Enduring States in the Face of Challenges from Within and Without

Nation-states came into existence in 18th-century Europe, and, since then, Nation-state building has been made around the world. During the 20th century, Nation-states faced difficulties and challenges. Toward the end of the 1980s, the world witnessed many ethnic issues that had remained frozen until the end of the Cold War. Those ethnic issues have since come to the fore in many parts of the world. In some cases, Nation-states have been forced to reorganize themselves into multinational states, based on the idea of multiculturalism. In other cases, acute ethnic conflict has led to military confrontation that seriously threatened existing states. At the same time, the world has seen that some phenomena - such as globalization, the formation and development of supranational organizations, the decentralization of the state system, and the active emergence of civil society - have lowered the importance of the roles and functions of states. In this way, states have been shaken and transformed, and in some cases, have collapsed as history plays out. However, it is also true that, in many cases, states have endured to the present day, despite the multiple difficulties mentioned above. This book looks at the internal and external concerns that challenge states' existence in today's world. (Series: Frontiers of Area Studies)