JOHN TAN

U2231440D

QN 4: Examine the challenges and opportunities of

addressing global issues like climate change,

pandemics, and migration in the context of nationalist

foreign policy tendencies

Introduction

In the 21st century, the world has become increasingly interconnected and interdependent. The

problems the world faces have become the same.

Presently the world continues to be an anarchic, self-help system despite an increased presence

of international organisations. It is within this system that nations must contend with issues that

can no longer be dealt with alone on a national level. This creates a catch-22, where from a

realist perspective, every nation is out for its own benefit, but must now also collaborate lest they

fall to existential threats. This essay seeks to examine the challenges and opportunities created in

addressing global challenges from the perspective of a nationalist. In doing so, we will examine

their motivations, proceeded by examining nationalist foreign policy in relations to the issues of

climate change, migration, pandemics and terrorism

The nationalist

The nationalist exists within this system and holds similar motivations to realist states. Not only

do they seek to maintain sovereignty and self-governance over its borders but the identity of

their nation. The nation is an imagined community and it carries with it an identity, with many

ideals and normative values. The nationalist seeks to preserve these values, and when acting on

the international stage, will attempt to accomplish this much like a realist. However, we must

take into account the value they place upon their values, and how that will determine an

irrational course of action should those values be threatened. For the nationalist, these issues

become framed in terms of maintaining the security of their own nation, alongside its identity

and values.
Nationalism, in its basest definition, refers to a political ideology that seeks congruity of national

and political borders for self-governance (Gellner, 2006). Nationalist are actors who advocate for

nationalism, and are thus self-interested in the status of their nation. In examining their

motivation, we can determine how they would approach the challenges and opportunities created

by global challenges. Nationalists are often impacted by domestic politics, with them relying on

the popular support of their people. Inversely, nationalism and national identity can influence

individual policy makers, which can shape public opinion, resulting in growing support for

nationalist foreign policy (Herrmann, Isernia, & Segatti, 2009)

Nationalism comes in different flavours. For the purposes of this essay, we will focus on two;

civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism. Civic nationalism is a commitment to the state, and its

values. State membership determines nationality and not one's ethnicity. The identity of its

citizens is not tied to a single ethnic majority, but instead other common traits like living within

the same borders. Ethnic nationalism on the other hand, is a commitment to a group of common

descent (Suzuki, 2018) . The common factor that unites the members of a state that draws its

identity from ethnic nationalism is their race. An example of this would be a state like China or

Turkey, where it is majority Chinese or Turkish. An extension of this nationalism would be how

they consider their diasporas not only members of their newfound settled community, but remain

a part of their original community.

Climate change

Climate change poses both opportunities and challenges for countries with nationalist foreign

policy tendencies. The nature of climate change is such that it cannot be dealt with singularly by
nation states. Unchecked, the consequences of climate change are existential, and thus require

leaders to cooperate.

However, this might prove challenging to countries with nationalist foreign policy tendencies.

The profile of a leader who leads such a country tends to be populist leaders who are installed by

nationalistic voters with the understanding that they will place national interest above all else. As

such, they tend to focus on relative gains rather than absolute gains. If this leader predicts that

their gain from a regional or multilateral cooperation will be less than other states, they will be

inclined to walk away (Magcamit, 2017), so as to preserve their position at home.

While the consequences of climate change are catastrophic, the issue is that they are not

immediate. The gradual creep of rising temperatures and sea levels and its consequences in the

media are often downplayed. Coastal communities might be underwater and there might be

droughts, floods and food shortages, but not right now. Populist leaders have used the short-term

orientation of their voters as a means of buck passing and avoiding responsibility. This could be

most clearly seen when Trump came to power in 2016. He leveraged climate change denial

within the US to pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreements, and allowed the US to avoid shouldering

its part in fighting climate change (Hersher, 2020).

Assuming a leader can convince their population of the severity of climate change, addressing

this issue can be an opportunity for international collaboration. The international community has

created agreements like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which had participating states agree to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of global warming. In 2016, the Paris Agreements

came into effect. It had the stated goal of limiting the increase of the global temperature while

calling for greater accountability as well as having developed countries aid developing countries

in financing greener economies.

While the Paris Agreement offers some relief to developing countries, a major criticism of green

initiatives like it is the role developed countries, like the United States and the United Kingdom

take. Developing countries, like Kenya, require carbon emissions for continued development.

However, they are expected to leapfrog to renewable energy and face taxation if they do not.

They feel it is unfair when this expectation comes from the old colonial powers, who had their

opportunity to emit greenhouse gases without reprisal (Anna, Musambi, 2023)

For the nationalist from a developing country the challenge of dealing with climate change

alongside the international community will be finding the equilibrium where they can participate

while not hurting the country's economic development. Not doing so could result in them

becoming international pariahs as the rest of the international community feel they are not doing

their part in fighting climate change. However, there are also opportunities for countries with

nationalist foreign policy tendencies. Climate change is an existential threat and because there

are so many opportunities for collaboration, the nationalist can raise their international standing,

boosting the position of their country. Ultimately, the nationalist must find the goldilocks zone

where they can make the most out of their participation without angering their domestic

population. Relative gains are the name of the game, and even if their country benefits from

fighting climate change, if it seems that other countries are benefitting more, and they are

benefitting less, they will be forced to walk away.

