The neoliberal world order the United States created and disseminated around the world after 1945 had globalisation as its hallmark. This globalisation would come to be defined through America’s increasingly prominent economic and military role in the world. Today, however, this neoliberal system is facing unprecedented challenges, and the seemingly ubiquitous phenomenon of globalisation is under threat from the forces of nationalism not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Even before the end of the Second World War, globalisation was seeping into American discourse. Henry Luce – who has been defined as the ‘most influential American of his age’ – wrote in a 1941 Life magazine editorial, “Under him [Franklin Roosevelt] and with his leadership we can make isolationism as dead an issue as slavery, and we can make a truly American internationalism something as natural to us in our time as the airplane or the radio.” This idea of ‘American internationalism’ would quickly resonate with American politicians, with the 1940 Republican candidate for president, Wendell Willkie, in his famous book One World vigorously advocating for the need to make America more ‘internationalist’. Such an internationalist system would naturally be predicated on the erosion of nationalism and state sovereignty.
Today, however, sentiments of nationalism and jingoism are challenging globalisation which is the fundamental tenet of the western neoliberal order. This phenomenon of nationalism has only recently emerged but is a process which has been building for years. Despite the neoliberal economic framework still being intact, nation states are fast reverting to nationalist tendencies and resorting to unilateral actions which are eviscerating the basis of today’s globalisation.
The resurgent nationalism we witness today is characterised by state aggression and the rise of populist movements the world has not witnessed since 1945. Marking the seminal moment in this rise of nationalism is the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011 – a mass movement in America which struck at the very heart of American globalization – its financial industry. Russia’s unilateral 2014 invasion and annexation of former Ukrainian territory, the Crimea in turn, depict how national level aggression and territorial ambitions – cornerstones of nationalism – are reemerging as priorities for countries. We are thus witnessing developments which are not only bringing populism to the fore, but are also making struggles for territorial acquisition a bitter reality.
China’s aggression in the South China Sea, Japan’s decision to amend its post-1945 constitution to allow for more bellicose clauses, and perhaps most famous of all – Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump are all recent phenomena which delineate how nations all over the world are threatening the system of globalisation by reverting to nationalist tendencies. China and Japan’s aggression is evidence of a desire for territorial expansion and of a heightened sense of nationalism which envisages these states returning to the days of ‘glory’ they enjoyed before 1945 (much earlier in China’s case), thus showing how these nations now view globalisation-in the shape of collective security and international arbitration – as inimical to their growth. The rise of Mr Trump and the British population’s decision to withdraw from the European Union, in turn, stem from the rise of populist and nationalist sentiment in these countries which views the free flow of labour and open-immigration fundamentals in the system of globalization – as harmful to ‘national identity’, and as the reasons behind the downturn in economic growth. And here in lies the cause of the recent resurgence of nationalism.
The cataclysmic economic collapse which occurred around the world in 2007 laid bare the gross iniquity which earmarks the neoliberal framework, and set in motion the chain of events which has resulted in the resurrection of nationalism. This economic downturn explains why mass movements such as the Occupy Wall Street movement targeted Wall Street, the bastion of today’s economic system, and also explains why Brexit votaries and Donald Trump have stoked British and American residents’ fears of ‘foreigners stealing their jobs’.
This fear of economic collapse has resulted in a coming together of fears of impoverishment and xenophobia which, together, have come to define nationalist tendencies in the UK and America. This is exactly why discourse of ‘making America great again’ and of returning Britain to the pedestal of global decision making builds upon the putative threat of mass immigration to national identity and to the economic future of each country.
It perhaps comes as no surprise then, that the demographics of Trump’s supporters and those who voted for Brexit – middle and low income white Americans and British are, in fact, the very subsets in these countries which have suffered the most from the Great Recession of 2007. Also, the last great obstacle in the path of globalization – the totalitarian years of the 1930s – also emerged in the aftermath of a major economic recession – the Great Depression, which is accepted as one of the worst economic downturns in the world’s history. The similarities between the causes of the nationalist years of the 1930s and the current resurgence of nationalism are best captured by Thomas Piketty in his monumental work Capital in the Twenty-First Century, where he highlights that inequality before the 2007 crash was at levels similar to the inequality existent before the 1930s.
Today’s rise in nationalism, therefore, is a reaction by different nations in the world against the prevalent neoliberal world order and the inequality it promotes. This rise in nationalism, taking shape in populist movements and aggression by countries, poses a significant threat to the neoliberal world order. It has to be noted, however, increasingly authoritarian states and individuals like Mr Trump are not ideal alternatives to the neoliberal framework, and China’s aggression in the South China Sea and Donald Trump’s fearmongering must be condemned. Despite this, populist movements such as the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, which give voice to the millions of oppressed must be supported, and must lay the groundwork for a future, more equitable world order.