The taboo on talking about the nation is being set aside. This process was already under way in the 1980s, but it was exacerbated first by the collapse of communism and the potential expansion of the EU to the liberated East, and then by the crisis in the Balkans. These developments have raised widespread anxiety, from Italy to Sweden, about the prospect of a surge of Eastern European refugees and job-seekers into the prosperous lands to the west. Whether they represent the future remains unclear, but their opponents will have to counter with something more inspiring than promises of ever-greater European unity. Reports of the death of the nation-state are, as usual, exaggerated.
Interesting times lie ahead.
In last week's TRB, Alan Wolfe argued that Jesse Jackson's defeat in Decatur, Illinois was a victory for America . The United Nations faces up to Srebenica. Bill Bradley's health care plan is expensive, inefficient, and, according to Jonathan Cohn, a darn good idea.