When dealing with the eventual fallout of climate change, the nationalist will take the approach

of the defensive realist. They will seek the preservation of their own country, and this will mean

willingness to go to war over resources or the disbarring of climate refugees. Normative values

are often disregarded when it comes to matters of national survival, and when it comes down to

upholding peace or making sure your people have sufficient food and water to survive, the
nationalist will choose the latter. Countries are willing to go to war over natural resources. For

example, Singapore’s former Prime Minister, Lee Kuan has declared its intention to go to war

with Malaysia should their neighbour stop the transfer of water. Regardless of their past history,

states will continue to seek its continued preservation over all else.

Migration and Terrorism

Another global issue that the nationalist must address is that of migration. As the world becomes

more connected, the movement of workers more frequent, and more porous borders. People

become migrants for a variety of reasons, but more commonly they do so in search of better

opportunities abroad. For the country receiving migrants, this can create a host of issues.

For the ethno-nationalist, this is especially true. The value and culture of migrants might diverge

from the host country’s values and this could be a launching pad for conflict and discrimination.

This issue becomes exacerbated in countries with large ethnic majorities such as Belgium.

During the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, neighbouring European states took in many refugees. In

Belgium, this led to pushpack against allowing these people in as the regular citizens felt they

were being treated unfairly in their own country (Murdock, 2015). Migrants can pose a perceived

threat to countries with nationalistic undercurrents because they can be seen as outsiders, or

cultural lessers who come to threaten and dilute the host country’s culture . (Magcamit, 2017)

In addressing migration, the nationalist has the opportunity to create a foreign policy that looks

to preserve the status quo prior to the influx of migrants. Populist leaders at home often use

migrants as scapegoats as a way to whip up support from their citizens. In many countries, the

shift leftwards has led to pushback by a nationalist right. Consider how Donald Trump, the US’s

45th President rose to power. He garnered support from disenfranchised Americans who felt that

the establishment had pushed them to the side, and that the liberal left was letting immigrants
take their jobs away. Consider language like “They’re (Mexico) sending people that have lots of

problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing

crime. They’re rapists!” (Ye, 2015). This came after much of American industry became

outsourced and the cost of living rose dramatically, leaving many Amercians struggling. The

perceived sense of emergency, a need for securitization allows these leaders to rise to power. In

response to this threat, leaders will attempt to tighten borders, and to come to deals with

countries that are sending them these migrants for better economic deals. This came to be when

Trump asked Mexico to pay for the wall he intended to build along the US-Mexico border

(Pramuk, 2018).

Migrants not only pose a perceived threat to economic security, but also a classic security threat.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, fear and suspicion of Muslims rose. In

the United States this tragedy was an opportunity for nationalists to reinforce the idea of

nationhood, of the sense that America was under attack. In the ensuing aftermath, then President,

George W Bush, launched the war on terror. His rhetoric suggested the enemy of the war on

terror as "a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them. This led to the

invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and sparked two decades of overseas intervention. For the

nationalist, terrorism can create a perceived challenge to the existence of a nation, alongside the

very real threat that it can pose. However, it creates an opportunity for them to inspire and rally

citizens. It gives them the perfect excuse for greater securitization, and overseas intervention.

Pandemics

From the perspective of the Nationalist, pandemics create a challenging conundrum for them. On

one hand, if they are struggling with the issue of migration, pandemics put a stop to that. The
Covid-19 pandemic did just that, halting almost all international travel for three years. The Covid

Pandemic provided another existential threat that populist leaders can use as an existential threat

to justify realist foreign policy. At the beginning of the pandemic, this manifested in many states

quickly instituting travel bans. The rationale was to stem the spread of infection. (Shiraef, 2021)

Pandemics also create an opportunity for the nationalist to boost the reputation of their nation

through vaccine politics. During Covid-19, China launched research into their own vaccine,

Sinovac to compete with the western countries and their vaccines. They also used the distribution

of Sinovac as a means of gaining soft power among the global south. (Chen, 2022) This fell in

line with China’s Premier Xi Jiping and his bid to make China a global superpower.

Pandemics could pose a challenge to states when the issue of its origin becomes racialised. For

ethno-nationalists leaders, this can quickly turn into mudslinging at the country from which the

source of the pandemic was reported. For example, when Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan,

China in the early part of 2020, it was referred to by some, not by its scientific name, but as the

Wuhan virus. This particularisation of the virus, limiting it to a specific region, and the

associated race, Chinese, led to discrimination against East Asians all over the world. (Moon &

Colbert, 2021)

Conclusion

When addressing global issues, countries with nationalist foreign policy tendencies will face

different challenges and opportunities. In this essay, we have established how the leaders of these

countries are often beholden to the wishes of the people who voted them in. With this in mind,

many of the challenges and opportunities they face are centred around that. We established that

with the issue of climate change, countries' participation in global efforts to fight it were in part

based on convincing their citizens to participate. This illustrated the importance of using
nationalism as a means to convince the domestic population to allow policy makers to institute

their own policies. This was further elucidated upon when showing how migrants, and the

potential of terrorism that came with foreigners entering the country, allowed leaders to use

nationalism as vehicle for greater securitisation, and for possible overseas intervention. Finally,

we examined the challenges and opportunities that pandemics presented to countries with

nationalist foreign policy tendencies. We established that the opportunities included being able to

close off borders. They could also take advantage of vaccine politics to boost international

standing. However, we also showed that there were challenges like how pandemics could be

racialized, and could result in discrimination against the ethnicities who happened to be living in

the same place the pandemic originated.

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