Editing Nation state (section)

== Future ==

It has been speculated by both proponents of [[globalization]] and various [[science fiction]] writers that the concept of a nation state may disappear with the ever-increasing interconnectedness of the world.<ref name="ref1"/> Such ideas are sometimes expressed around concepts of a [[world government]]. Another possibility is a [[societal collapse]] and move into communal anarchy or zero world government, in which nation states no longer exist.

=== Clash of civilizations ===
The theory of the [[clash of civilizations]] lies in direct contrast to [[Cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] theories about an ever more connected world that no longer requires nation states. According to [[political scientist]] [[Samuel P. Huntington]], people's cultural and religious [[Identity (social science)|identities]] will be the primary source of conflict in the post–[[Cold War]] world.

The theory was originally formulated in a 1992 lecture<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aei.org/issue/29196 |title=U.S. Trade Policy&nbsp;— Economics |publisher=AEI |date=15 February 2007 |access-date=20 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130629170348/http://www.aei.org/issue/29196 |archive-date=29 June 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> at the [[American Enterprise Institute]], which was then developed in a 1993 ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?",<ref name="FAarticle">Official copy (free preview): {{cite web |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5188/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations.html |title=The Clash of Civilizations? |work=[[Foreign Affairs]] |date=Summer 1993 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629022856/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5188/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations.html |archive-date=29 June 2007 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> in response to [[Francis Fukuyama]]'s 1992 book, ''[[The End of History and the Last Man]]''. Huntington later expanded his [[thesis]] in a 1996 book ''The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order''.

Huntington began his thinking by surveying the diverse theories about the nature of global politics in the post–Cold War period. Some theorists and writers argued that [[human rights]], [[liberal democracy]] and capitalist [[free market]] economics had become the only remaining ideological alternative for nations in the post–Cold War world. Specifically, Francis Fukuyama, in ''The End of History and the Last Man'', argued that the world had reached a [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegelian]] "end of history".

Huntington believed that while the age of [[ideology]] had ended, the world had reverted only to a normal state of affairs characterized by cultural conflict. In his thesis, he argued that the primary axis of conflict in the future will be along cultural and religious lines.

As an extension, he posits that the concept of different [[civilization]]s, as the highest rank of cultural identity, will become increasingly useful in analyzing the potential for conflict.

In the 1993 ''Foreign Affairs'' article, Huntington writes:

{{blockquote|It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.<ref name="FAarticle"/>}}

[[Sandra Joireman]] suggests that Huntington may be characterised as a neo-[[Primordialism|primordialist]], as, while he sees people as having strong ties to their ethnicity, he does not believe that these ties have always existed.<ref name="Joireman">{{cite book |author=Sandra Fullerton Joireman|author-link=Sandra Joireman|title=Nationalism and Political Identity |publisher=Continuum |location=London |year=2003 |page=30 |isbn=0-8264-6591-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFT4HYDUlh0C&q=Samuel%20Huntington%20primordialist&pg=PA30}}</ref>