Heading west? Georgia's Euro‐Atlantic path

Events in Ukraine in 2014 are likely to transform the presence and role of western institutions such as NATO in the post‐Soviet area. The crisis has starkly revealed the limits of their influence within Russia's ‘zone of privileged interest’, as well as the lack of internal unity within these organizations vis‐à‐vis relations with Moscow and future engagement with the area. This will have long‐term implications for the South Caucasus state of Georgia, whose desire for integration into the Euro‐Atlantic community remains a key priority for its foreign and security policy‐makers. This article examines the main motivators behind Georgia's Euro‐Atlantic path and its foreign policy stance, which has remained unchanged for over a decade despite intense pressure from Russia. It focuses on two aspects of Georgia's desire for integration with European and Euro‐Atlantic structures: its desire for security and the belief that only a western alignment can guarantee its future development, and the notion of Georgia's ‘European’ identity. The notion of ‘returning’ to Europe and the West has become a common theme in Georgian political and popular discourse, reflecting the belief of many in the country that they are ‘European’. This article explores this national strategic narrative and argues that the prevailing belief in a European identity facilitates, rather than supersedes, the central role of national interests in Georgian foreign policy.     

Bodies,Shrines, and Roads: violence, (im)mobility and displacement in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, gender and national identities intersect to shape people's mobility and security in the context of conflict. This article aims to illustrate the gendered processes of identity construction in the context of competing militarised nationalisms. We contend that a feminist approach is crucial, and that gender analysis alone is insufficient. Gender cannot be considered analytically independent from nationalism or ethno‐national identities because competing Tamil and Sinhala nationalist discourses produce particular gender identities and relations. Fraught and cross‐cutting relations of gender, nation, class and location shape people's movement, safety and potential for displacement. In the conflict‐ridden areas of Sri Lanka's North and East during 1999–2000, we set out to examine relations of gender and nation within the context of conflict. Our specific aim in this article is to analyse the ways in which certain identities are performed, on one hand, and subverted through premeditated performances of national identity on the other hand. We examine these processes at three sites—shrines, roads and people's bodies. Each is a strategic site of security/insecurity, depending on one's gender and ethno‐national identity, as well as geographical location.     

Globalisation and the decline of national identity? An exploration across sixty‐three countries

The relationship between globalisation and national identity is puzzling. While some observers have found that globalisation reduces people's identification with their nation, others have reached the opposite conclusion. This article explores this conundrum by examining the relationship between globalisation and people's feelings towards national identity. Using data from the International Social Survey Program National Identity II ( 2003 ) and the World Values Survey ( 2005 ), it analyses these relations across sixty‐three countries. Employing a multilevel approach, it investigates how a country's level of globalisation is related to its public perceptions towards different dimensions of national identity. The results suggest that a country's level of globalisation is not related to national identification or nationalism but it is related negatively to patriotism, the willingness to fight for the country and ethnic conceptions of membership in the nation. An examination of alternative explanations indicates that globalisation has a distinct impact on national identity.     

The renaissance of sausage: The role of Kranjska sausage in the contemporary process of reconstructing the Slovenian nation

The article discusses the contemporary reconstruction of the Kranjska sausage as a national dish by exploring different actors in this process. This representative culinary object played a significant role in the formation and development of Slovene national consciousness from the Spring of Nations onward, faced devaluation in socialist era and experienced a renaissance in the new millennium, when it was also given a role in the project of the construction of the nation‐state. The modern rebirth of the Kranjska sausage is presented as an interrelated and complex process due to many factors: the efforts of an influential ethnologist, the role of an institution dedicated to the Kranjska sausage, and other persons, groups, and institutions with different objectives, ideas, and understandings. The article conceptualizes nationalizing as an everyday practice, as a network, or collection of people, practices, places, institutions, ideologies, objects, technologies, and ideas that define people's subjectivity and shape their actions and imaginations.     

Heroes and the renegotiation of national identity in American history textbooks: representations of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, 1982–2003

ABSTRACT. American history textbooks for the USA's public schools act as quasi‐official loci for the renegotiation of national identity and are, as such, subject to much controversy. The choice of heroes and the way in which textbooks depict them display the interplay between competing visions of popular ethno‐history and scholarly historiography. This article examines contemporary renegotiation of the national narrative through an analysis of the evolving representation of the USA's two most prominent traditional national heroes – George Washington and Abraham Lincoln – in history textbooks for elementary‐school students published from the early 1980s to 2003. This period marks the development of the multiculturalist movement and its subsequent conservative backlash, with debates intensifying in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001.     

