Nationalism and ethnicity

Michael Ignatieff’s book Blood and Belonging is based on the BBC television series of the same name in which he visited the former Yugoslavia, the Ukraine, Germany, Quebec, Kurdistan and Northern Ireland in order to explore the state of modern nationalism. This extract starts with two examples from his journey. In the first a Chetnik Serb reveals the pride and satisfaction a father can derivefrom the loss of his sons and in the second a wealthy German talks of his fear for the multicultural future of his country. In both cases, national pride and national identity are asserted at the expense of ethnic others. The extract ends with Ignatieff’s ‘conclusion’ that in nations where the differences between ethnic groups are not clearly visible (for instance, by colour of skin) there is a greater need to exaggerate cultural differences in order to remind people of who they are. As he puts it, ‘A Croat, thus, is someone who is not a Serb. A Serb is someone who is not a Croat. Without hatred of the other, there would be no clearly defined national self to worship and adore.'