Course Code:
IRL 333
Level: Undergraduate
Course Title: Nationalism and Nation State
Status: Elective
Hours/Week: T. (3+0)
Year: Third
Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Nazif MANDACI
Semester: Fall
ECTS Credit: 4
Total Class Hours: 14 weeks x 3h= 42 h.
Instruction Language: English
PREREQUITIES: IRL Diplomatic History
DESCRIPTION:
Objectives:
The purpose of the course is to make the students familiar with basic concepts and
phenomenon of nation, nationalism, nationality, nation-state, ethnicity, secessionism,
irredentism, xenophobia, diaspora, and the socio-political responses to the complications they
created in different levels. It is also aimed at enlightening the students about particular issues
around the aforementioned concepts, in order to enhance their understanding as well as to
provide them with skill of analysis of ethnic conflicts, minority rights and multiculturalism.
Learning outcomes:
1) Unfolding the dynamics and leitmotivs behind nation-building processes, the root causes of
ethnic conflict and introducing students the basic political formulas offered for solving the
complications that those nation-state building processes generated, like problems of
citizenship, political underrepresentation, concern of assimilation, irredentism and
secessionism.
2) Urging student to ponder about the current political-ethnic problems that captured the
attention of international community, to reason about possibility to put into practice the
theoretical solutions in the discussed problems with ethnic, cultural or sectarian overtones.
Contents:
The lecture gives a large space to the well-known approaches of the students of discipline
under different headlines; i.e., “basic approaches – perennialism, primordialism, ethnosymbolism and modernism”, “nationalism in the world”, religion and nationalism”, “racism and
xenophobia”, “right to self-determination”, “secessionism and irredentism”, “diasporas”,
“politics in ethnically divided societies” –the part along which basic political views on a
spectrum spanning from citizenship in multicultural society to consociations are to be
discussed.
TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS:
The course will be conducted in large extent on the mode of lecture. Students are expected to
read the assigned readings on time and prepare a single-page statement in which they will
discuss the main theme of the involved articles before the class. Their diligence, participation
into discussions will also be evaluated while grading. Students are also expected to attend
workshop activities that will be announced by the instructor. Workshops are planned to be
held on specific ethnic conflicts under the facilitation of instructor and students will be urged
to use their aggregated theoretical knowledge to find out solutions to the involved problems.
TEXTBOOKS:
1. John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism, Oxford, New York: Oxford University
Press, 1994.
2. Edward Mortimer, (ed.), People, Nation and State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and
Nationalism, London-New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999
In addition to the basic text books, instructor will hand in students some selected-new articles in
printed or electronic form. Topics and articles by weeks are as follows;
Week 1
: Problem of Definition
 Clifford Geertz, ‘Primordial and Civic Ties’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.29-34.
 Walker Connor, ‘A Nation is a Nation, is a State, is an Ethnic Group, is a...’, Hutchinson, Smith,
pp.36-46.
Week 2
: Nationalism by Theories 1
 Ernest Gellner, ‘Nationalism and Modernization’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.55-63.
 Ernest Gellner, ‘Nationalism and High Cultures’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.63-70.
 Eric Hobsbawn, ‘The Nation as Invented Tradition’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.76-82.
 Benedict Anderson, ‘Imagined Communities’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.89-96.
Week 3
: Nationalism by Theories 3
 Anthony D. Smith, ‘The Origins of Nations’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.147-154.
 Ernest Gellner, ‘Adam’s Navel: Primordialists Versus Modernists’, Edward Mortimer, (ed.),
People, Nation and State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and Nationalism, London-New York: I.B.
Tauris, 1999, pp. 31-35.
 Anthony D. Smith, ‘The Nation: Real or İmagined’, Mortimer, pp. 36-42.

Week 4
: Nationalism in Europe and the rest of the world
 Hans Kohn, ‘Western and Eastern Nationalisms’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.162-165.
 Peter Sugar, ‘Nationalism in Eastern Europe’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.171-177.
 Mary Matossian, ‘Ideologies of Delayed Development’, Hutchinson, Smith, pp.218-225.
 Sami Zubaida, ‘Islam and Nationalism: Continuities and Contradictions’, Nation and
Nationalism, 10/4 (2004), pp. 407-420
Week 5
: Religion, Nationalism, Conflict
 Jonathan Fox, ‘Towards a Dynamic Theory of Ethno-Religious Conflict’, Nations and
Nationalism, 5/4 (1999), pp. 431-463.
 John A. Armstrong, ‘Religious Nationalism and Collective Violence’, Nations and Nationalism,
3/ 4 (1997), pp. 597-606.
Week 6
: Myth of Ethnic/Divine Election
 Anthony D. Smith, ‘Ethnic Election and National Destiny’, Nations and Nationalism, 5/3
(1999), pp. 331-355.
 Bruce Cauthen, ‘Covenant and Continuity: Ethno-Symbolism and the Myth of Divine Election’,
Nations and Nationalism, ,10, 1/2, 2004, pp. 19-33.
Week 7
: Racism and Fascism
 George, L. Mosse, ‘Racism and Nationalism’, Hutchinson and Smith, Vol. IV, pp. 1382-1393.

Charles Hirshman, ‘The Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race’, Population and
Development Review, 30/3 (2004), pp. 385-415.
Week 8
: Secessionism and Irredentism
 Daryl J. Glaser, ‘The Right to Secession: An Anti-Secessionist Defence’, Political Studies, 51
(2003), pp. 369-386.
 Anna Moltchanova, ‘Stateless National Groups, International Justice and Assymetrical
Warfare’, Journal of Political Philosophy, 13/2 (2005), pp. 194-215.
Week 9
: Right to Self-Determination
 Benyamin Neuburger, ‘National Self-Determination: Dilemmas of a Concept’, Nations and
Nationalism, 1/3, (1997), pp. 297-325.
 Margaret Moore, ‘On National Self Determination’, Political Studies, XLV, pp. 900-913.
Week 10
: Diaspora
 Martin Sökefeld, ‘Mobilizing in Transnational Space: A Social Movement Approach to the
Formation of Diaspora’, Global Networks, 6/3 (2006), pp. 265-284.
 Ulf Björklund, ‘Armenians of Athens and Istanbul: The Armenian Diaspora and the
Transnational Nation’, Global Networks, 3/3 (2003), pp. 337-354.
Week 11
:Politics in ethnically divided societies 1
 Jennifer Jackson Preece, ‘National Minority Righs Versus State Sovereignty in Europe:
Changing Norms in International Relations?’, Nations and Nationalism, 3/3 (1997), pp. 345364.
 James A. Goldston, ‘Holes in the Rights Framework: Racial Discrimination, Citizenship, and
the Rigts of Non-Citizens’, Ethics and International Affairs, 20/3 (2006), pp. 321-347.
Week 12


: Politics in ethnically divided societies 2
Sammy Smooha, ‘Types of Democracy and Modes of Conflict Management in Ethnically
Divided Societies’, Nations and Nationalism, 8/4 (2002), pp. 423-431.
Arendt Lijphart, ‘Consociation and Federation: Conceptional and Empirical Links’, Canadian
Journal of Political Science, 12/3 (1979), pp. 499-515.
ASSESSMENT:
Midterm Exam
Article Statements
Final Exam
Participation to workshops
: 30 %
: 20 %
: 40 %
: 10 %