Territorial Appeals in Post‐Wall German Filmmaking: The Case of Good Bye,Lenin!

Abstract: How do institutions, markets, and stakeholders influence what stories are feasible and profitable for filmmakers to tell? This article discusses appeals to territorial interest and identity in filmmaking in post‐wall Germany and the conditions that shape them. By tracing the emergence of the film Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), we see how the project accumulated support from some territories and not others; how filmmakers persuaded colleagues and critics of their interpretation's legitimacy; and how individuals and institutions shape how the film would be used and remembered. My objective is to draw attention to the messiness and uncertainty as multiple stakeholders align, contest, or subsume competing appeals that would be otherwise invisible in a “finished” film. Addressing those interested in the geopolitics of cultural production, the article argues for more attention to the behind‐the‐scenes negotiations in funding, production, and distribution processes in order to keep issues of power and dependence visible.     

BIOMETRIC CARDS FOR THE INDIAN POPULATION

Mathematical models could be helpful in assisting the Indian government's new initiative of issuing biometric cards to its citizens. This note examines the role of mathematical models in estimating the missing, non-enumerated population numbers, and in estimating the number of cards required by age, gender and regions annually in India. The link between the National Population Register and biometric cards is also highlighted. There are other scientific issues, such as electronic security, data storage management and identity verification, which we do not model in this paper, though we address the role they play in successful implementation.     

Making time for national identity: theoretical concept and empirical glance on the temporal performance of national identity

Despite global, economic, technological and social transformations, nationality has remained an influential identity category. It still forms the basis for collective self‐determination, political sovereignty and sense of belonging. This article puts forward the concept of ‘Chrono‐Work’ to offer a critical approach to national identity. Employing temporal and performative perspectives, the concept addresses the conditions for establishing and constructing national identity. Drawing on Judith Butler's performance theory, it is suggested that performance of national acts loads national identity with meaning through the construction of a chronological narrative. To complete the theoretical picture, a case study of ‘Chrono‐Work’ among the Jewish settlers on the Golan Heights in Israel is offered. It is shown that national identity is constantly performed through temporal strategies that aim at achieving a chronological order. Therefore, it is suggested that national identity is not given, but rather is the result of continuous ‘Chrono‐Work’.     

Identity and social solidarity: an ignored connection. A historical perspective on the state of Europe and its nations

The article comments on the ongoing de‐Europeanisation and re‐nationalisation of Europe from a historical perspective. The article argues that the building of national community from the 1870s onwards focused on the problem of social integration where the development of emotional feelings of belonging and solidarity was linked to the building of institutions for social politics in mutually reinforcing dynamics. The social question emerged in the wake of the spread of industrial capitalism. Its role is underexplored in the study of the building of national and European communities. The social question draws attention to the institutional capacity of nation states rather than nations based on emotions. Nationalism did not only mean the building of friend‐ enemy distinctions through ethnicity but also national socialism as a conservative reform strategy against class struggle socialism. This contention between two approaches to the problem of social integration moulded together national communities through emotions and institutions without deploying the concept of identity. The article outlines this development, culminating in the (West) European welfare states as nation– states in the strong sense of the merger of these two terms, and how it came to an end in the 1970s when a reverse development began towards social disintegration at the end accompanied by accelerating nationalism and xenophobia. The identity concept was mobilised in 1973 as a tool in the European integration project to compensate for the erosion of social institutions by means of emotions. It was taken over and politicised from having been a technical term in mathematics and psychoanalysis. The politicisation of the identity concept was an indication of a deep identity crisis in Europe and its nations. The identity therapy failed, and the identity crisis remains, accompanied by an ever louder nationalistic and xenophobic vocabulary. Emotions replace institutions. The methodological focus of the article is on the semantics around key concepts such as social politics, solidarity and identity in their historical context as forward‐looking and action‐oriented concepts in the construction of community. This approach with a focus on past futures is an alternative to the application of the retrospective analytical concepts of ethnic and civic nationalism outlining present pasts.     

