned their ordinary lives into something “fricking fantastic”.</p>
<p>Leonhardt thinks the digital nomad lifestyle may have spiritual or religious qualities: “Many people feel ‘I only have this life and a very short time, so I have to make sure this life is worth something’.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man holding a mobile phone outdoors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482594/original/file-20220903-8710-9cvsrx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nuseir Yassin, the main character in the film Roamers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph: Lena Leonhardt, The Royal Film Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet there’s no doubt the digital nomad lifestyle is much harder if you don’t travel with a “strong” passport that allows visa-free travel. If you are an African woman, for example, nomadic travel can be difficult and hostile.</p>
<p>Agnes Nyamwange, who also features in the film, has a Kenyan passport. Before the pandemic, she was based in the US and “nomaded” in South America from there. Nyamwange explained that holding a Kenyan passport made visas more expensive, as visa-free travel is much less available to holders of many African passports. </p>
<p>Since the pandemic, travelling to the US or Europe has become almost impossible for her. “I wanted to go to Europe when they opened up, but the embassies here said it was closed for Africans. Recently I just had the US Embassy telling me they don’t have any appointments available until 2024.”</p>
<p>In the film, Nyamwange memorably proclaims: “We are a generation of people who believe in superheroes.” She talks about the healing power of travel. But when I caught up with her earlier this year, she revealed the underbelly of nomadism to me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s a cultish type thing. It’s not sustainable. It’s good to travel from place to place to place to place, but you kind of have to have a sustainable lifestyle for it to be healthy … 15% of it was real, the other 85% is complete junk.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nyamwange added that it is all about “selling the dream”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once you get into the digital nomad lifestyle, you start understanding Instagram, Snapchat and all these social media systems very well. But most people who portray and tell those stories don’t really live the lives that they’re selling.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman in the back seat of a taxi" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482595/original/file-20220903-20-8en214.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Agnes Nyamwange: ‘85% of this lifestyle is complete junk.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph: Lena Leonhardt, The Royal Film Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite all the barriers, Nyamwange is still drawn to what she sees as the therapeutic aspects of work and travel. For now though, she travels locally in Africa, because travelling further “is such a headache”.</p>
<p>Digital nomadism may offer a hard road, but it is a spiritual path many want to take. And believers like Razavi, Srinivasan and legions of other digital nomads will continue to seek alternatives to poor-value, inefficient nation states in their quest for a geographically untethered version of freedom.</p>
<p>Yet for the moment at least, this type of freedom is a privilege which largely depends on your place of birth, long-term place of residence, and economic circumstances. Or put another way, your given nationality.</p>
<p><em>*Research participant names have been changed to protect their anonymity.</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-inside-story-of-the-cia-v-russia-from-cold-war-conspiracy-to-black-propaganda-in-ukraine-188550?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The inside story of the CIA v Russia – from cold war conspiracy to ‘black’ propaganda in Ukraine
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As an anthropologist, I have chronicled the digital nomad lifestyle for the past seven years. The reality is far less glamorous than you might imagineDave Cook, PhD Candidate in Anthropology, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1083052021-07-12T18:18:49Z2021-07-12T18:18:49ZReconciliation and Residential Schools: Canadians need new stories to face a future better than what we inherited<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410481/original/file-20210708-15-r4tzl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C4904%2C3208&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An upside down maple leaf is tucked behind a plaque as people gather on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at a rally to honour the lives lost to residential schools and demand justice for Indigenous peoples, on Canada Day, July 1, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indigenous leaders have advised Canadians to <a href="https://twitter.com/perrybellegarde/status/1410294015069757451">brace themselves for findings of more unmarked graves of children</a> on the sites of former Indian Residential Schools.</p>
<p>Speaking of the residential school legacies, Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has said: “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/06/30/self-educating-and-speaking-out-essential-for-reconciliation-indigenous-lecturer-says.html">Education got us into this mess and education will get us out</a>.”</p>
<p>To move forward in a positive way requires Canadians to acknowledge <a href="https://theconversation.com/egerton-ryerson-racist-philosophy-of-residential-schools-also-shaped-public-education-143039">how schooling Indigenous people and settlers has advanced colonization</a>. The problem is, too often, <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-mmiwg-report-spurs-debate-on-the-shifting-definitions-of-genocide-118324">a refusal to know</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-many-canadians-dont-seem-to-care-about-the-lasting-effects-of-residential-schools-161968">Why many Canadians don’t seem to care about the lasting effects of residential schools</a>
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<p>Any honest historical <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/14/canada-systemic-racism-history">examination of contemporary relations</a> will challenge many Canadians’ cherished myths about our country, including the belief that Canada is a meritocracy with improving Indigenous-settler <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/23/anti-asian-racism-reaches-crisis-point-in-canada-advocates-say">and race relations</a>.</p>
<p>It also challenges the idea that all or most of those representing Canadians in government have the desire, power and commitment to solve inequities. </p>
<p>As a scholar concerned with how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442619241">teachers’ own education shapes what happens in classrooms</a> and how <a href="https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-101-16%20Next%20Acts%20Monograph_2018-08.pdf">curriculum in Alberta schools</a> can help students to be ethically engaged treaty partners, there are two concepts that may be helpful: considering learning in schools as a process of encounter and thinking about people’s relationships to stories about the past. </p>
<h2>Learning is an encounter</h2>
<p>The possibilities of what students learn at school are shaped by how teachers understand what they are doing.</p>
<p>Whether teachers learn to deliver curriculum as just a body of facts, attitudes and skills or whether they see themselves providing students opportunities to encounter new possibilities matters enormously. </p>
<p>For teachers, approaching curriculum as an encounter means looking at the ways in which students at any age have already learned much about making sense of life, their country and themselves in relation to others. What they take for granted as common sense is itself a historical legacy that requires explicit study. </p>
<p>To recognize is to “re-cognize”: to bring into consciousness so as to know again. </p>
<p>Understanding teaching an encounter asks educators to not only engage their students to “re-cognize” what they have been formally taught — but also what they have informally learned. </p>
<p>For example, students have been subject to imagined but powerful social ideas related to ideal or acceptable forms of sexuality, gender and racialization. We need look no further than examples of hateful slurs on bathroom stall walls or uttered in schoolyards to know that these powerful and dehumanizing ideas persist and require explicit attention.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-black-racism-is-not-a-consensual-schoolyard-fight-160134">Anti-Black racism is not a 'consensual schoolyard fight'</a>
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<img alt="A worker cleans a rainbow path on the ground that has been vandalized." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410480/original/file-20210708-23-1qnlivr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A city worker cleans a rainbow pathway in Airdrie, Alta., that appears to have been tarred and feathered, in 2020. A Pride organization said it would paint over vandalism as many times as necessary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Airdrie Pride Society-Candice Kutyn</span></span>
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<h2>Tensions with preparing teachers</h2>
<p>I conducted a study with five university social studies teacher instructors about how to prepare new teachers to engage the inclusion of Indigenous and francophone perspectives in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210903254083">Alberta’s (then new) current program of social studies</a>. One finding from that study was the need to get better at equipping teachers and students to navigate discomfort and apprehension.</p>
<p>In teacher education, classrooms and beyond, what is needed is a cultural shift to valuing being <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/unsettling-canada">“unsettled”</a> by the unpleasant facts both of our historical and on-going relationships. </p>
<p>Educational institutions need to find ways to support students in understanding how we might forge our personal and collective identities ethically, responsive to all those with whom we are in treaty relations. </p>
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<img alt="Two jingle dancers dance at a public square under advertisemennts and an ad for Team Canada." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C336%2C5768%2C3091&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409757/original/file-20210705-126293-1pomrpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Dancers perform a Jingle Dance during a Cancel Canada Day rally in Toronto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov</span></span>
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<h2>Easily digestable stories</h2>
<p>The German scholar Jorn Rüsen argues that the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25618580?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">ability to perceive moral obligations in the present is related to how we position ourselves in relationship to inherited stories from or about the past</a>. He says our capacities to change our current moral course of action hinges on this and he speaks of “narrative competence.” I take this to mean the extent to which a person can learn useful lessons from a variety of stories about the past to think creatively about present and possible futures.</p>
<p>But the big stories about “our” origins as members of nation-states — <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-postmodern-condition">what the theorist Jean-François Lyotard called “grand narratives”</a> — work against narrative competence. These grand narratives are <a href="http://thenhier.ca/en/node/752.html">easily digestible stories around which an imaginary “we” can unite through the exclusion of others “not us.”</a></p>
<p>Two problems grand narratives present is that they oversimplify the complexity of the past and present, and contribute to narrow national identifications about who has and has not contributed to the building of the country. As a powerful cultural story template and meme, Canada’s grand narratives get retold in textbooks, heritage minutes and movies with an occasional addition of women, Indigenous and racialized people, immigrants or workers being added for flavour.</p>
<h2>The power of stories to shape us</h2>
<p>Researchers concerned with how people are understanding the call to truth, justice and reconciliation <a href="https://arpbooks.org/Books/S/Storying-Violence">and what blocks it talk about “story-ing” — the process through which people understand their lives through the stories they are told and tell</a>. It is my hope that non-Indigenous scholars continue to learn from Indigenous scholars and story tellers like <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-truth-about-stories">Thomas King</a> and <a href="https://www.canadianscholars.ca/authors/lee-maracle">Lee Maracle</a> amongst many others in our local communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/leaked-alberta-school-curriculum-in-urgent-need-of-guidance-from-indigenous-wisdom-teachings-148611">Leaked Alberta school curriculum in urgent need of guidance from Indigenous wisdom teachings</a>
