Nationalism, Populism, and the Changing Geopolitical Landscape

In recent years, few geopolitical trends have captured the attention of world watchers as readily as the trend of increasing rise of nationalism and populism, and the effects of these two related forces on the global political landscape. Recent events surrounding US immigration policy – which have prompted outrage and disgust from many onlookers within the United States and around the world – bring into sharp focus the degree to which nationalism, increasingly, resonates with elements of the American polity. Half way around the world, Turkish society is undergoing tremendous change as its government is reorganized in the image of its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has successfully ridden a populist wave, propelling him to heights of political power with little precedent in modern Turkish history. While numerous theories exist to explain the causes of rising nationalism and populism around the world, little consensus exists regarding how these forces could shape, or reshape, the geopolitical landscape of the futures

Many onlookers have pointed to widespread economic anxiety as a key contributing factor to populist and nationalist tendencies. Indeed, globalization, technological change, and international migration patterns have all be cited as destabilizing – or at the very least agitating – forces in economies throughout the world. The transformation that these forces bring to the societies that they touch can leave many without a livelihood, either because they are unwilling or unable to adapt to changing times. This well-tread path of economic analysis concludes by positing that economic dislocation leads directly to increased nationalist and populist tendency within the disaffected groups.

Pointing to global migration trends, which have led to increasingly diverse populations in various countries, some argue that the cultural anxieties felt by those living in countries undergoing deep demographic changes are of key importance in understanding increasing nationalism and populism. In this light, nationalism is seen as a reaction, by disaffected elements of a population, to the cultural pluralism inherent in globalization, and perhaps as an attempt to return to what these disaffected groups would characterize as a more comforting and familiar time.

“Nationalism” and “Populism” are broad and nuanced terms; their effects are widespread and complex. What are the causes of these global trends of populism and nationalism? Do these trends represent a momentary aberration or are they indicative of more fundamental shifts in global political, economic, and social forces? Whether a temporary peculiarity or a long-term trend, what changes can we expect to see in the global political landscape?