Rethinking the End of Empire

The return of great power politics at a time of surging nationalism invites a fresh look at why the world order centers on the nation-state. Why did a nation-state order emerge when nationalist activism was usually an elitist pursuit in the age of empire? Ordinary inhabitants and even most indigenous elites tended to possess religious, ethnic, or status-based identities rather than national identities. Why then did the desires of a typically small number result in wave after wave of new states?