2026-06-27 –, Room 302 (Seats 48)
The consensus of nationalism scholarship, among political scientists, scholars of IR, and even philosophers, is that nationalism is not necessarily illiberal. Yet most of them have dismissed the last three decades of Habsburg and Central European history, which has refuted the national narratives on which the classic theories of nationalism and much political science are based. Following Benedict Anderson and Ernest Gellner’s first definition of nationalism, prominent political scientists consider self-determination and national movements in general to be nationalist and conflate patriotism and nationality with nationalism, hence nationalism’s possible benign and “liberal” nature. Yet these views are based on unhistorical assumptions, including the belief that the creation of mono-national states à la Mazzini was progressive. Through the Habsburg lens, this interdisciplinary study focusses on the distinctions between nationalism, on the one hand, and diverse forms of national allegiance, dynastic patriotism, and supranationalism, on the other, showing how Habsburg considerations on nationalism would correct several of the assumptions of nationalism scholarship.
Extending these insights to the East Asian context, where national identities and anti-colonialism are often misleadingly included under the rubric of nationalism, the study undertakes a comparative examination of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Qing Empire. Both were multi-ethnic polities commonly portrayed in Orientalist scholarship as decaying and doomed to collapse, narratives that continue to shape fields such as international relations and comparative politics despite substantial historiographical revision. Like Austria, the Qing Empire was replaced by nationalist regimes that dismantled older imperial frameworks of accommodation. By re-examining these cases together, the study exposes the myth of liberal nationalism showing how nationalism is a principle of illegitimacy based on exclusion and forced assimilation.
Mario Maritan gained a PhD in modern history from University College London, where he taught modern European and Middle Eastern history, having previously studied at Durham and Cambridge. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of International and Area Studies of Sogang University and the Research Institute of Comparative History and Culture of Hanyang University in Seoul.
His "The Fight for a Supranational World: Trieste, the Adriatic and the Habsburgs, 1848-1867" is forthcoming with Purdue University Press and his critique of "liberal nationalism" appears in an article forthcoming with The European Legacy.