Overview

The first book to show how nationalism can help us to fight climate change. The climate emergency is intensifying, while international responses continue to falter. In Climate Change and the Nation State, Anatol Lieven outlines a revolutionary approach grounded in realist thinking: redefining climate change as an existential threat to nation states - which it undoubtedly is-and mobilizing both national security elites and mass nationalism. He reminds us that nationalism has proven to be the most powerful force in motivating people to care about the wellbeing of future generations. Throughout, Lieven draws on historical examples to show how earlier political movements marshaled nationalism to implement progressive social reform. In order to implement and maintain a policy revolution such as ""Green New Deal,"" he argues, it will be necessary to create dominant national consensuses like those that enabled and sustained the original New Deal and the advanced welfare states in Europe. Now updated in paperback, Climate Change and the Nation State is an essential contribution to the debate on how to deal with a climatic crisis that-if left unchecked-threatens the survival of every nation.

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9780197584248

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Reviews

Thus far, the global response to climate change emphasizes talk rather than effective action. Lieven fills this strategic void by insisting that enlightened civic nationalism alone can stem this threat. Only the nation state can constrain corporate capitalism from further harming the environment. Only the nation state can motivate citizens to make the sacrifices needed to curb the mounting damage.AThis is a bold, original, gutsy, and absolutely essential book. -- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of The Age of Illusions Passivity in the face of climate change is the fatalism of our age.ALieven's book offers a bracing riposte to those who believe that only world government can solve global warming. Lieven makes a brilliant case that the nation state has to be the chief vehicle to confront humanity's surpassing crisis. Lieven is utterly persuasive about this challenge-the importance of our not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good. If you read one book on global warming, this should be it. -- Edward Luce, author of The Retreat of Western Liberalism This is one of those rare books with something really important to say. Lieven, one of the most original, independent-minded of foreign policy thinkers, tells his fellow realists that at this moment the world's great powers are far more threatened by climate change than they are by each other. -- Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, and Permanent Fellow, IWM Vienna Climate activists have yet to devise a successful political strategy for dramatically reducing the pace of warming. In his brilliant new book, Lieven argues that 'civic nationalism, ' combining loyalty to the nation and public sacrifice, is the only strategy with a chance at success. While not everyone may agree with his conclusions, it is impossible to escape the hard logic of his reasoning. -- Michael Klare, author of All Hell Breaking Loose This book is a clarion call for a renewed civic nationalism focused on the preservation of the environment and the arresting of climate change as vital aspects of a shared national and international good-one that true patriots of any country ought to place at the front and center of their political agenda. Lieven makes a compelling case for contesting the intolerant and anti-scientific far right's would-be monopoly on the language, imagery, and emotions of nationalism -- Aviel Roshwald, Professor of History, Georgetown University

Author Information

Anatol Lieven is the senior research fellow on Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

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