Liberal nationalism

Liberal nationalism was born out of the Enlightenment era. Many liberals believed that the nation-state was ultimate expression of rational government.

Rousseau’s belief in general will led liberal nationalists to advocate a government base on popular sovereignty.

Also, liberals were attracted to nationalism as a mean of legitimizing the state. They believed that by combining the state and nation, the social contract is acceptable.

The core value of liberalism, freedom is compatible with the nation. For liberals, the individuals are only free if the nation is free to pursue its own goals and ambitions. As

such, the freedom of both the nation and individual are linked together.

Also, they believe that every nation has an equal right to self-determination, thus developing respect for each other. For example, during the Paris Peace Conference Wilson believed that the poles to has the same right as Americans to self-determination.

Their belief that every nation has a right to self-determination has led to the creation of international bodies to promote the creation of nation-states such as the UN. However the UN was regarded as ineffective as they failed to prevent the Rwandan genocide.

Western states such as UK believed that the sovereign right of states should be overridden by the international community in the name of protecting human rights. For example, in the UK New Labour government promoted the intervention in the Kosovo region of Serbia in 1999 and in the civil war in Sierra Leone in 1998-99.

However, there are liberal objections to nationalism as a whole partly because they view nationalism as promoting emotional led actions over reason.