Ethno-Racial Conflicts By Avery Benton
Avery is a third year undergraduate studying Ancient History BA. She is heavily involved in and keen on researching contemporary world events: particularly, she is interested in nationalism and manifestations of democracy and their effects on state’s domestic and international policies, US foreign policy, and Transatlantic relations.
The Rise of the Right: Anti-Globalisation Backlash and the Ugly Face of Ethno-Nationalism in the 2020s
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thno-racial politics in the 2020s is going to be defined by globalization, or more accurately, by anti-globalization. The backlash and resulting sociopolitical movements shaped by ethnocentrism can be grouped into nationalistic and populistic tendencies. Ethno-nationalism is what is on the rise this decade, and it is markedly different from its counterpart, civic nationalism. The ethno-racial quality of ethno-nationalism and it’s polarizing quality of politics is what further divides a country from the inside out. It is the “us vs them” mentality which harms the cohesiveness of the nation, and it is through ethno-nationalism on a broader, international scale and white nationalism in Anglo nations which have started to emerge from the depths. Nationalism and populism both adapt the definition of globalization, usually in the form of anti-globalization, to fit their political aims of uniting an ethnicity against an “other”, whether it be a different ethnicity, elites, or another country, etc. [2] Nationalism and populism adaptations of anti-globalization in the forms of segregated ethnic-racial politics, while it might spell the preservation of the nation-state for now, also poses a huge geopolitical risk in terms of conflict. [3]
There has been a buildup of nationalism across the globe in the past decades, most notably, white nationalism in the Western world with the United States as a hot spot.[4] 2020 as a year alone had the amount of spectacles expected in a decade, and the United States is a warning for the trend for the rest of the globe. The recent attempt on the Capitol and Senate, the election of Donald Trump and his subsequent fall from grace, coupled with the rising of right-wing parties in Europe, all against the backdrop of emerging fascists in the Philippines and Turkey, all spell a dangerous combination of divisive political landscapes for the 2020s as a decade. [5] Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey, and Trump in the US all show signs of dangerous political antics that centralize ethno-racial politics as their core source of power. While Modi and Erdogan have been in power before Trump, the ramifications of Trump’s presidency are emboldened nationalist and right-wing populist players across the globe, and the 2020s will feel this effect. [6] The world has essentially been divided into two ethno-racially focused political camps: White nationalists and Ethno-nationalism. Both of these nationalist politics are underlined by strong rightwing populist political rhetoric, fueling both parties on the conservative side. The National Front in France, Modi’s Hindu-focused Bharatiya Janata Party, Erdogan’s Muslim-Turk focused political rhetoric, and the United State’s Republican Party swing towards alt-right politics is to name only some of the right-leaning
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