Structural Adjustment and Subsistence Industry: Artisanal Gold Mining in Ghana

Since the implementation of Ghana's national Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), policies associated with the programme have been criticized for perpetuating poverty within the country's subsistence economy. This article brings new evidence to bear on the contention that the SAP has both fuelled the uncontrolled growth of informal, poverty‐driven artisanal gold mining and further marginalized its impoverished participants. Throughout the adjustment period, it has been a central goal of the government to promote the expansion of large‐scale gold mining through foreign investment. Confronted with the challenge of resuscitating a deteriorating gold mining industry, the government introduced a number of tax breaks and policies in an effort to create an attractive investment climate for foreign multinational mining companies. The rapid rise in exploration and excavation activities that has since taken place has displaced thousands of previously‐undisturbed subsistence artisanal gold miners. This, along with a laissez faire land concession allocation procedure, has exacerbated conflicts between mining parties. Despite legalizing small‐scale mining in 1989, the Ghanaian government continues to implement procedurally complex and bureaucratically unwieldy regulations and policies for artisanal operators which have the effect of favouring the interests of established large‐scale miners.     

Identity formation through national calendar: holidays and commemorations in Pakistan

This article contributes to academic literature on the project of identity formation in a postcolonial nation‐state. The article argues that a nation‐state emphasising certain aspects of the past for commemorative or celebratory purposes, while suppressing or ignoring the memories of some other event or historical figure, are both parts of the same process. Both these processes, in different ways, seek to give a certain direction to the narrative about the history of the nation and the nation‐state. These aspects of national memory and amnesia have been explained through the prism of national/public holidays while foregrounding the case study of Pakistan. The article argues that although this process of shaping a specific narrative (referred to as commemorative narrative in this article by using Yael Zerubavel's work) is common to every project of identity formation, its peculiarity is more pronounced in a postcolonial state like Pakistan, which has certain cut‐off dates and ruptures but is, simultaneously, eager to emphasise continuities in its trajectory and antiquity in historical tradition. The study of the process of developing a national calendar in case of Pakistan will show that identity formation is a transient process in which various identarian values, political considerations and social processes play an important part. In particular, it requires an attempt on the part of the state to try impose a homogenising historical narrative by envisaging a national calendar, i.e. by announcing a national or public holiday. This helps accord prestige to persons credited as founding fathers or ideologues, ascribe solemnity to days remembering wars and festivity to mark independence or religious occasions. By discussing these themes in detail, this exploratory study of the history of national calendar will lend an alternative lens through which to look into the processes of identity formation in postcolonial nation‐states in general.     

A ‘New’ Commonwealth for Britain? Negotiating Ghana's Pan-African and Asian Connections at the End of Empire (1951–8)

This article examines to what extent Nkrumah's Pan-African ambitions and Asian connections altered the meaning of the ‘new’ Commonwealth for British policy-makers. It discusses India's influence on British political options in the Gold Coast during the negotiations for independence and Commonwealth membership and assesses the impact of Ghana's Pan-Africanism on two major facets of Commonwealth politics: Britain's ability to balance its relations with the Commonwealth and France, the other main European actor in Africa; and Britain's capacity to maintain the idea of a common heritage, which Pan-African projects like the Ghana–Guinea Union threatened to disrupt.     

Claiming the nation for the people: the dynamics of representation in German public discourse about immigrant integration

Against the backdrop of the current trend to criticise elite‐centred approaches to the study of nationalism, this article sheds light on ways in which elite and popular notions of nationhood are mediated. Thus, public discourse on national identity is explored as a discourse that ordinary people can influence and in which elites make claims to represent the people. To illustrate the dynamics of representative claim‐making and reception, the article uses a case study from German public discourse; the debate about Thilo Sarrazin's 2010 book Germany Does Away With Itself. It finds that, although Sarrazin clearly breaches well‐established rules in national identity discourse, his ideas gain traction from the moment he becomes accepted as representing ordinary Germans. The findings are discussed against the backdrop of the history of German national identity discourse and anti‐essentialist approaches treating nationhood as a political claim.     

Singing the new Nepal

Nepal's adoption of a new national anthem in 2007 reflected a decision to establish a new social and political order that was republican, federal and inclusive of the country's many minority communities. It came after a ten‐year internal conflict, and was followed by the abolition of the Shah monarchy that had ruled the country since the late eighteenth century. This article describes the historical and political context of the decision to replace the old anthem, the selection of the new anthem, and the debates that arose in the Nepali media and public sphere after its lyrics and the identity of its author were made known. The discussion refers to arguments made by Karen Cerulo about the relationship between the syntactic structure of national anthems and the stage reached in the process of political modernisation of the nation‐state in question, and provides some comparative perspectives on the Nepali case.     

