In this paper to answer the question about how much does nationalism fuel international conflict and instability. I am going to first define the word Nationalism. I will be answering this question by taking in context the recent terror attack in the Pulwama district of the Jammu and Kashmir state of India on The 14th of February 2019. My emphasis would be on the point that yes nationalism does fuel international conflict and instability as it did in this case between India and Pakistan. It is very easy to say that nationalism should be done away with but even with keeping in mind its dangerous effects but in the recent past even with efforts of powerful political leaders and parties, little success has been achieved regarding this matter. I do believe that nationalism still plays an important role in global politics, I will be putting more light on this claim of mine in the paper.
Nationalism is a term meaning showing utmost loyalty, respect and making sure that the nation is being run in a properly manner in accordance with the laid rules and regulations without any interference from the outer world
Utmost loyalty, Highest level of respect and sharing common interests towards one's own nation according to me is one of the main reasons that it fuels international conflict and instability. To prove this claim of mine I am going to use an example of a recent terror attack that happened on the 14th of February 2019 on the Pulwama district of the Jammu and Kashmir state of India.
To help it understand better first I am going mention about what actually happened in this recent terror attack. A CRPF convoy of more than 78 vehicles carrying around 3000 soldiers were passing through the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir state of India when a black Suv carrying more than 360 kg of explosives ran into the CRPF convoy and badly damaging the two buses , out of those two busses one bus was carrying around 39 personnel which later were confirmed by the Indian army to be martyred. The terrorist didn’t just stop by running into the CRPF, convoy after successfully putting a halt on the convoy there were other terrorists hidden in the bushes around that started open firing on the Jawans (soldiers), which resulted in various others injured. The group that took responsibility of this horrendous act was the Jaish-e-Mohammed based in Pakistan.
Now the question that must be coming to your mind would be how is this essay related to this terror attack, but in my opinion, I don’t think there would have been any better recent situation that could help understand my claims any better. This whole incident united India against Pakistan as a sense of Indian nationalism was put to test , whole nation stood up against it , Infact I should say the whole world condemned this horrendous act , But on the other hand Pakistan kept denying the fact that they had any connections or even any information regarding this incident . Infact there were some Pakistani media channels that labeled this attack as Indias own some little dirty game in awake of the coming elections in India.
Now coming back to my question of How much does nationalism fuel international conflict and instability? I would say a lot by stating the fact that this horrendous incident didn’t only shook India and Pakistan in the worst ways possible that they were on the brink of nuclear war or technically you can say world war three but the whole world was actually biting their nails knowing the fact that if that situation wasn’t de-escalated it literally would have meant the end of world let alone international conflict and instability.
In the awake of Indian peoples nationalism counter measures were taken by the IAF(Indian air force) as they conducted an air strike on the base of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group and calming the fact that the air strike killed more than 300 terrorists, which even more complicated the whole situation between India and Pakistan .
Now Talking about instability this incident didn’t just involve the army of both the nations but the business between both nations were also put on hold and India even canceled all its import contracts with Pakistan costing Pakistan an instant loss of 50 million USD as India returned their convoys filled with various fruits and veggies.
Now coming to the second part of my question regarding whether I think that nationalism is an outdated political ideology that should be done away with? Or do you think nationalism still plays an important role in global politics? To be honest in my opinion I would agree with both of them for the fact that nationalism is an outdated political ideology and definitely should be done with simply keeping in mind its harmful effects on the global scale as in the case of Pulwama attack , and I would also like to agree with the fact that yes, Nationalism still does play an important role in global politics .Now the question would be how ?
So when this whole situation of the terror attack happened it didn’t only affect India and Pakistan , Infact all the other countries(united states, Russia , china, England etc.) had to get involved too, united nations had to get involved as well just to make sure that the situation wasn’t escalated . In my opinion, I get the fact that the whole world was put on red alert regarding what might turn into a nuclear war and why everyone needed to get involved to avert that nuclear war situation, but I do believe somewhere hiding behind that reason to get involved was the politics that some nations wanted to play being the allies of both the nations in concern (India and Pakistan). Global politics in a major way was played between India and Pakistan for simply one thing in target that is Kashmir. As the main reason behind this whole incident was only due to the conflicts that has been going on and on for almost 30 years now regarding the Indian owned Kashmir territory and the Pakistan owned Kashmir territory. The world had a split view regarding this situation as the Pakistan based terror group Jaish-e-Mohmmed accepted the fact that attacks like these will keep on happening till the time Pakistan is given full control over the Indian own Kashmir territory, keeping this in mind some countries said just for the sake of the safety of the people India should give-up the territory where as many said doing this would mean that terrorism won and humanity lost .
In the end I would like to end this paper by coming to a conclusion that the terms Nationalism and conflicts/politics coexist, meaning in this present world no matter how much we try to separate nationalism from conflicts and politics we just cannot. People have been so brain washed that I think they have forgotten the real meaning of Nationalism and they are so brain dead in this present era that they cannot see the difference between being loyal to one’s own nation and killing millions in the name of it. If I could I would just disband this outdated and Dangerous political ideology of nationalism in an instant, but it is easier said than done.
Many have tried and many have failed to maintain the right balance between Nationalism and conflicts arising due to it. Nationalism has always played a key role in global politics and in my opinion it will keep doing it for many more ages to come.