Nationalism and Internationalism in Liberalism, Marxism and Islam

Abstract

Professor Amin, who teaches international relations at Quaid-I-E Azam University in Islamabad, has provided us with a short but insightful analysis of twentieth-century writings from the Liberal, Marxist, and Islamic traditions on the issue of "Nationalism versus Internationalism." Pointing out that Western writings treat the "nation-state" as "a universal form:' he presents two main arguments: a nationalism emerged from of communitarian Internationalisms." of which Islamic revivalism is the most important in the Islamic world (p. 5), and b) Islamic revivalism - often misunderstood as being a backward-looking "fundamentalism" - is "a reaction against Liberal and Marxist internationalism which are seen as the two imperialist ideologies of the West" (p. 6).