State, Nation, and Nation State
Kuvakäsikirjoitus Teksti
- If you look at a map, all the countries are divided by clear border lines. In reality, things are not quite that simple. There are wars over boundaries, identities that don’t correspond with their own state, and all kinds of complications. Today we will be explaining the terms state, nation, and nation-state to give a better picture of what is really happening behind these clean borders.
- A sort of combination of the both is a nation-state. A nation state is a specific geographic area containing a sovereign organized society whose population identifies with that state and shares a common identity, history, religion, or culture. Japan is a nation-state since it is pretty much ethnically homogenous and most people living there share a common history and culture. It is also a sovereign state, making it a nation-state.
- Let’s start with a state. A state is an organized political entity. The U.S. is an official state since we are sovereign. This means we have control over what happens in our territory, a permanent population, defined territory, functioning government, and are able to have relations with other states.
- Now a nation on the other hand is defined as a group of people who feel a common identity due to things like a shared language, culture, religion, or history. A good example of this is Kurdish Muslims. Kurdish Muslims share a common identity. However, they don’t all live in one singular state, but in a region made up of multiple official states. This makes them a nation, but they aren’t a sovereign state. While many of them live in Iraq, few would identify as Iraqis since they identify as their nation.
- To make things more complicated, many states are multinational. This means that there are many nations, or shared identities, within the official state. Nigeria is a good example of this since it has a population made up of many different ethnic groups mainly Igbo (E- bo) Yoruba (yo-roo-ba), and Fulani (foo-lan-e) people. The U.S. is also an example of this since it is very diverse.
- So, as you can see, the world is a lot more complex than just clean borders. I hope this helped you better understand the difference between a state, nation, and nation state.
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