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<p>Canadians now need to acknowledge the power of stories to shape how people relate to each other, our non-human relatives, to the past, the nation and the world. And we need to ask whether we have the right stories to thrive well together in the face of present and future collective challenges.</p>
<p>The histories we tell each other must start with questions about justice and who we wish to collectively become. We need education that engages with our stereotypes and educated apprehensions so as to “re-story” a future better than that we have inherited. </p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kent den Heyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Considering our relationships to stories about the past and looking at learning as a process of encounter can help Canadians to become better treaty partners.Kent den Heyer, Professor of Secondary Education, Faculty of Education, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1374032020-07-14T03:26:02Z2020-07-14T03:26:02ZOur cybersecurity isn’t just under attack from foreign states. There are holes in the government’s approach<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed last month Australia is <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-under-sustained-cyber-attack-warns-the-government-whats-going-on-and-what-should-businesses-do-141119">actively being attacked</a> by hostile foreign governments. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/advisories/advisory-2020-008-copy-paste-compromises-tactics-techniques-and-procedures-used-target-multiple-australian-networks">advisory note</a> posted on the government’s Australian Cyber Security Centre website said the attackers were targeting various vulnerable networks and systems, potentially trying to damage or disable them. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-disinformation-threat-is-real-we-need-better-defences-against-state-based-cyber-campaigns-141044">China's disinformation threat is real. We need better defences against state-based cyber campaigns</a>
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<p>Governments – along with individuals and the private sector – have an important role in addressing cyber risks that threaten our national security. At some point this year, the federal government’s new cybersecurity strategy is set to be announced. </p>
<p>Many in the industry hope it will be comprehensive and backed by significantly more investment than the previous one, to address what is a growing threat. Currently, a cybercrime incident is reported every <a href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-12/Cybercrime%20in%20Australia%20%E2%80%93%20July%20to%20September%202019%20%28December%202019%29.pdf">ten minutes</a> in Australia. </p>
<p>However, due to the unexpected <a href="https://joshfrydenberg.com.au/latest-news/ministerial-statement-on-the-economy-parliament-house-canberra-12-may-2020/">budget impacts of the coronavirus pandemic</a>, there may simply not be enough money to invest in the programs we need to stay protected from large-scale cyberattacks.</p>
<h2>An underwhelming delivery</h2>
<p>We know governments <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/the-us-has-a-long-history-of-election-meddling/565538/">test each other’s cyber defences</a> in the interest of their own national security. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/senate-panel-confirms-russian-interference-2016-election-200421162844869.html">Information warfare</a> (such as through disinformation campaigns) between governments has taken place for many years.</p>
<p>In 2016, then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull released Australia’s first <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/australias-tech-future/cyber-security/what-is-the-government-doing-in-cyber-security">cybersecurity strategy</a>. It involved investments of more than A$230m across four years for five “themes of action” including including stronger cyber defences, and growth and innovation in the sector.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bushfires-bots-and-arson-claims-australia-flung-in-the-global-disinformation-spotlight-129556">Bushfires, bots and arson claims: Australia flung in the global disinformation spotlight</a>
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<p>The strategy envisioned making Australia a “cyber smart nation”, by ensuring we had the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the digital age, while staying cyber safe. </p>
<p>But overall, the strategy was poorly implemented. </p>
<p>For instance, improving cybersecurity requires close collaboration between government, industry, academia and community. To this end, <a href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/programs/joint-cyber-security-centres">Joint Cyber Security Centres</a> were announced so various parties could share knowledge. </p>
<p>However, prior to COVID-19, plans were in motion to align these centres with the Australian Signals Directorate’s higher security classification. This would hinder a collaborative environment by restricting movement within, and access to, the centres.</p>
<p>Moreover, only <a href="https://www.aisa.org.au/common/Uploaded%20files/PDF/Submissions/AISA%202020%20Cyber%20Security%20Strategy%20Final%20update%202.pdf">32% of cybersecurity professionals</a> have visited a centre, highlighting the government’s failure to engage with the sector. </p>
<p>Four years on from the initial strategy’s release, the “smart nation” vision seems lost. The cybersecurity sector faces <a href="https://www.austcyber.com/resources/sector-competitiveness-plan/chapter3#:%7E:text=The%20first%20Sector%20Competitiveness%20Plan,%2Das%2Dusual%20demand">skills shortages</a>, and the public and businesses remain largely unaware of how to <a href="https://theconversation.com/2-5-billion-lost-over-a-decade-nigerian-princes-lose-their-sheen-but-scams-are-on-the-rise-141289">protect themselves</a>. </p>
<p>It’s clear a cybersecurity reset is required. </p>
<h2>We need a targeted, forward-thinking strategy</h2>
<p>The release of the Morrison government’s new strategy has been delayed due to COVID-19, but we have some idea of what to expect. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-29/cyber-security-investment-link-attacks-scott-morrison/12404468">has announced</a> it will redirect existing defence funding to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) to employ up to 500 additional staff to tackle cybercrime.</p>
<p>But how this will work in a market with skills shortages is unclear. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/morrison-announces-repurposing-of-defence-money-to-fight-increasing-cyber-threats-141629">Morrison announces repurposing of defence money to fight increasing cyber threats</a>
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<p>Also, redirecting existing funding into cybersecurity is positive, but it is only one part of the solution. What’s missing from the conversation is strategic, long-term investment.</p>
<h2>A holistic, interdisciplinary approach</h2>
<p>Effective cybersecurity is about more than technology – it’s about people (from a range of backgrounds), user behaviour, business processes, problem solving capability, regulations, industry <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-strategy-2020/submission-90.pdf">standards</a> and policy.</p>
<p>I’ve read <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-publications/submissions-and-discussion-papers/cyber-security-strategy-2020">156</a> submissions to the upcoming cybersecurity strategy, which was open to <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-security-strategy-2020-discussion-paper.pdf">public comment</a>. I also have knowledge of confidential submissions not made public. </p>
<p>Drawing on these views, and my own expertise, here are five elements I believe the upcoming strategy should contain:</p>
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<h2>1. Educate to drive behavioural change</h2>
<p>The “Slip, slop, slap” <a href="https://www.sunsmart.com.au/downloads/about-sunsmart/sunsmart-20-years-on.pdf">health awareness campaign</a> was one of the most successful we’ve ever had. </p>
<p>It drove real <strong>social behavioural change</strong> in Australia. A similar change is required to help make Australians <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-strategy-2020/submission-182.pdf">more knowledgeable</a> about cybersecurity issues, and how technology can be exploited. </p>
<p>This isn’t a quick fix, and will likely be a long-term effort.</p>
<h2>2. Build resilience in critical infrastructure</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has demonstrated how easily societies can be disrupted, particularly key supply chains and systems. </p>
<p>We need <strong>improved processes, regulation and standards</strong> to ensure the <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-strategy-2020/submission-26.pdf">infrastructure</a> <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-strategy-2020/submission-191.pdf">we rely on</a> is cyber-resilient. When breaches occur, organisations must be prepared to resolve them and restore services. </p>
<p>Banks are a good example, as they rely on thousands of suppliers. On this front, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority last year introduced a prudential standard called <a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/sites/default/files/cps_234_july_2019_for_public_release.pdf">CPS234</a>, aimed at improving resilience against information security incidents (including cyberattacks).</p>
<h2>3. Help small businesses</h2>
<p>More <strong>grants and tax incentives</strong> for <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-strategy-2020/submission-121.pdf">small businesses</a> will enable them to access technology and talent to improve their cybersecurity capabilities. </p>
<p>A coordinated approach is needed through all levels of government to raise awareness of the adverse impacts cyberattacks have on businesses. This includes the consequences of customer data and privacy breaches. </p>
<p>It’s also crucial businesses know where to independently seek <strong>clear and concise advice</strong> when required. </p>
<h2>4. Nurture the talent pipeline</h2>
<p>Almost every day I hear about the industry’s cybersecurity <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/cyber-strategy-2020/submission-182.pdf">skills</a> <a href="https://www.aisa.org.au/Public/Training_Pages/Research/AISA%20Cyber%20security%20skills%20shortage%20research.aspx?New_ContentCollectionOrganizerCommon=2">shortage</a>. I also hear from students how tough it can be to get a job in cybersecurity, even with any number of <a href="https://i.redd.it/yo33xlys53141.png">certifications</a>.</p>
<p>It’s easy for businesses to poach existing talent from other organisation rather than hire graduates or interns. To break this cycle, we need <strong>improved educational courses</strong> focused on the skills employers want. </p>
<p>There should also be incentives for businesses to employ interns and graduates.</p>
<h2>5. Cut the bureaucratic red tape</h2>
<p>The federal government needs to do more to address Australia’s cybersecurity problem holistically – not just with additional legislation and funding for existing government agencies. </p>
<p>Hierarchies and dealings within the sector are currently <a href="https://www.patrickfair.com/australian-cyber-infrastructure-cha">overly complex</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Simplification</strong> and common sense are required. </p>
<hr>
<p>Protecting Australians from outside parties intent on exploiting the technology we use isn’t something we can achieve overnight. </p>
<p>The digital cybersecurity strategy to be delivered by the Morrison Government needs to not only be impactful, but also built with future governments in mind. In such volatile times, it has never been more important to protect Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damien Manuel is affiliated with AISA (Australian Information Security Association) as the chair, Oceania Cyber Security Centre (OCSC) as a director (representing Deakin University), mentor for CyRise founders (representing Deakin University), CompTIA as an exam writer and on the CompTIA Executive Advisory Committee in the USA and as an expert on the Standards Australia Committee for Information Security (IT-012).</span></em></p>Legislation expected to be put to Parliament later this year may very well fall short due to COVID-19’s budget impacts. But until we strengthen our cyber defences, we’re all at risk.Damien Manuel, Director, Centre for Cyber Security Research & Innovation (CSRI), Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1114502019-02-14T10:24:35Z2019-02-14T10:24:35ZWhy India’s Hindu nationalists worship Israel’s nation-state model<p>India’s Hindu nationalists and the Israeli right have a remarkable mutual affinity. Binyamin Netanyahu <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Politics/NXcGk3YkatXaVuMJuBnssM/Modi-in-Israel-Day-1-Live-Narendra-Modi-arrives-in-Tel-Aviv.html">welcomed</a> Narendra Modi to Israel in 2017 with these words: “Prime Minister Modi, we have been waiting for you for a long time, almost 70 years … We view you as a kindred spirit.” </p>
<p>The two premiers, both battling for re-election in spring 2019, share a warm rapport, and <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1059842760159694849?lang=en">regularly refer to each</a> other on Twitter as “my friend Narendra” and “my friend Bibi.”</p>