Who Knew the Minds of the People? Specialist Knowledge and Developmentalist Authoritarianism in Postcolonial Ghana

By the mid-1960s, local-level development workers in Ghana were expected to act as the eyes and ears of the state, reporting on ‘the minds of the people’ and explaining their reactions to President Kwame Nkrumah's project of socialist reconstruction. This articles argues that through mass education, social welfare and community development plans, both the late colonial and early independent state sought to make its presence manifest in the everyday lives of its citizens, to bind them to a broader vision for their country, and to present their successes to the outside world. By identifying some of the competing models of social development that were promoted by British, Ghanaian and African-American experts in the aftermath of independence, this article investigates the role of specialist knowledge in the developmentalist authoritarianism which is often presented as a generic legacy of the colonial state in Africa.     

The birth of a united Europe: on why the EU has generated a ‘non‐emotional’ identity

ABSTRACT. In several respects, the European Union (EU) represents both a novel system of quasi‐supranational governance and a novel form of political community or polity. But it is also a relatively fragile construction: it remains a community still in the making with an incipient sense of identity, within which powerful forces are at work. This article has three main aims. Firstly, to analyse the reasons and key ideas that prompted a selected elite to construct a set of institutions and treaties destined to unite European nations in such a way that the mere idea of a ‘civil war’ among them would become impossible. Secondly, to examine the specific top‐down processes that led to the emergence of a united Europe and the subsequent emergence of the EU, thus emphasising the constant distance between the elites and the masses in the development of the European project. Finally, to explain why the EU has generated what I call a ‘non‐emotional’ identity, radically different from the emotionally charged and still prevailing national identities present in its member states.     

Decentralization,the State and Conflicts over Local Boundaries in Northern Ghana

Decentralization projects, such as that initiated by the Rawlings government in Ghana at the end of the 1980s, create a political space in which the relations between local political communities and the state are re‐negotiated. In many cases, the devolution of power intensifies special‐interest politics and political mobilization aiming at securing a ‘larger share of the national cake’, that is, more state funds, infrastructure and posts for the locality. To legitimate their claims vis‐à‐vis the state, civic associations (‘hometown’ unions), traditional rulers and other non‐state institutions often invoke some form of ‘natural’ solidarity, and decentralization projects thus become arenas of debate over the boundaries of community and the relationship between ‘local’ and national citizenship. This article analyses one such debate, in the former Lawra District of Ghana's Upper West Region, where the creation of new districts provoked protracted discussions, among the local political elite as well as the peasants and labour migrants, about the connections between land ownership and political authority, the relations between the local ethnic groups (Dagara and Sisala), and the relevance of ethnic versus territorial criteria in defining local citizenship.     

URBAN NETWORKS AND GOVERNANCE IN CITY‐REGION PLANNING: STATE‐LED REGION BUILDING IN NANJING CITY‐REGION,CHINA

During the transition towards a more market‐oriented economy and entrepreneurial governance, local authorities have attempted to create new cross‐jurisdiction regional entities to enhance their competitiveness through making city‐region plans or regional strategic plans in China. This article analyses the process of region building in China through a case study of Nanjing city‐region. We argue that region building is a state‐led regional project in China, not a spontaneous process. City‐region planning has played a legitimacy‐seeking role in the construction of new regions. Based on the discourse provided by the city‐region plan, associated city networks are being created as a mechanism for plan implementation and regional coordination. This signals that regional planning is entering the stage of regional institution building. By assessing the capacity of regional institutions, we argue that the newly‐emerged regional institutions or urban networks have facilitated regionalization in terms of the increasing involvement of non‐state actors, the formation of regional coherence and identity and the enhanced inter‐city co‐operation. However, it is still difficult to establish effective regional governance due to competing local governments, the arbitrary political leadership and the fragmented planning functions.     

