Editing Nation (section)

==Debate about a potential future of nations==
{{See also|Clash of Civilizations|Tribe (Internet)|Global citizenship|Geographic mobility|Transnationalism|Postnationalism}}
There is an ongoing debate about the future of nations − about whether this framework will persist as is and whether there are viable or developing alternatives.<ref name=news>{{cite magazine |title=End of nations: Is there an alternative to countries? |url=http://mpc-journal.org/blog/2016/11/09/end-of-nations-is-there-an-alternative-to-countries/ |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |access-date=10 May 2017 |archive-date=18 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318172657/http://mpc-journal.org/blog/2016/11/09/end-of-nations-is-there-an-alternative-to-countries/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

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.
[[Postnationalism]] is the process or trend by which nation states and national identities lose their importance relative to supranational and global entities. Several factors contribute to the trend Huntington identifies, including [[economic globalization]], a rise in importance of [[multinational corporation]]s, the internationalization of financial markets, the transfer of [[socio-political power]] from national authorities to supranational entities, such as multinational corporations, the [[United Nations]] and the [[European Union]] and the advent of new information and culture technologies such as the [[Internet]]. However attachment to citizenship and [[national identities]] often remains important.<ref>R. Koopmans and P. Statham; "Challenging the liberal nation-state? Postnationalism, multiculturalism, and the collective claims making of migrants and ethnic minorities in Britain and Germany"; ''[[American Journal of Sociology]]'' 105:652–96 (1999)</ref><ref>R.A. Hackenberg and R.R. Alvarez; "Close-ups of postnationalism: Reports from the US-Mexico borderlands"; ''Human Organization'' 60:97–104 (2001)</ref><ref>I. Bloemraad; "Who claims dual citizenship? The limits of postnationalism, the possibilities of transnationalism, and the persistence of traditional citizenship"; ''International Migration Review'' 38:389–426 (2004)</ref>

Jan Zielonka of the [[University of Oxford]] states that "the future structure and exercise of political power will resemble the medieval model more than the Westphalian one" with the latter being about "concentration of power, sovereignty and clear-cut identity" and [[neo-medievalism]] meaning "overlapping authorities, divided sovereignty, multiple identities and governing institutions, and fuzzy borders".<ref name=news/>