<p>The Modi-Bibi bonhomie rests on much more than personal chemistry, or even the Israeli military-industrial complex’s <a href="https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-trip-comes-as-israel-india-defense-tech-ties-continue-to-grow/">significant role</a> in servicing Indian needs. It is rooted in the profound admiration of generations of Hindu nationalists for Zionism and its product, Israel, whose model of nation-state they seek to emulate in India. </p>
<p>Indian secularists often claim that the Hindu nationalists intend to turn India into a Hindu version of Pakistan. This is not wrong. Just as Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s politics fused religion, nation and state, so does “Hindutva”, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-the-origins-of-todays-hindu-nationalism-55092">political ideology</a> of Hindu nationalism born in the 1920s.</p>
<p>But the Pakistan analogy is limited. For more than 60 years, Pakistan has been a state dominated by the military. India is a highly evolved democracy. It has always been inconceivable that an equivalent of Zia-ul Haq, the Islamist military dictator who ruled Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, could appear in India and “Hinduise” the state. The intent of Hindu nationalism to remake India therefore needs to be pursued, and accomplished, in a way compatible with a democratic polity.</p>
<p>The prototype exists of a form of state which is simultaneously democratic and supremacist: Israel. Israel was a self-described “Jewish and democratic state” until July 2018, when the right-wing majority in its parliament <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-votes-contentious-jewish-nation-state-bill-into-law/">narrowly won a vote</a> to further tighten Israel’s identity to “the nation-state of the Jewish people, which respects the rights of all its citizens”. The revision reflects the ascendancy of hardliners and extremists in Israeli politics.</p>
<h2>Affinity for Zionism and Israel</h2>
<p>Successive generations of Hindu nationalists – from Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), who coined and elaborated the Hindutva concept, to Modi today – have professed a deep affinity for Israel. Savarkar <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vrxsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA275&lpg=PA275&dq=If+the+Zionists%E2%80%99+dreams+are+ever+realised+savarkar&source=bl&ots=wmqqu6fcg7&sig=ACfU3U0lZHiSJZq2nAhx0YmQ4MsiM6g9XA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9jPfWkKzgAhUF6aQKHcvyDCsQ6AEwC3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=If%20the%20Zionists%E2%80%99%20dreams%20are%20ever%20realised%20savarkar&f=false">wrote</a> in the 1920s: “If the Zionists’ dreams are ever realised – if Palestine becomes a Jewish state – it will gladden us almost as much as our Jewish friends.” </p>
<p>In late 1947, Savarkar was very upset when the Indian delegate in the UN General Assembly argued for a binational Arab-Jewish state in Palestine and voted against the proposal to partition Palestine into a larger Jewish state and a smaller Arab state. </p>
<p>Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906-73), who steered the Hindu nationalist movement in post-independence India as the chief of the volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), wrote in the late 1930s that the Zionist movement exemplified his own “five unities” framing of Indian nationhood: “The Jews had maintained their race, religion, culture and language, and all they wanted was their natural territory to complete their nationality.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257976/original/file-20190208-174861-1mm0x2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Israel: model for a type of ethnic democracy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-ultra-orthodox-jews-yeshiva-students-376429960?src=fslvwYZcAgXxvYi6IvgUiQ-1-35">Nina Mikryukova/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ethnic democracy as the shared ideal</h2>
<p>It is Jewish Israeli scholars who have explicated the paradigm of “ethnic democracy”, using the case of their own country. One such scholar, Sammy Smooha <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1469-8219.00062">defined ethnic democracy</a> as “an alternative non-civic form of democratic state that is identified with and subservient to a single ethnic nation.” He said this is “best exemplified by Israel”, which is “based on Jewish and Zionist hegemony and the structural subordination of the Arab minority” – who are currently <a href="https://brookdale.jdc.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MJB_Facts_and_Figures_on_the_Arab_Population_in_Israel_2018-English.pdf">20% of the population</a> of the Jewish state. Propelling this is an ideology, Smooha says, that “makes a crucial distinction between members and non-members of the ethnic nation”. Non-members are seen as undesirable and threatening – as agents of biological dilution, demographic swamping, cultural degeneration, security risks, and even as a fifth column for enemy states. </p>
<p>This is the typical Hindu nationalist perspective on India’s Muslims who, at <a href="https://www.census2011.co.in/religion.php">just under 15%</a> of the population, are India’s largest religious minority.</p>
<p>The distinction made between members and non-members of the nation underlies a very controversial amendment to India’s citizenship laws that has been strongly pushed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government since 2016. The <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/what-is-the-citizenship-amendment-bill-2016/article23999348.ece">proposed legislation</a> would confer Indian citizenship on members of designated religious minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians) from three Muslim-majority countries in India’s neighbourhood – Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – who have settled in India without legal status. </p>
<p>So, Hindus and other non-Muslims from these countries would have a fast track to Indian citizenship, the argument being that they are victims of religious persecution. The proposed law is, in a more limited scope, analogous to the Israeli <a href="http://www.jewishagency.org/first-steps/program/5131">policy</a> of promoting migration of Jews from across the world to Israel. It sends an unmistakable signal of who are preferred as citizens and who are viewed as undesirables.</p>
<h2>India as a clone of Israel?</h2>
<p>Ethnic democracies do not totally exclude or disenfranchise the citizens viewed as undesirables. Israeli Arabs are entitled to cultural and religious rights. Arabic is officially recognised (though the July 2018 revision asserted the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/middleeast/israel-law-jews-arabic.html">primacy of Hebrew</a>), and usually around 10% of the Knesset’s members are Israeli Arabs. Still, a range of formal and informal policies ensure that the Arab community mostly remains ghettoised in deprived enclaves, relegated to what is in effect second-class citizenship.</p>
<p>Israel is not the only example of an ethnic democracy. There is Sri Lanka, where the post-colonial state was captured by majoritarian Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism from 1956 onward. There is Croatia, since 2013 a member-state of the European Union. It <a href="http://constitution.org/cons/croatia.htm">proclaimed independence in 1991</a> as: “The national state of the Croatian people, and a state of other nations and minorities who are its citizens.”</p>
<p>What ethnic democracies do is to create a de facto but very real hierarchy of citizenship, in which some are full, first-class citizens and others are second class – at best. The current Hindu nationalist movement is remarkably faithful to the ideological creed laid down by its pioneers Savarkar and Golwalkar eight decades ago. In 1938, Savarkar <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vrxsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA264&lpg=PA264&dq=the+Hindus+are+the+Nation+in+India+and+the+Muslim+minority+a+community%22+just+as+%22the+Germans+are+the+Nation+in+Germany+and+the+Jews+a+community+savarkar&source=bl&ots=wmqqxac6a6&sig=ACfU3U2nYa2iSSxFhshNLRN_MomTpGMtjg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwpaLS9bXgAhUvVBUIHRozAQsQ6AEwBHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20Hindus%20are%20the%20Nation%20in%20India%20and%20the%20Muslim%20minority%20a%20community%22%20just%20as%20%22the%20Germans%20are%20the%20Nation%20in%20Germany%20and%20the%20Jews%20a%20community%20savarkar&f=false">declared</a> that “the Hindus are the Nation in India and the Moslem minority a community” just as “the Turks are the Nation in Turkey and the Arab or the Armenian minority a community.” Golwalkar <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vrxsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA217&dq=may+stay+in+the+country,+wholly+subordinated+to+the+Hindu+nation+sumantra+bose&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir74Ov9rrgAhU3VBUIHSzyCyYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=may%20stay%20in%20the%20country%2C%20wholly%20subordinated%20to%20the%20Hindu%20nation%20sumantra%20bose&f=false">wrote</a> in 1938: “The non-Hindu people of Hindustan … may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation.”</p>
<p>The type of “democratic” state exemplified by Israel – and not Pakistan – is the model the Hindu nationalist movement, led by its core RSS organisation, aspires to establish in an Indian variant. But will its vision prevail? It’s far from certain that a 1.3 billion-strong country, defined culturally by multiple identities and politically by cross-cutting cleavages, can be turned into a giant-sized version of Israel, Croatia, or Sri Lanka.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111450/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sumantra Bose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The bonhomie between Narendra Modi and Binyamin Netanyahu is rooted in the admiration of generations of Hindu nationalists for Israel.Sumantra Bose, Professor of International and Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1077882019-01-07T03:53:55Z2019-01-07T03:53:55ZThe far-right may think they own ‘nationalism’, but we can reclaim it as a force for good<p>We see the word “nationalism” as problematic. The weekend rally on St Kilda beach, organised by far-right activist Neil Erikson, reminds us nationalism is the territory of fringe groups who hold bigoted views, particularly towards people who aren’t “white”.</p>
<p>Nationalism <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nationalism">means</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We often think about nationalism in these terms. To be a nationalist means loving your own country in a strident manner while being fairly suspicious of people in other countries.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Global_Rise_of_Populism.html?id=2AgXDAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">The global rise of populism</a> and the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006">solid electoral gains</a> made by far-right and xenophobic parties across the Western world seems to have underscored the association between nationalism and the base and aggressive in human politics. </p>
<p>Yet, is it possible to simply turf out nationalism? Beyond its ideological connotations, nationalism rests on one of the most important elements shaping modern social life: we live in a world of nations. </p>
<p>We often under-estimate the power of nationalism in contemporary societies, as well as the variety of roles – not all conservative and problematic — it plays as a social and political force.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/far-right-groups-may-be-diverse-but-heres-what-they-all-have-in-common-101919">‘Far right’ groups may be diverse – but here's what they all have in common</a>
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<h2>How multicultural groups use nationalism</h2>
<p>Australian nationalism may have come to be associated with right-wing groups such as Reclaim Australia. But multicultural communities often publicly frame their distinctive identities in terms of national belonging and participation in the life of the nation. </p>
<p>They may not always march under the flag — <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/mandarin/en/article/2015/10/29/australians-positive-multiculturalism-worried-about-terrorism-scanlon-report">though sometimes they do</a> — but they regularly appeal to a national “we”. My research has <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Multicultural-Politics-of-Recognition-and-Postcolonial-Citizenship-Rethinking/Busbridge/p/book/9781138659728">explored how multicultural communities</a> in Australia invoke the national language of their new country while advocating for their unique needs and cultural differences. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248367/original/file-20181203-194947-1aqpop6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Although flags are often associated with right-wing groups, they are also embraced by new citizens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sophie Moore/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Irrespective of our personal politics, we participate in the idea of nationalism when we identify ourselves as “Australian”, talk about “United States” politics or expect to encounter cultural differences at the airport.</p>
