# Nationalism The political ideology that prioritizes the interests, identity, and sovereignty of a nation — defined variously by ethnicity, culture, language, religion, or civic institutions. Nationalism is not inherently right-wing (it drove anti-colonial liberation movements across the Global South) but in the vault's scope it primarily appears as the ideological substrate of contemporary right-wing populism across the US, Europe, and beyond. ## Varieties of Nationalism The vault tracks several distinct nationalist currents, each with its own definition of who constitutes the nation and what the state owes its members. **Civic nationalism** holds that the nation is defined by shared political institutions, laws, and citizenship rather than by blood or culture. Mainstream politicians across the spectrum invoke civic-nationalist language — the Constitution, the rule of law, assimilation — while disagreeing sharply about who qualifies for membership. **National conservatism** is the intellectual project led by Yoram Hazony and the [[Edmund Burke Foundation]] to construct a post-liberal right grounded in national sovereignty, traditional religion, and rejection of globalist institutions. [[National Conservatism]] conferences have drawn increasingly mainstream [[Republican Party]] figures, blurring the line between conservative establishment and nationalist insurgency. **Christian nationalism** fuses American national identity with Christianity — typically evangelical Protestantism, though Catholic integralist and charismatic dominionist strands also exist. PRRI 2025 survey data found roughly a third of Americans qualify as [[Christian Nationalism]] Adherents (11%) or Sympathizers (21%), with white evangelical Protestants most heavily represented. The [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] maps the organizational infrastructure behind this current. Christian nationalist imagery was prominently displayed during the January 6 Capitol attack. **Ethnonationalism** defines the nation in explicitly racial or ethnic terms. [[Ethnonationalism]] shades into [[White Nationalism]] and [[White Supremacy]] at its most radical edge, and sustains the [[White Nationalist Radicalization Pipeline]] that moves individuals from mainstream grievance into organized extremism. The [[Great Replacement Theory]] — the claim that non-white immigration is a deliberate demographic weapon — has become the connective tissue linking ethnonationalist movements across the Atlantic. **Economic nationalism** prioritizes domestic industry, trade protectionism, and skepticism of multilateral economic institutions. [[Economic Nationalism]] overlaps with [[Isolationism]] in foreign policy and has become a bipartisan theme, though its right-wing expression tends to merge with cultural nationalism in ways the left-wing version does not. ## Nationalism in American Politics American nationalism has deep roots in [[Manifest Destiny]] and [[American Exceptionalism]] — the belief that the United States has a unique civilizational mission. These older currents resurface in contemporary debates about immigration, trade, and military intervention. The modern American nationalist right coalesced around the [[America First]] banner. The phrase traces to the [[America First Committee]] of the 1940s isolationist movement, was revived by [[Pat Buchanan]] in the 1990s [[Paleoconservatism]] tradition, and achieved mass-political scale under [[Donald Trump]]. The [[America First Movement]] and the broader [[MAGA]] coalition made nationalism the organizing principle of Republican politics. Key figures in this ecosystem include [[Steve Bannon]], who articulated economic nationalism as White House chief strategist; [[Stephen Miller]], who translated nationalist ideology into immigration policy; [[Tucker Carlson]], who broadcast nationalist themes to a mass television audience; and [[JD Vance]], who brought nationalist populism into the Senate and vice presidency. [[Peter Thiel]] provided financial backing to several nationalist-aligned candidates and institutions. The institutional infrastructure includes the [[Claremont Institute]], which provides constitutional-originalist arguments for nationalist governance; [[Hillsdale College]], which trains a nationalist-inflected conservative cadre; [[Turning Point USA]], which organizes nationalist-populist youth; and the [[Council for National Policy]], which coordinates strategy across the right. More radical nationalist formations include the [[Groyper Movement]] led by [[Nick Fuentes]], the [[Identitarian Movement]], [[Identity Evropa]], the [[Proud Boys]], and the [[Oath Keepers]]. The [[Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally]] of 2017 exposed the overlap between these groups and made the mainstreaming problem visible. The [[Alt-Right]] served as a gateway between online radicalization and organized nationalist politics before its brand collapsed. ## Nationalism in Europe and Beyond European nationalism has its own deep history, but the contemporary wave shares