Nationalism and the Transformation of the State

Lars-Erik Cederman is Professor of International Conflict Research at ETH Zürich: He is the author of Emergent Actors in World Politics (1997), co-author of Inequality, Grievances and Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and Sharing Power, Securing Peace? (Cambridge University Press, 2022), as well as numerous articles in scientific journals. Luc Girardin is a project leader at ETH Zürich and CTO at Macrofocus. He is a trained computer and data scientist with a foot in the social sciences. He co-created the Ethnic Power Relations (EPR) dataset, led the GROWup federated data platform, and developed the GROWLab agent-based simulator. Carl Müller-Crepon is an Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and received his Ph.D. from ETH Zürich in 2019. Published across leading journals, his research focuses on state building and ethnic politics in relation to local development and conflict. Yannick I. Pengl received his PhD from ETH Zürich in 2018 and served as Senior Scientist there until 2023. His research focuses on political economy in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and beyond and has been published in leading journals.

• Preface; Introduction; Part I. Setting the Analytical Stage: 1. Nationalism and the state in the literature; 2. A theory of nationalist state transformation; 3. Operationalizing state-nation congruence; Part II. Nationalism and the Transformation of the State: 4. War and state formation in Early Modern Europe; 5. Nationalism and the puzzle of reversing state size; 6. Shaping states into nations; Part III. Nationalist State Transformation and War: 7. Nationality questions and war; 8. Restorative nationalism and war; 9. Railroads, separatist mobilization and conflict; 10. Nationalism, right-peopling and ethnic cleansing; Part IV. Policy Consequences: Toward Nationalist Geopolitics?: 11. Conclusions for research and practice; Part V. Supplementary Information: S4. War and state formation in Early Modern Europe; S5 Nationalism and the puzzle of reversing state size; S6. Shaping states into nations; S7. Nationality questions and war; S8. Restorative nationalism and war; S9. Railroads, separatist mobilization, and conflict; S10. Nationalism, 'right-peopling' and ethnic cleansing; Bibliography; Index.

'This magnificent work, through groundbreaking empirical research, demonstrates the destabilizing power of ethnonationalism contesting the spatial incongruities between state boundaries and the contours of cultural difference.  In so doing, it challenges conventional wisdoms and sets a new standard for thinking about war, separatism, ethnic cleansing, and the transformation of the state system.' Mark R. Beissinger, Henry W. Putnam Professor in the Department of Politics, Princeton University