<p>Some say we should use the word “patriotism” as a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.in/sudhanva-d-shetty/patriotism-nationalism-a-_b_9354822.html">softer</a> alternative. While still guided by a love and loyalty for country, a patriot’s passions are tempered by a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/to-mark-end-of-world-war-i-frances-macron-denounces-nationalism-as-a-betrayal-of-patriotism/2018/11/11/aab65aa4-e1ec-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.55445015098c">“spirit of cooperation”</a>.</p>
<p>Others say we should throw out any loyalty for country altogether, <a href="https://theconversation.com/breaking-the-shackles-of-the-national-mindset-in-a-polarised-world-90009">becoming instead cosmopolitanists</a> who celebrate a borderless common humanity, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-globalisation-try-localism-not-nationalism-86870">localists who prioritise</a> the interests of their immediate community.</p>
<p>But nationalism is not just a political ideology that demands the needs of the national group sit above those of outsiders. National loyalty doesn’t necessarily supersede any others while national interests trump all else. Nationalism is intertwined with the very idea of there being nations in the first place. </p>
<p>This is such a taken-for-granted reality, we often understand nations as stretching back to time immemorial when, in fact, they are only a couple of hundred years old – and most are far younger. </p>
<p>Modern nationalism has its roots in <a href="http://www.nationalismproject.org/what/greenfeld.htm">18th century European thought</a> and found its most powerful expressions in the French and American Revolutions. But it is only <a href="https://www.the-map-as-history.com/Decolonization-after-1945">since the end of the second world war</a> that the world transformed from one of empire and dominion to ostensibly independent nation-states.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bolsonaro-wins-brazil-election-promises-to-purge-leftists-from-country-105481">Bolsonaro wins Brazil election, promises to purge leftists from country</a>
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<p>Nations, of course, are real in the sense that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/05/demise-of-the-nation-state-rana-dasgupta">nation-state</a> continues to organise everything from schools, markets, bureaucracies and military, to the structures of citizenship. But the idea of the nation as a political community united by a distinctive culture is an imaginary construct. </p>
<p>The notion of nation confers an idea of horizontal membership and solidarity (rich or poor, we are all Australian) belied by vigorous and often violent struggles that take place under its rubric - as well as a <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/what-is-a-nation-and-other-political-writings/9780231174305">selective forgetting of history</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, their ubiquity in the modern social <a href="http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2015/04/23/imagining-imaginaries/">imagination</a> means <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Nations-Matter-Culture-History-and-the-Cosmopolitan-Dream/Calhoun/p/book/9780415411875">nations matter</a>. </p>
<h2>Why nations matter</h2>
<p>Nations matter because they provide identity, community and a sense of belonging for many people. In a world made smaller by globalisation, this is especially important to counter the sense of rootlessness and displacement. </p>
<p>Nations also matter precisely because of the things they promise yet fail to deliver. It isn’t possible to fulfil the national ideal of horizontal membership (Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart will never be neighbour to the average Joe), but the aspiration for equal participation and compulsion towards solidarity can make for powerful democratic fodder. </p>
<p>Historically, nationalism and the idea of popular rule was essential to the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7070.html">movement towards democracy</a>. Today, the idea of belonging to a nation continues to fashion social solidarity across differences, encourages mutual responsibility among citizens and allows people to commit to or participate in public institutions and projects.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247662/original/file-20181128-32233-12l0z9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The confederate flag implies a nationalism that sees white Americans as superior, and promotes slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Kelley-Wagner/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All this compels a more nuanced understanding of the roles and functions of nationalism in contemporary society. Rather than patronise “ordinary people” for their nationalist attachments, we would be well served to think about the democratic and progressive potential of nationalism.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/outrage-over-schoolgirl-refusing-to-stand-for-anthem-shows-rise-of-aggressive-nationalism-103160">Outrage over schoolgirl refusing to stand for anthem shows rise of aggressive nationalism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Trumps and Brexiters of the world are most certainly nationalists in the sense they organise around a “nation first” idea. But the political meanings of nationalism are not set in stone. Nationalism can take progressive forms that <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4745341/canada-nationalism-surveys/">prioritise connectedness and equity</a> rather than racism or white supremacy. </p>
<p>Nationalism can be used to <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/youssef-kodsy/anti-colonialism-grassroots-nationalism-their-impacts-on-international-">fight colonial domination</a> as much as enforce it.</p>
<p>Most importantly, nationalism needs to be understood as a driving ideology shaping our modern world. Grasping this is fundamental to understanding national community as more a political aspiration than a cultural given; something to achieve rather than something already fixed. </p>
<p>And this, in turn, is fundamental to refusing the claims of the far-right who would like to claim the nation for themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Busbridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While nationalism is a dirty word, we often underestimate the power of its ideal in contemporary societies. We live in a world of nations, which provide identity and belonging for many people.Rachel Busbridge, Lecturer in Sociology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900092018-03-29T20:55:52Z2018-03-29T20:55:52ZBreaking the shackles of the national mindset in a polarised world<p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/revolutions-and-counter-revolutions-49124">Revolutions and Counter Revolutions</a> series, curated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> as a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> between the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a> and The Conversation. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Politics today is characterised by polarisation. To be able to choose between two clearly demarcated opposing positions has come to be perceived as truly “<a href="http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/wie-soziale-medien-deutschland-regieren-kolumne-a-1179722.html">having a choice</a>”. Reflection and compromise are seen as admitting weakness, defeat, and even a betrayal of one’s position.</p>
<p>From Donald Trump to Brexit, this polarised discourse is built on the distinction between “the national” and a threat from the outside. </p>
<p>What threatens “the nation-state [as] the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-speech/trumps-washington-foreign-policy-speech-idUSKCN0XO2ID">true foundation for happiness and harmony</a>” in Trump’s US is “the global”. It is personified in the “<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?424154-1/president-trump-holds-rally-melbourne-florida">global elite</a>” and “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/01/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord">foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense</a>”. </p>
<p>In the case of Brexit, it is the European Union and, more generally, “the powerful” against whom “the rest” had to “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/the-european-elite-forgot-that-democracy-is-the-one-thing-britai/">assert their rights</a>”. </p>
<p>What’s being invoked here is the idea that societies equal nation-states, neat containers that can be closed and so hold the possibility of retreat to “the inside”. </p>
<p>A lot of energy is invested in challenging this discourse and the political imagination that underpins it. Some criticism is on practical grounds (like showing why Trump’s “<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/830405706255912960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au%2Fworld%2Fdonald-trump-vows-to-cut-cost-of-216-billion-wall-on-mexicos-border-20170212-guav8p.html">great border wall</a>” “<a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-wall-wont-work">won’t work</a>”) as well as normative grounds (such as demonstrating that nationalism is “<a href="https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2016/12/26/why-is-nationalism-dangerous/">dangerous”, “leads to internal fragmentation” and might foster “immoral, unlawful, or destructive” behaviour</a>). </p>
<p>More generally, under headings such as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-neo-nationalism-went-global-74095">How neo-nationalism went global</a>” and “<a href="https://sees.uq.edu.au/article/2017/03/trump-and-brexit-won%E2%80%99t-kill-globalisation-%E2%80%93-we%E2%80%99re-too-far">Trump and Brexit won’t kill globalisation – we’re too far in</a>”, we find much discussion of what the restyling of politics means for the world, the international order and the global market.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210714/original/file-20180316-104694-1onvwqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We struggle to conceive of our rights and interests as a society outside the framework of the nation-state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/27792525851/">diamond geezer/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And yet this critical engagement still does not adequately tackle what lies at the heart of our political imagination: the unquestioned presumption that societies are discrete units that exist in an international system and are under threat by “outside forces” such as globalisation or “Europeanisation”.</p>
<p>We have not properly dealt with the fact that this equation of society and the nation-state – and the dichotomy it represents between “the national” and some kind of “outside” – also runs through much of the criticism that aims to counter Trump et al’s rhetoric.</p>
<p>As is most obvious in debates about the potential “death of globalisation” or the “return of the nation-state”, even the critique of the current restyling of politics more often than not (inadvertently) reproduces this framing. We find ourselves producing (critical) knowledge from within the parameters of the very political imagination that we intend to understand, scrutinise and counter.</p>
<p>What is needed is a break with established, counterproductive parameters. This requires efforts to find a different, pre-analytic vision that enables us not just to see new things in the world but to see and explore a new world altogether. </p>
<h2>Another way of seeing the world</h2>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Beck">Ulrich Beck</a> provides the theoretical ground for such a vision. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/06/ulrich-beck">Beck</a> was probably best known for his widely cited 1986 book <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/risk-society/book203184">Risk Society</a> (<em>Risikogesellschaft</em>).</p>
<p>“Risk society” is often understood to be a concept that draws a dark, pessimistic picture of a world of increasing risks, threats and dangers. Beck is taken to be a risk scholar or theorist of risk. Neither of these understandings is fully accurate.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210726/original/file-20180316-104694-1qojrcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ulrich Beck’s concern was that we live in a world different from the one in which we think.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beck.png#/media/File:Beck-St-Gallen-Symposium.png">International Students’ Committee/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beck’s use of the word risk in “risk society” is actually an attempt to deconstruct the idea of risk and question the usefulness of its application in sociopolitical contexts. The invented German word <em>Risikogesellschaft</em>, combining the words <em>Risiko</em> and <em>Gesellschaft</em>, is meant to signal that these two concepts are no longer adequate means<a href="https://www.br.de/mediathek/video/alpha-forum-ulrich-beck-soziologe-ludwig-maximilians-universitaet-muenchen-av:585d9f983e2f290012951e0f"> by which to grasp social reality</a>.</p>
<p>Beck’s wider social theory does not capture the decline of modern society but rather the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2004.00084.x/abstract">ambivalence</a> of today’s social reality.</p>