The Transnationalisation of Competing State Projects: Carbon Offsetting and Development in Sumatra's Coastal Peat Swamps

Indonesia's peatlands can be considered as conflict arenas where different state projects and actors compete. The case presented here stands for a new conservation controversy. The Berbak Carbon Initiatives overlap with a settlement project, inducing struggles among different state apparatuses, transnational actors, and peasants. This article is based on a novel conceptual approach building on political ecology, politics of scale and state theory for investigating divergent and transnationalised state projects. Empirically we draw on qualitative research conducted in the province of Jambi, Sumatra. We argue that the territorial conflicts mirror the contradictory interests of different state apparatuses influenced by conservation‐oriented and development‐oriented actors in society but also by supra‐national planning institutions. In our case, the contestation becomes visible through inconsistent notions of development and property. We show how political change challenges the implementation of a forest carbon project, illustrating the high risks of mitigating climate change through offsetting.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this article: International Relations theory The political philosophy of cosmopolitanism. Edited by Gillian Brock and Harry Brighouse Justice beyond borders: a global political theory. By Simon Caney Challenging America's global preeminence: Russia's quest for multipolarity. By Thomas Ambrosio Martin Wight: four seminal thinkers in international thought, Machiavelli, Grotius, Kant and Mazzini. Edited by Gabriele Wight and Brian Porter Human rights and ethics The democracy makers: human rights and the politics of global order. By Nicolas Guilhot International law and organization American exceptionalism and human rights. Edited by Michael Ignatieff International organizations and their exercise of sovereign powers. By Danesh Sarooshi Conflict, security and armed forces My year in Iraq: the struggle to build a future of hope. By L. Paul Bremer III, with Malcolm McConnell The far enemy: why jihad went global. By Fawaz Gerges The norms of war: cultural beliefs and modern conflict. By Theo Farrell The West's last chance: will we win the clash of civilizations? By Tony Blankley The killing trap: genocide in the twentieth century. By Manus I. Midlarsky Politics, democracy and social affairs Politik der Götter: Europa und der neue Fundamentalismus. By Gret Haller Ethnicity and cultural politics The dark side of democracy: explaining ethnic cleansing. By Michael Mann Understanding anti‐Americanism: its origins and impact at home and abroad. Edited by Paul Hollander Multiculturalism in Asia. Edited by Will Kymlicka and Baogang He Political economy, economics and development Capitalism: as if the world matters. By Jonathon Porritt World development report 2006: equity and development. By the World Bank The rise of Spanish multinationals: European business in the global economy. By Mauro F. Guillén Globalizing international political economy. Edited by Nicola Phillips History US internal security assistance to South Vietnam: insurgency, subversion and public order. By William Rosenau Europe Alcide De Gasperi: un percorso europeo. Edited by Eckart Conze, Gustavo Corni and Paolo Pombeni Making the world autonomous: a global role for the European Union. By Anthony Clunies‐Ross Universities and the Europe of knowledge: ideas, institutions and policy entrepreneurship in European Union higher education policy. By Anne Corbett The dynamics of European integration: why and when EU institutions matter. By Derek Beach Constructing the path to eastern enlargement: the uneven policy impact of EU identity. By Ulrich Sedelmeier The geopolitics of Euro‐Atlantic integration. Edited by Hans Mouritzen and Anders Wivel Russia and Eurasia Central Asia's second chance. By Martha Brill Olcott Democracy derailed in Russia: the failure of open politics. By M. Steven Fish Middle East and North Africa Iran's strategic weapons programmes: a net assessment. Edited by Gary Samore Israeli democracy at the crossroads. Edited by Raphael Cohen‐Almagor Israeli institutions at the crossroads. Edited by Raphael Cohen‐Almagor Sub‐Saharan Africa Kupilikula: governance and the invisible realm in Mozambique. By Harry G. West Apartheid South Africa and African states: from pariah to middle power, 1961–1994. By Roger Pfister Politics in southern Africa: state and society in transition. By Gretchen Bauer and Scott D. Taylor Central Africa: crises, reform and reconstruction. Edited by E. S. D. Formin and John W. Forje Asia and Pacific Untying the knot: making peace in the Taiwan Strait. By Richard C. Bush Dangerous Strait: the US‐Taiwan‐China crisis. Edited by Nancy Bernkopf Tucker The Thaksinization of Thailand. By Duncan McCargo and Ukrist Pathmanand North America The 50% American: immigration and national identity in an age of terror. By Stanley A. Renshon The American era: power and strategy for the 21st century. By Robert J. Lieber Latin America and Caribbean Democracy in Latin America: political change in comparative perspective Gendered paradoxes: women's movements, state restructuring and global development in Ecuador. By Amy Lind Cuba, the United States, and the post‐Cold War world: the international dimensions of the Washington‐Havana relationship. Edited by Morris Morley and Chris McGillion Rethinking development in Latin America. Edited by Charles H. Wood and Bryan R. Roberts