Nationalism and the Transformation of the State: Border Change and Political Violence in the Modern World

Cambridge University Press.

Arguing that the return of geopolitics, ushered in by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014 and including recent warring in Ukraine and the Middle East, is driven by nationalism, this book challenges conventional approaches that ignore border change. The authors focus on how nationalism transforms the state. Using geocoded historical maps covering st ate borders and ethnic groups in Europe, their spatial approach shows how, since the French Revolution, nationalism caused increasing congruence between state and national borders and how a lack of congruence increased the risk of armed conflict. The work traces this macroprocess from early modern Europe and widens the geographic scope to the entire world in the mid‐twentieth century. The analysis shows that nationalist leaders need to be taken at their word: the risk of conflict may be increased by how nat ionalists seeking to revive past golden ages and restore their nations’ prestige respond to incongruent borders.

Cederman, Lars-Erik, Luc Girardin, Carl Müller-Crepon, and Yannick Pengl. 2025. Nationalism and the Transformation of the State: Border Change and Political Violence in the Modern World. Cambridge University Press.

@book{nastac,
   title = {Nationalism and the Transformation of the State: Border Change and Political Violence in the Modern World},
   publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
   year = {2025},
   Author = {Cederman, Lars-Erik and Girardin, Luc and  M\"uller-Crepon, Carl and Pengl, Yannick},
   abstract = {Arguing that the return of geopolitics, ushered in by Russia's annexation of the Crimea in 2014 and including recent warring in Ukraine and the Middle East, is driven by nationalism, this book challenges conventional approaches that ignore border change. The authors focus on how nationalism transforms the state. Using geocoded historical maps covering st ate borders and ethnic groups in Europe, their spatial approach shows how, since the French Revolution, nationalism caused increasing congruence between state and national borders and how a lack of congruence increased the risk of armed conflict. The work traces this macroprocess from early modern Europe and widens the geographic scope to the entire world in the mid-twentieth century. The analysis shows that nationalist leaders need to be taken at their word: the risk of conflict may be increased by how nat ionalists seeking to revive past golden ages and restore their nations' prestige respond to incongruent borders.},
   status = {nastac-book}
}