<p>Far from setting out to present a dark picture of the world, Beck was driven by optimism. He tried to escape the pessimism that he felt was shaping social theorisation by establishing the thesis that this pessimism is the flipside of the dogmatic use of established but inadequate concepts. </p>
<p>As Stephen Bronner <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10455759509358622">put it</a>, Beck’s main conviction was that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We live in a world … different from the one in which we think. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This brings us to the pre-analytic vision that Beck provides. The notion that societies are neat and contained nation-states, together with the narrative of modernity and progress, is one of the most powerful convictions in politics and the academy. </p>
<p>When held by political actors, Beck calls it a “national perspective” (<em>nationaler Blick</em>). In regard to the academy, he <a href="https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/cosmopolitan-outlook-how-european-project-can-be-saved">speaks of</a> “methodological nationalism”. </p>
<p>The “national reality” that follows from the “national perspective” and “methodological nationalism” is the reality in which we think, according to Beck, but not the one in which we live. </p>
<p>This view does not overlook or deny the relevance of the belief in “the national” or the reality of the power of nation-states. But it does set them into the context of an entirely different world by stepping out of the naturalised reality of the “national perspective” and “methodological nationalism”.</p>
<h2>The ‘cosmopolitised’ alternative</h2>
<p>This different world – the “<a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68703/">cosmopolitised world</a>” – is a social reality shaped by three aspects:</p>
<p>1) <strong>Cosmopolitisation</strong>. This term captures the enmeshment of lived realities, horizons of expectation and horizons of experience that takes place independently of national borders (again, without overlooking or denying the brutal reality of borders). This cosmopolitisation of societies is not a conscious and intended process triggered by ideals of “cosmopolitanism”, but a side effect of actions aimed at other ends.</p>
<p>A good example is Nigel Farage’s almost 20-year-long <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4525/NIGEL_FARAGE_home.html">service in the European Parliament</a> as part of his exclusionary, national political project. To be successful with an exclusionary anti-EU doctrine, a seat in the European Parliament is necessary. This, however, inadvertently <a href="https://vimeo.com/136506290">fuels the reality of cosmopolitisation</a> and, as such, makes it “irreversible”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/136506290" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ulrich Beck speaks on the topic How the European Project Can Be Saved.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>2) <strong>Global risk.</strong> This is the second aspect that shapes the cosmopolitised reality in which we live. The term <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeKiD5JLGIE">global risk</a> does not <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118442975.ch4/summary">refer to risk</a> as it is usually understood – that is, to the imagination of future calculable side effects (good or bad) of decisions/actions in the now. Rather, it refers to the potential consequences of distinct decisions. </p>
<p>These “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026327692009001006?journalCode=tcsa">industrial techno-economic decisions and considerations of utility</a>” are grounded in modern institutions and principles, such as freedom, statehood, and market dependency. These have “peaceful origins in the centres of rationality and prosperity with the blessings of the guarantors of law and order”, as Beck puts it.</p>
<p>Crucially, they constitute the very <em>success</em> of modernisation, progress and advancement in scientific knowledge production – but, for instance, these achievements have led to the fact that humanity is faced with climate change. </p>
<p>Finally, the potential consequences of techno-industrial decisions, global risks, are to be seen as potentially producing non-knowledge (<em>Nichtwissen</em>) – that is, things that are unknowable.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PeKiD5JLGIE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ulrich Beck talks about living in and coping with world risk society.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Taking these points together, industrial, techno-economic decisions need to be thought of as potentially producing consequences that cannot be captured and calculated with the notion of risk as we know it. Therefore, such decisions cannot be grounded in a national container thinking. </p>
<p>Given the nature of global risks, the cosmopolitised reality entails a borderless necessity of co-operation (<em>Kooperationszwang</em>) and interrelated responsibility (<em>Verantwortungszusammenhang</em>).</p>
<p>In other words, it is a reality in which the “global other” is inevitably implicated in the decisions of other “global others”. This is so even if social actors are not aware of this or are caught up in the world of the “national perspective”/“methodological nationalism” – a world in which it seems perfectly possible to “externalise” undesired consequences to parts of the world <a href="https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/externalisierungsgesellschaft">beyond national borders</a>.</p>
<p>3) <strong>Inherent uncertainty</strong>. The third aspect that shapes the cosmopolitised reality follows from the above point. It results from the ambivalence between contemporary horizons of expectations and experiences on the one hand and modern principles and institutions on the other. </p>
<p>Beck captures this in his take on the theory of <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=2440">reflexive modernisation</a>, where basic modern principles (freedom, statehood, market dependency etc) and institutions (family, state etc) are radicalised in the process of modernisation itself. </p>
<p>This occurs because they are confronted with the side effects of modernisation (climate change and nuclear disasters etc), which, as suggested above, are not the dark side of modernisation but the products of its very success; they are consequences of intended behaviour. </p>
<p>As such, modernisation itself undermines its own institutions and principles, because of the side effects they generate.</p>
<p>Two points follow from the above vision of the world.</p>
<p>First, institutions that are imagined and designed from within the world of the “national perspective” or “methodological nationalism”, including national environmental departments, are not just ill equipped for dealing with the actual (as opposed to potential) consequences, such as climate change, of past techno-economic decisions, but also produce global risks. </p>
<p>Beck calls them <a href="http://www.zeit.de/2000/15/200015.beck_sennett_.xml">zombie institutions</a>; they seem to be alive but are actually dead – and yet they have a profound impact on our lives and planet.</p>
<p>Second, “the national” is always already the product of cosmopolitisation. Recent moves, such as Brexit and Make America Great Again, need to be seen not only as “the defensive impulses of those who <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745633986.html">think in nation-state categories</a>” in a cosmopolitised reality, but as the very product of cosmopolitisation. </p>
<p>At the same time, these moves are (inevitably and inadvertently) fuelling the reality of cosmopolitisation – be it through obsessive social-media engagements with issues, events and people around the world, or through serving in the European Parliament to achieve Brexit.</p>
<h2>Let’s get uncomfortable</h2>
<p>In a political environment shaped by polarisation and <a href="https://theconversation.com/navigating-the-post-truth-debate-some-key-co-ordinates-77000">post-truth discourse</a>, the question is not only what role there is for academic knowledge production, but what kind of academic knowledge is needed. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-robert-de-niro-theory-of-post-truth-are-you-talking-to-me-87606">recent Conversation article</a>, Colin Wight points to academia’s responsibility for the turn towards post-truth attitudes. He demands that academics “re-examine and reinvigorate the Enlightenment impulse” and “recover [their] commitment to objective truth” – understood “as something that exists but which no one possesses” – as the ground for claims to justice.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the concept of objective truth is moved into the dustbin of history there can be no lies. And if there are no lies there can be no justice, no rights and no wrongs, the issue is not that we all make […] universal truth claims; it is that in embracing epistemological positions that tend towards relativism, we have denied ourselves a secure ground on which to defend them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I would add that the academy also has an obligation to slow down, scrutinise and re-invent the pre-analytic visions on which analyses have been grounded “naturally” for so long and which have come to underlie and animate an explosive political reality. </p>
<p>Beck’s cosmopolitised vision is a promising starting point for such a reinvention. It not only <em>challenges</em> the either/or thinking that drives political imaginations today, but <em>replaces</em> the either/or with a “both/and” (“<em>sowohl-als-auch</em>”). That is, it provides a productive different starting point. It’s a pre-analytic vision with parameters that enable us to ask different questions.</p>
<p>Instead of spending energy asking if we are experiencing a “return of the nation-state” or where “the pendulum [that] <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c497caf2-205a-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c">swings between globalisation and the nation state</a>” is located and, with that, reproducing an imagined world of oppositions, the task is to explore empirically the nature of the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0967010616647859">cosmopolitised national</a> in particular and the cosmopolitised reality in general, with <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13669877.2017.1359203">their distinct dynamics and actors</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210737/original/file-20180316-104671-1fmbj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sign of a cosmopolitised world?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/50451886@N00/2502594771/">Marco Bellucci/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>None of this is easy. The cosmopolitised world is an uncomfortable place in which to do research. It’s not just about seeing new things in the world from an established and secure vantage point, but rather setting out to explore a new world altogether – by starting somewhere different.</p>
<p>The new world is an uncomfortable place for scholars because it demands thinking beyond linearity. And, as Nina Degele <a href="http://www.springer.com/de/book/9783531169835">observes</a>, “serious social scientists do not like the idea of ‘both/and’ ”. </p>
<p>It’s uncomfortable because it requires us to invent – from within it – a completely new language to grasp it. It requires academic knowledge production that takes risks by being flexible, explorative, creative and, to some degree, provisional. </p>
<p>In his last <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745690211.html">“unfinished” book</a>, Beck uses the concept “metamorphosis” to deal with this challenge. As he <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0967010616647859">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the state of total change we try to think this change. This is difficult, hence, we cannot appear with full confidence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I believe, in the face of fierce polarisation, academic knowledge production needs to get uncomfortable to open up new horizons for imagining and acting in the world.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/revolutions-and-counter-revolutions-49124">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sabine Selchow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea that societies equal nation-states, neat containers that can be closed off from outside threats, is powerful. The nationalist paradigm even has a hold over many critics of its politics.Sabine Selchow, Research Fellow, ARC Laureate Program in International History, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/819622017-08-03T09:27:43Z2017-08-03T09:27:43ZHow does a country become a country? An expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180750/original/file-20170802-6912-18ien83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Time for a redesign?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/VVgVlH1D10U">Slava Bowman/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Within the space of a week this autumn, the people of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/09/catalonia-calls-independence-referendum-for-october-spain">Catalonia</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-40191713">Kurdistan</a> will be asked if they want to live in an independent country. If these two referendums result in declarations of independence, what happens next? It may seem straightforward that Kurdistan, Catalonia, or even both would become the world’s newest countries. But it’s not that simple.</p>
