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Globalism: Goods, capital and people should be able to move freely across borders. Versus Nationalism : Asserting sovereign control over one’s country. |
Nationalism is at the core of Brexit and the US election of 2016. A troubling aspect of this nationalism is its penchant for xenophobia and for ethnic and religious exclusion. It panders to fear of threats to linguistic, religious and cultural norms and wants to weaken global structures such as the World Trade Organization, NATO, the United Nations or NAFTA.
The second bill signed by President Washington was the Tariff Act of 1789. In his first address to Congress:
“A free people … should promote such manufactures as tend to make them independent on others for essential, particularly military supplies.”
Globalism: After the disaster of World War II, the European Union was formed in 1957 with the belief that war would become unthinkable by ceding some national sovereignty to international economic and political integration.
Globalists are enthralled by the efficiency of integrated free market trade but have underestimated the attendant disruption to workers. This needs attention.
A world of free trade, open borders and global government are concepts that do not engage the heart. Who gets emotional over pluralism or diversity? Nationalism evokes family, faith and country and is much easier to pander to.
We need to be careful that we don’t succumb to the emotions of nationalism and tear down the structures of global integration without having replacements.