Since the landmark year (1989) when the USSR collapsed and the “Cold War” ended with the winner of the USA and the West in general, the global Western establishment led by the USA has shaped and implemented together with the world’s dominant progressive political and economic elites respectively the vision of globalisation where their goal would be to create a global supranational collective entity.
This has prompted certain states to take the anti-globalisation political pole to counter-globalisation, while expressing a peculiar nationalism. States such as India, Brazil and the US under Presidency of Donald Trump are leading examples of this political pole.
by T.C.
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This nationalism advocated by these countries has been described as new nationalism. Pioneers in expressing this nationalism are the UK and the US.
While the UK left the EU through Brexit with the will of the majority of its people, while the US under President Donald Trump (2016-present) caused a continuous introversion and gradual withdrawal from world sovereignty due to China’s continued rise and because of the restrictions placed on the US and the US Constitution by the various restrictions imposed by the International Agreements and Treaties equally in which the US was at the fore until 2016.
US-UK: The Eternal Alliance
Both the UK and the US, which are a historical continuation of the world domination of Anglo-Saxon culture where the UK, after 200 years of world domination after the end of The Second World War, has effectively surrendered world domination to the US, where for the past 75 years they have dominated the planet, have forged a matching of interests that shape the change in world history for their benefit and for the benefit of the countries that follow their policies.
Photo by the website www.american.edu
Both countries are the model of the Liberal Democracy, where the rule of law and respect for human rights are the crowning point of their Republic. Together, these two countries have the longest path to the establishment of the democratic state, to parliamentary institutions, to the Constitution, to the rule of law and to human rights not only at national but also at global level.
The establishment of all these pillars of the Democracy together with their liberalism have shaped the history and culture of mankind over the last two centuries.
This love for liberal society led them to join as allies in the First World War by winning it by eliminating with their victories the concept of state-empire, then allowing the nations of Europe to flourish politically.
In the Second World War to defeat the “Axis Powers” they were united again under the same allied umbrella. The same alliance continued and developed further during the “Cold War” moving together as one nation against the communism of the USSR, and prevailing it having created the basis for the global predominance of the liberal state and its respective values.
Their alliance was founded through NATO, bilateral trade, global security, and culture. It can therefore be said that all these timeless shared values and interests that unite the US and the UK have formed a unique alliance in history that makes both countries ready to face the challenges and seize the opportunities that the future holds for them.
Brexit and US President Donald Trump’s support for this and the UK in general from 2016 to date creates the basis for renewal of this alliance to be certified through the new trade agreement between the two countries.
At the political level, the characteristics of the leaders and the respective policies pursued by these two countries can be summarised as follows:
1. The retreat in the priority of defending the rights of the elites of their societies in favour of defending the rights of lower- and middle-income citizens.
2. Withdrawal from International Organizations and International Conventions with the aim of both revising their operation and why not establishing new corresponding International Organizations that will further support and defend their interests based on the new nationalism they represent.
3. The rejection of liberal globalisation with priority over policies to defend their national interests.
4. The will to achieve this change at both national and global level.
Their aim is for all these objectives to lead to the re-power of the nation-state, always applying the liberal and constitutionally guaranteed way of governance to their peoples.
USA-UK Political (Liberal) Nationalism
The Civic Nationalism designation includes all the terms that define the American National Identity that it uses and is based on the rule of law and individual freedoms, while following and applying specific national rules.
This peculiar political nationalism has nothing to do with classical nationalism that promotes the interests of a particular nation as a group of people, in priority over any other individual or collective interest for the purpose of sovereignty over a region that emerged as an ideology in the 18th century.
It is against today’s internationalism, against communism-socialism (sacrifice of the individual in favor of the party), against fascism (sacrifice of the individual in favor of state) and against Nazism (sacrifice of the individual in favor of race).
The framework of American Political Nationalism is defined by three main parameters:
1. Economic Nationalism (based on the protectionism of domestic production).
2. National sovereignty through border security. Defend it against internal (terrorism) and external (migration, etc.) risks. Patriotism must therefore necessarily come to the fore in defence of national sovereignty.
3. The transfer of powers from the Senior Administrative Officers of the State to the President -leader, where the government and the public administration should apply his decisions uncritically and without Constitutional safeguards regardless of whether these are correct or not.
Donald Trump, 45th US President in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly (24/09/2019) “…… The future belongs to patriots, sovereign and independent states.”
On the other hand, the UK has always been against deeper economic and political integration of the EU. Brexit shows the British people’s refusal to participate in a mega-state (EU) and the choice to participate only in the nation-state (UK).
The explanation of this phenomenon where UK-USA over the last 270 years have created the foundations for the development and establishment of the Liberal Democracy by imposing globally the policy of laissez-faire laissez-passer because of better defence of their economic interests, they are now choosing the opposite policy in this political direction because they now consider that liberal globalisation is against their national interests and further promotes the interests of China and the EU.
In addition, they consider that the damage to their economic interests from the current expression of globalisation is so powerful that they will gradually begin to undermine the rights and obligations that their Liberal Republic attaches to the highest office-honor that man can take in their societies, the honor of citizen.
At the same time, they do foresee that the constant blows to their economic and commercial interests from liberal globalisation will gradually weaken the optimal functioning of democratic institutions in their countries, such as parliamentarism which defending the rights of their citizens, thus paving the carpet for nascent domestic fascisms.
The seed that flourished this US-UK political choice
The seed of this policy represented by the US and the UK was named by Yael Tamir as Liberal Nationalism, according to her book of the same title (“Liberal Nationalism”, Yael Tamir).
Liberal Nationalism, argues Yael Tamir, is against classical nationalism in that in Liberal Nationalism the citizens of a country are encouraged to participate together in a common future that has a common political and social objective (liberal democracy) that will lead them to achieve the shared social well-being throughout society.
The framework for achieving this social and political objective is based on their national values and traditions and their historical path (Nationalism). The achievement of social well-being according to the followers of Liberal Nationalism can be achieved by achieving three objectives:
- Border Security
- Application of High Economic Protectionism
- The promotion of national culture and values while respecting the cultures and values of other states.
The November 2020 US election will determine whether this UK-US political alliance will continue (if Donald Trump is re-elected) or be shredded. The main representatives and supporters of liberal globalisation are the EU (liberal democracy) and China (authoritarian model of governance-liberal capitalist model) for its own distinct reasons each country, while the main representatives of Liberal Nationalism are the USA, the UK. The future will show which political class and political dogma will prevail