<p>International law states that people have the right to determine their own destiny, including political status. Our right of self-determination is enshrined in the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-i/index.html">UN Charter</a>, and clarified in the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>. This could be taken as the right to have sovereign statehood recognised by the international community. However, it’s most often interpreted as the right of a population to determine how they are governed and who governs them. In other words, self-determination in today’s world most often pertains to choices within an existing country rather than as a path to new statehood. </p>
<p>This is partly because the laws on self-determination were mostly written during the period of decolonisation. That historical context cannot be ignored when interpreting their purpose. During that time, colonial powers were taking steps towards dismantling their empires. They had become expensive to maintain and political pressure was growing within the colonies themselves.</p>
<h2>Creating a country</h2>
<p>Another complicating factor in setting up a country is the fact that, for one territory to become a new state, another already existing sovereign state must lose some of its territory. That would violate the laws and norms of territorial integrity. These are some of the <a href="https://pesd.princeton.edu/?q=node/271">oldest and most steadfast rules</a> underpinning the international system. </p>
<p>Recognition of a new state essentially means legally recognising the transfer of sovereignty over a territory from one authority to another. An international body, including the UN, cannot just take away territory without the permission of the original “host” state. To do so would be a violation of one of the defining rules of the system of states.</p>
<p>Kosovo, for example, declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but even to this day it doesn’t have sovereign statehood – despite more than half of the UN’s member states recognising its independence. This is largely because Serbia still claims sovereign control over the territory, although <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/opinion/kosovo-feels-russias-heavy-hand-via-serbia.html?_r=0">other factors</a> are certainly also at play. In the same way, Iraq would have to relinquish sovereign control over territory in order for Kurdistan to become a state.</p>
<p>There are obvious competing and contradicting legal principles here. In at least <a href="http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/dicc/dicc.html">one instance</a>, these contradictions appear together within the same law. Indeed, what we find is that there is no clear legal path to obtaining sovereign statehood. There is also no legally established mechanism for who determines whether a territory becomes a sovereign state. So we have to look at previous examples to work out how it’s done. </p>
<p>The world’s most recent states are South Sudan, which was recognised in 2011 and East Timor, which was recognised in 2002. In the early 1990s, there was a wave of new states due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1993, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36358235">Eritrea</a> also became a state after a decades-long war with Ethiopia, which had annexed Eritrea in 1962. Prior to that, the world’s new states emerged out of the shifting or collapse of empires, most notable with the end of colonialism.</p>
<p>For East Timor and South Sudan, and in many ways Eritrea, statehood was part of attempts to resolve another problem: violent conflict. In all three cases, the host state (Indonesia for East Timor; Sudan for South Sudan; Ethiopia for Eritrea) agreed to relinquish control of the territory as part of negotiated peace agreements. </p>
<p>All of these new states obtained sovereignty after the disappearance of their former sovereign power, or with the permission of their former sovereign power. What they all have in common is that they became states in order to resolve some kind of problem, meaning there was some international benefit to their recognition. For the world’s newest states, their recognition was more of a political act than a legally defined process.</p>
<h2>When is a state recognised as independent?</h2>
<p>Although it’s not clearly laid out in law, a territory essentially becomes a sovereign state when its independence is recognised by the United Nations. As the largest and most inclusive multilateral organisation, its sanctioning of sovereign statehood makes sense.</p>
<p>But while procedures for admitting new members are clearly laid out in the Charter and in the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/about/ropga/adms.shtml">rules of the UN</a>, these rules pertain to new members that are already sovereign states. Yet again there is ambiguity in the process that aspiring states must go through in order to become sovereign. </p>
<p>Becoming an internationally recognised sovereign country is not a clear or straightforward process. In many ways, it is determined by power and the international political climate of the day. And a surprising number of entities exist as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-getting-online-in-countries-that-dont-exist-21399">unrecognised states</a>, many for decades, without recognition of sovereignty.</p>
<p>If Catalonia or Kurdistan declare their independence this autumn, they may get sovereign statehood if their host states agree. If not, though, they could choose to declare their independence, and to exist as an unrecognised state indefinitely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Catalonia and Kurdistan are both holding referendums on independence this year. But is it that simple to break free?Rebecca Richards, Lecturer in International Relations, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/736882017-03-06T00:17:35Z2017-03-06T00:17:35ZTrump and Brexit won’t kill globalisation – we’re too far in<p>In Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-address-to-congress-boasts-of-new-national-pride-sweeping-nation-053605117.html">long-awaited address</a> to Congress, he said a “new national pride” was “sweeping across” the nation. He went on:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What we are witnessing today is the renewal of the American spirit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With Trump’s electoral victory, as well as the Brexit vote, many of the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/globalization-is-here-to-stay-says-panama-canal-ceo-1477494238">assumptions</a> underlying <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/video/obama-globalization-is-here-to-stay-721921603992">the future of globalisation</a> have been put into question.</p>
<p>This, together with the rise of Pauline Hanson’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/indonesia-concerned-over-one-nations-rising-popularity/8298662">One Nation</a> in Australia and other <a>populist parties in Europe</a>, indicates <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/us/politics/in-time-of-discord-bashing-trade-pacts-appeals-to-both-parties.html?_r=1">large components</a> of the voting population want trade relations severed, borders enforced, and refugees more tightly screened. </p>
<p>So are we witnessing the reversal of decades of globalisation and moving back toward the nation-state as a political and economic ideal?</p>
<h2>A challenge to globalisation</h2>
<p>The term globalisation has been ascribed to capture the improved connectivity between people and places. It’s driven by enhanced trade, mobility, migration, and human interaction that is generally global in scope. </p>
<p>Globalisation is one of the many processes associated with neoliberalism. This is a political and economic doctrine that, since at least the 1970s, has privileged privatisation, liberalisation, and market-oriented logic. It is also strongly associated with “free” trade and reducing barriers to the movement of goods and labour within and between countries.</p>
<p>Several political structures tied to globalisation have challenged the nation-state as the primary political unit. International bodies such as the United Nations, and multi-national blocs such as the European Union, serve to break down barriers between countries through large-scale political regulation.</p>
<p>Trans-border agencies and public-private partnerships have performed much of what nation-states cannot accomplish on their own, as have non-governmental and non-profit organisations. </p>
<p>The rise of multinational corporations in the second half of the 20th century has also posed a series of challenges to nation-states. Annual revenues of some corporations <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/15/these-25-companies-are-more-powerful-than-many-countries-multinational-corporate-wealth-power/">exceed the GDP</a> of many medium-sized countries.</p>
<h2>A return to the nation-state?</h2>
<p>The current political turn reflects a significant counter trend to globalisation. Instead of being broken down, national borders are being reinforced. Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall on the southern border and the UK vote to re-erect barriers to movement across the English Channel represent a stark shift away from globalisation. </p>
<p>Reacting to concerns about “illegal” migrants, and the well-rehearsed arguments about immigrants <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/487645/Migrants-take-British-workers-jobs-says-official-study">“taking our jobs”</a>, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/">largely white</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/eu-referendum-how-the-results-compare-to-the-uks-educated-old-an/">older voters</a> favour inhibiting human movement. Populist politicians are attempting to mitigate the “haemorrhaging” of <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/31/news/economy/mexico-us-globalization-wage-gap/">jobs across borders</a>.</p>
<p>Multiculturalism is being rejected rather than embraced. Driven by the elusive idea nation-states are defined by demographic and cultural uniformity, political nationalism has become a dominant rhetorical device. </p>
<p>The concept of what it means to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/world/europe/european-union-britain-brexit-voters-english.html">“British”</a>, <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/trump-race-white-america-identity-crisis-214178">“American”</a> and Australian in popular imagination has re-emerged as an important topic. </p>
<p>There are serious efforts to redefine the national economy, pushing back against the perceived encroachment of global interests. Trump’s abandonment of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/us/politics/in-time-of-discord-bashing-trade-pacts-appeals-to-both-parties.html?_r=0">Trans-Pacific Partnership</a> parallels the UK’s withdrawal from the continental customs union. </p>
<p>The assumption underlying the “Make America Great Again” campaign was that the domestic US economy was, at some point, a contained territory generating great wealth that had somehow been eroded from the outside.</p>
<p>So is it true? Are we actually witnessing something more significant than an electoral aberration? Will there be a long-term move away from globalisation?</p>
<h2>Probably not</h2>
<p>Several signs actually point to no. The populist trend <a href="https://theconversation.com/america-has-never-been-truly-isolationist-and-trump-isnt-either-71689">is reflective</a> of dissatisfaction with domestic affairs rather than a sustained disengagement with the rest of the world.</p>
<p>While public sentiment regarding changing national identity or political and economic power is very real, de-globalisation is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>We have yet to see a wall being built in Arizona, and a “soft Brexit” may be the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-soft-brexit-is-in-the-interest-of-both-london-and-brussels-67722">most desirable pathway</a> for the UK, given nearly half its good exports are to the EU. </p>
<p>A quick look at national demographic shifts in the US and UK suggests multiculturalism defines the present and future. <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/06/its-official-the-us-is-becoming-a-minority-majority-nation">US demographers are predicting</a> a “minority majority” in the next 40 years. The fact <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/tech-leaders-turn-on-trump-over-muslim-ban">Silicon Valley CEOs</a> have so vocally opposed the Trump administration’s “Muslim ban” demonstrates that aside from being unethical, xenophobia is actually bad for business.</p>
<p>A movement toward closed national economies would also be unattainable. Trump has lauded the <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/12/28/trump-says-sprint-is-bringing-5000-jobs-back-to-us/">“re-shoring”</a> of a few American jobs. But there is ample evidence <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/business/chinese-textile-mills-are-now-hiring-in-places-where-cotton-was-king.html">this was happening before 2016</a> as factory wages slowly equalise with those elsewhere. </p>