personnel, rhetoric, and institutional networks with its American counterpart. [[Viktor Orban]] and [[Fidesz]] in Hungary represent the most developed model of nationalist governance within a formally democratic framework — what Orban calls "illiberal democracy." His government's approach to immigration, media control, and EU relations has become a template for nationalist leaders elsewhere. [[Marine Le Pen]] and the [[Front National]] (now Rassemblement National) have brought nationalist politics within striking distance of the French presidency. [[Nigel Farage]] was the driving force behind [[Brexit]], the most consequential nationalist political achievement in contemporary European history. [[Giorgia Meloni]] brought post-fascist nationalism into the Italian prime ministership. The [[AfD]] (also known as [[AfD]]) has become a major force in German politics despite — or because of — the country's historical sensitivities around nationalism. The [[Nouvelle Droite]] and its activist offshoot [[Generation Identity]] provide the intellectual and organizational infrastructure for pan-European nationalism, drawing on the work of Alain de Benoist and the French Nouvelle Droite to articulate a culturalist nationalism that avoids explicit biological racism while achieving similar political effects. Beyond Europe, [[Jair Bolsonaro]] in Brazil, [[Narendra Modi]] in India, and [[Boris Johnson]] in the UK each represented distinct national variants of the nationalist turn — demonstrating that the phenomenon is global rather than Western. [[Samuel Huntington]] and his [[Clash of Civilizations]] thesis provided an influential intellectual framework for understanding global politics as a contest between civilizational blocs, an analysis that nationalists across multiple countries have adopted and adapted. ## Nationalism and Adjacent Ideologies Nationalism intersects with but remains distinct from several related concepts tracked in the vault. [[Right-Wing Populism]] is the political style most commonly fused with nationalism in the current era, but populism can exist without nationalism and vice versa. [[Populism]] as a broader category includes left-wing variants that share anti-elite rhetoric without the national-identity component. [[Nativism]] and [[Immigration Restrictionism]] represent the policy dimension where nationalism most directly translates into governance. [[Anti-immigration]] sentiment is the single most reliable predictor of nationalist voting across Western democracies. [[Fascism]] represents the historical extreme of nationalist politics — the fusion of ultranationalism with totalitarian state power. [[Authoritarianism]] is the governance tendency that nationalist movements risk enabling, particularly through [[Democratic Backsliding]]. The [[Christofascism]] concept describes the specific fusion of Christian nationalist ideology with authoritarian governance methods. [[Identity Politics]] is the broader category under which nationalism operates — the mobilization of group identity for political purposes. The [[Culture War]] framing positions nationalist cultural claims against progressive universalism. ## Rhetorical and Psychological Dimensions Nationalist movements rely on specific rhetorical strategies tracked elsewhere in the vault. [[Scapegoating]] — the attribution of national decline to an identifiable enemy group — is a recurring feature. [[Dehumanization]] of out-groups prepares the psychological ground for exclusionary policies. [[Propaganda]] techniques, including [[Kremlin Disinformation]], amplify nationalist narratives across borders. The [[Fourteen Words and 1488]] represent the most distilled extremist expression of white nationalist ideology, functioning as a shibboleth within radical movements. ## Intellectual Lineages Contemporary nationalism draws on several intellectual traditions. The [[Old Right Ecosystem]] traces the pre-Cold War American right that prioritized nationalism over anti-communism. The [[New Right]] represents the post-2016 intellectual formation that synthesizes nationalism with online culture and anti-liberal philosophy. [[Paleoconservatism]] — the tradition of [[Pat Buchanan]] — represents the bridge between old-right nationalism and its contemporary MAGA revival. The [[Cold War]] reshaped American nationalism by subordinating it to anti-communism for decades; the end of the Cold War reopened space for nationalism as an independent political force. [[International Relations]] theory provides the academic framework within which nationalist claims about sovereignty and the state system are debated. ## See Also - [[National Conservatism]] — the intellectual movement that made nationalism respectable on the American right - [[Christian Nationalism]] — the religious variant - [[Viktor Orban]] — the most successful contemporary practitioner of nationalist governance - [[Ethnonationalism]] — the explicitly ethnic definition of the nation - [[Economic Nationalism]] — the trade and industrial policy dimension - [[Vox (Spain)]] — the Spanish nationalist-populist party