<p>Erecting tariff barriers is also likely to be futile, as the rest of the world continues to globalise at a rapid clip. Terms like “domestic” and “foreign” have become increasingly obscure, and for good reason: globalised economic networks ensure that various components of products are sourced from around the world. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.american.edu/kogod/autoindex/">US</a> “domestic” cars, for instance, often contain less than half American parts while “Japanese” cars are often comprised mainly of US parts and assembled in Kentucky or Ohio.</p>
<h2>Fixing internal affairs</h2>
<p>Clearly, many are unhappy with the current state of affairs in the US, UK, and elsewhere in the so-called liberal-democratic world – including Australia. But it is happening in spite of globalisation, not because of it. </p>
<p>Western political power has been slowly eroded in relative terms since the end of the Cold War. What disquiets the electorate is perhaps not the adverse effects of globalisation, but their countries’ position vis-à-vis the rest of the world. </p>
<p>Domestic issues, particularly the extreme <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-inequality-is-the-most-important-economic-challenge-facing-the-next-president-66806">economic polarisation</a> and inequality of the neoliberal era, are more likely to blame. Globalisation is here to stay, and the economic logic of openness will supersede any cultural or political nationalism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Sigler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People are unhappy with the current state of affairs – but this is happening despite globalisation, not because of it.Thomas Sigler, Lecturer in Human Geography, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/663572016-10-04T14:46:30Z2016-10-04T14:46:30ZBack to the 19th century: how language is being used to mark national borders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140285/original/image-20161004-20228-1dikkb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to a series of newspapers, immigrants will apparently change the English language in Britain beyond repair over the next 50 years. The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/09/28/th-sound-to-vanish-from-english-language-by-2066-because-of-mult/">Daily Telegraph</a>, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3812071/Will-regional-accents-die-Experts-predict-technology-cause-voices-change-50-years.html">Daily Mail</a> and the <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/715623/Queen-English-wiped-London-high-levels-immigration-2066-university-york-Dominic-Watt">Daily Express</a> have all run alarming stories on this topic. Language will change “because there are so many foreigners who struggle to pronounce” certain sounds, such “th” as in thin or this.</p>
<p>These claims follow a <a href="http://www.about.hsbc.co.uk/%7E/media/uk/en/news-and-media/160929-voice-biometrics-sounds-of-britain-2066.pdf?la=en-gb">recent report</a> by sociolinguist Dominic Watt at University of York and accent coach Brendan Gunn on how the English language is likely to change in Britain in the next few decades. The report suggests this will happen due to the increased use of technology and the growing cultural influence of London and the US. The report, however, didn’t mention immigration at all, let alone suggest that it may be the cause of English changing. So how were these newspapers able to turn a report on language change into anti-immigration pieces?</p>
<p>The answer lies in the way languages are understood, especially in the West. Consider the names of European languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, for example. Now consider the names of the countries where these languages are spoken: England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. And now consider, also, the names of the people living in those countries: the English, the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish. All these names suggest that there is an obvious and entirely natural bond between specific languages, their speakers and the territories that they inhabit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140288/original/image-20161004-30459-1v7q7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Says it on the tin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Calev/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Old-school thinking</h2>
<p>But this idea is far from obvious and hardly natural. In fact, it has its roots in 19th-century European nationalism. This ideology sprung from Romanticism, and at its centre was the conception that language was the most important factor that marked the identity of peoples. “Those who speak the same language are joined to each other by a multitude of invisible bonds by nature herself,” wrote Johann Gottlieb Fichte in his <a href="http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1806fichte.asp">Address to the German Nation in 1806</a>. This concept was later instrumental for the establishment of independent nation-states in post-Napoleonic Europe in the second half of the century.</p>
<p>But these forming nation states had a problem. In order for language to be the principal marker of national identity for them and their territories, they needed to be understood as having existed in those territories with their own recognisable and distinct characteristics (rules, words and sounds) for a very long time. But this is very far from the truth: <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/historical-linguistics/language-change-progress-or-decay-4th-edition?format=PB">languages are dynamic</a>, in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Alternative-Histories-of-English/Trudgill-Watts/p/book/9780415233576">constant flux</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-english-language-be-like-in-100-years-50284">mix with one another</a> very easily.</p>
<p>So, towards the end of the 19th century, at the height of European nationalism, histories of languages were created in order to demonstrate their primordial existence. For example, it was in the 1880s that language historians began to use the term “<a href="http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/old-english-an-overview/">Old English</a>” to refer to the assortment of languages used in Britain before the Norman Conquest. The obvious advantage of “Old English” over, say, “Anglo-Saxon” is that it clearly suggests that what is spoken now and what was spoken well over 1,000 years ago is fundamentally one and the same language. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"760181062584573956"}"></div></p>
<p>But, as any English speaker attempting to read any of the texts supposedly written in “Old English” will immediately realise, what the people living in England spoke 1,000 years ago was so different from contemporary English that it feels just like a foreign language to modern speakers. Yes, we may recognise the odd word here and there, but then so can we when we read contemporary French, Dutch or German. And yet, that strange-looking language began to be called “Old <em>English</em>”, in order to demonstrate linguistic continuity – and, with it, national identity – through the centuries. That 19-century understanding of languages has never really left us. </p>
<h2>The fear of multiculturalism</h2>
<p>For this reason, as many in Europe are looking for a firmer re-establishment of national borders, language is once again being used instrumentally to mark boundaries between people. And this fits perfectly well with the anti-immigration agenda of some newspapers. Their A-B-C logic goes something like this: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a) The English language is the language of the English, and it has been so since time immemorial.</p>
<p>b) Now, suddenly, it’s changing, and that can only be caused by non-English people (immigrants).</p>
<p>c) Consequently, by living here and speaking English (badly), immigrants are changing not only our language but the very essence of our national identity. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is by drawing on this 19th-century, and still deep-rooted idea of national languages, that these newspapers have been able to fuel what is essentially a xenophobic position. </p>
<p>And this is despite the fact that the report they refer to not only does not even mention migration but also portrays changes in the English language as being part of the normal and physiological process of language evolution. </p>
<p>This hard-headed association of language with national identity was at the core of an extreme version of nationalism that led Europe to two world wars. But we can turn this on its head: if we understand how fluid languages are by their very nature, if we appreciate the way they evolve and mix, we will also find it easier to live together and multiculturalism will no longer be so scary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mario Saraceni does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The right-wing press is using a particularly out of date ideology to link language change and immigration.Mario Saraceni, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546442016-03-01T19:05:58Z2016-03-01T19:05:58ZHow the political crises of the modern Muslim world created the climate for Islamic State<p><em>How do we account for forces and events that paved the way for the emergence of Islamic State? <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">Our series on the jihadist group’s origins</a> tries to address this question by looking at the interplay of historical and social forces that led to its advent.</em></p>
<p><em>In the penultimate article of the series, Harith Bin Ramli traces the Muslim world’s growing disaffection with its rulers through the 20th century and how it created the climate for both the genesis of Islamic State and its continuing success in recruiting followers.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Islamic State (IS) declared its re-establishment of the caliphate on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/29/isis-iraq-caliphate-delcaration-war">June 29, 2014</a>, almost exactly 100 years after the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/archduke-franz-ferdinand-assassinated">was assassinated</a>. Ferdinand’s death set off a series of events that would lead to the first world war and the fall of three great multinational world empires: the Austro-Hungarian (1867-1918), the Russian (1721-1917) and the Ottoman (1299-1922). </p>
<p>That IS’s leadership chose to declare its caliphate so close to the anniversary of Ferdinand’s assassination may not entirely <a href="http://www.jonathanhtodd.com/2014/06/27/6-degrees-geopolitcal-separation-franz-ferdinand-isis/">be a coincidence</a>. In a sense, the two events are connected. </p>
<p>Ferdinand’s assassination and the events it brought about (culminating in the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/treaty-of-versailles">1919 Treaty of Versailles</a>) symbolised the <a href="http://ejil.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/2/463.full">final triumph of a new idea</a> of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sovereignty/">sovereignty</a>. This modern conception was based on the popular will of a nation, rather than on noble lineage. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113015/original/image-20160226-26719-1crjex5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated on June 28, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria_-_b%26w.jpg">Carl Pietzner [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In declaring the resurrection of a medieval political institution almost exactly 100 years later, IS was announcing its explicit rejection of the modern international system based on that very idea of sovereignty. </p>
<h2>Early secularisation</h2>
<p>Other than the Ottoman Sultanate’s <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2014-11-19/myth-caliphate">very late and disputed claim</a> to the title, no attempt has been made to re-establish a caliphate since the fall of the Abbasid dynasty at the hands of the Mongols in 1258. In other words, Sunni Islam has carried on for hundreds of years since the 13th century without the need for a central political figurehead. </p>
<p>If we go further back in history, it seems that <a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100141493">Sunni political theory</a> had already anticipated this problem. </p>
<p>The Abbasid caliphs began to lose power from the mid-ninth century, effectively becoming puppets of various warlords by the tenth. And the caliphate underwent a serious process of decentralisation at the same time. </p>
<p><a href="http://ilsp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hurvitz.pdf">Key contemporary texts on statecraft</a>, such as Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi’s (952-1058) Ordinances of Government (<em>al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya</em>), described the caliph as the necessary symbolic figurehead providing constitutional legitimacy for the real rulers – emirs or sultans – whose power was based on military might. </p>
<p>As in the case of the <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/buyids">Shi'i Buyid dynasty (934-1048)</a>, these rulers didn’t even have to be Sunni. And they were often expected to provide legislation based on practical and functional, rather than religious, considerations. </p>
<p>The Muslim world, then, had arguably already experienced secularisation of sorts before the modern age. Or, at the very least, it had for quite some time existed within a political system that balanced power between religious and worldly interests. </p>
<p>And when the caliphate came to an end in the 13th century, both the institutions of kingship and the religious courts (run by the scholar-jurists) were able to carry on functioning without difficulty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113020/original/image-20160226-26673-dwg0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWilayah_Abbasiyyah_semasa_khalifah_Harun_al-Rashid.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was the 19th-century Muslim revivalist and anti-colonial movement known as <a href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1819?_hi=3&_pos=1">Pan-Islamism</a> that was responsible for reviving the Ottoman claim to the caliphate. The idea was revived again briefly in early 20th-century British India as the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/event/Khilafat-movement">anti-colonial Khilafat movement</a>. </p>
<p>But anti-colonial efforts after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, even those primarily based on religious beliefs, have rarely called for a return of the caliphate. </p>
<p>If anything, successors of Pan-Islamism, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, have generally worked within the framework of nation states. Putting aside doubts about their actual ability to commit to democracy and secularism, such movements have generally envisioned an Islamic state along more modern lines, with room for political participation and elections.</p>
<h2>Modern utopias and old dynasties</h2>
<p>So why evoke the caliphate in the first place? The simple answer is that it has never been completely dismissed as an option. </p>
<p>In Sunni law and political theology, once <a href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e989?_hi=0&_pos=3182">consensus</a> over an issue has been reached, it is hard for later generations to go against it. This was why Egyptian scholar <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/apr/09/religion-islam-secularism-egypt">Ali Abd al-Raziq</a> was removed from his post at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Azhar_University">Al-Azhar University</a> and attacked for introducing a deviant interpretation after he wrote an argument for a secular interpretation of the caliphate in 1925.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113021/original/image-20160226-26697-17h3h4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thinkers such as Abul Ala Mawdudi tried to place a revived caliphate within some type of democratic framework.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAbul_ala_maududi.jpg">DiLeeF via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-inevitable-caliphate/">many</a> <a href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/13267/new-texts-out-now_madawi-al-rasheed-carool-kersten">recent</a> <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/recalling-the-caliphate/">studies</a> show, the idea of the caliphate and its revival has had a certain utopian appeal for a wide spectrum of modern Muslim thinkers. And not just those with authoritarian or militant inclinations. </p>
<p>Some leading Muslim revivalists such as <a href="http://muhammad-asad.com/Principles-State-Government-Islam.pdf">Muhammad Asad (1900-1992)</a> and <a href="http://www.meforum.org/151/islams-democratic-essence">Abul Ala Mawdudi (1903-1979)</a>, for example, have tried to place a revived caliphate within some type of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/421254/Democracy_in_Islam_The_Views_of_Several_Modern_Muslim_Scholars">democratic framework</a>.</p>
<p>But, in practice, the dominant tendency here too has really been to seek the liberation or revival of Muslim societies within the nation-state framework. </p>
<p>If anything, national aspirations and the desire to modernise society existed before the formation of the new political order after the first world war. The majority of the populations of Muslim lands welcomed the fall of the three empires, or at least didn’t feel very strongly about the survival of traditional ruling dynasties. </p>
<p>And, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, most dynasties that stayed in power did so by reinventing their states along modern, mainly secular, models. </p>
<p>But this did not always succeed. The waves of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_3074000/3074069.stm">revolutions</a> and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/1/newsid_3911000/3911587.stm">military coups</a> that swept the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world throughout the 1950s and 1960s amply illustrate that popular sentiment identified traditional dynasties with the continuing influence of colonial powers. </p>
<p>In Egypt, under the Muhammad Ali dynasty (1805-1952), for example, the control of the then-French Canal epitomised the interdependent relationship between the dynasty and Western power. This was why <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/focus/arabunity/2008/02/200852517252821627.html">Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970)</a> made great efforts to regain it in the name of Egyptian sovereignty when he became the country’s second president in 1956.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113027/original/image-20160226-26679-ul3rf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inauguration of the Suez Canal at Port Said, Egypt, in 1869.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASuezkanal1869.jpg">Public domain via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dissolving political legitimacy</h2>
<p>Either way, the success of the new Muslim nation states could be said to be predicated on two major expectations. The first was improvement of citizens’ lives – not only in terms of material progress, but also the benefits of freedom and the ability to represent the popular will through participatory politics. </p>
<p>The second was the ability of Muslim nations to unite against outside interference and commit to the liberation of Palestine. On both counts, the latter half of the 20th century witnessed abysmal failures and an increasing sense of frustration with Muslim leaders. </p>
<p>In many places, populism eventually gave way to authoritarianism. And the loss of further lands to Israel in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War">1967 Six-Day War</a> revealed the inherent weakness and lack of unity among the new Muslim nations.</p>
<p>Anwar Sadat’s peace treaty with Israel after the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/6/newsid_2514000/2514317.stm">1973 Yom Kippur War</a> was widely seen as an act of betrayal, for breaking ranks in what should have been a united front. His decision to do so despite lacking popular support in Egypt only revealed the extent to which the country had evolved into a dictatorship. </p>
<p>Sadat’s consequent <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/6/newsid_2515000/2515841.stm">assassination</a> at the hands of a small radical splinter group of religious militants acted as a warning to other Muslim leaders. Now they couldn’t simply ignore or lock away religious critics, even if the majority of the population still subscribed to the secular nation-state model. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113031/original/image-20160226-26697-q9jcf8.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s peace treaty with Israel was widely seen as an act of betrayal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APresident_Anwar_Sadat_of_Egypt_arrives_in_the_United_States.JPEG">US Department of Defence Visual information via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This idea was reinforced by Iran’s <a href="http://www.britannica.com/event/Iranian-Revolution-of-1978-1979">1979 Islamic Revolution</a>, as well as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_seizure">failed religious revolution</a> in the holy city of Mecca the same year. </p>
<p>Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Muslim leaders around the world increasingly made compromises with religious reactionary forces, allowing them to expand influence in the public sphere. In many cases, these leaders increasingly adopted religious rhetoric themselves.</p>
<p>Showing support for fellow Muslims in the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1987) or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Intifada">First Palestinian Intifada</a> provided an opportunity to manage the threat of religious radicalism. National leaders probably also saw this as an effective way to deflect attention from the authoritarian nature of many Muslim states. </p>
<p>And, as demonstrated by <a href="https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/did-saddam-hussein-become-a-religious-believer/">Saddam Hussain’s turn to religious propaganda</a> after the 1990-91 Gulf War, it could be used as a last resort when other ways of demonstrating legitimacy had failed.</p>
<h2>The longer view</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.britannica.com/event/Persian-Gulf-War">The Gulf War</a> also brought non-Muslim troops to Arabian soil, inspiring <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/military-july-dec96-fatwa_1996/">Osama bin Laden’s call for jihad</a> against the Western nations that participated in it. And it eventually led to the US invasion of Iraq. That set off a chain of events that created in the country the chaotic conditions that enabled the rise of Islamic State. </p>
<p>If the IS leadership is really an <a href="http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mideast-crisis-iraq-islamicstate/">alliance between ex-Ba'athist generals and an offshoot of al-Qaeda</a>, as has often been depicted, then we don’t have to go far beyond the events of this war to explain how the group formed. But the rise of Islamic State and its declaration of the caliphate can also be read as part of a wider story that has unfolded since the formation of modern nation states in the Muslim world. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/86c958c2-ff78-11e3-8a35-00144feab7de.html#axzz367SAUfPl">some commentators</a> have pointed out, it’s not so much the Sykes-Picot agreement and the drawing of artificial national borders by colonial powers that brought about IS. </p>
<p>The modern nation-state model – as much as it’s based on <a href="https://nationalismstudies.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/benedict-anderson/">a kind of fiction</a> – is still strong in most parts of the Muslim world. And, I believe, it’s still the preferred option for most Muslims today. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113024/original/image-20160226-26669-1pzyzn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People of Arak toppled the Shah’s statue in Bāgh Mwlli (central square of Arak) during 1979 revolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIranian_Revolution_in_Arak.jpg">Dooste Amin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the long century that has passed since the first world war has been increasingly marked by frustration. It’s littered with the broken promises of Muslim rulers to bring about a transition to more representative forms of government. And it has been marked by a sense that Western powers continue to control and manipulate events in the region, in a way that doesn’t always represent the best interests of Muslim societies.</p>
<p>An extreme <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-arab-spring-five-years-on-a-season-that-began-in-hope-but-ended-in-desolation-a6803161.html">high point of frustration</a> was reached in the events of the so-called <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12813859">Arab Spring</a>. The wave of popular demonstrations against the autocratic regimes of the Arab world were seen as the first winds of change that would bring democracy to the region. </p>
<p>But, with the possible exception of Tunisia, all of these countries underwent either destabilisation (Libya, Syria), the return of military rule (Egypt), or the further clamping down on civil rights (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Gulf monarchies). </p>
<p>I would hesitate to describe IS’s declaration of a caliphate as a serious challenge to the modern nation-state model. But the small, albeit substantial, stream of followers it manages to recruit daily shows it would be wrong to take for granted that the terms of the international order can simply be dictated from above forever. </p>
<p>When brute force increasingly has the final say over how people live their lives, it becomes harder for them to differentiate between the lesser of two evils.</p>
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<p><em>This is the eighth article in our series on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">historical roots of Islamic State</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">Download our special report</a> collating the whole the series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54644/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harith Bin Ramli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The rise of Islamic State and its declaration of the caliphate can be read as part of a wider story that has unfolded since the formation of modern nation states in the Muslim world.Harith Bin Ramli, Research Fellow, Cambridge Muslim College & Teaching Fellow, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.