Climate Change and the Nation State The Case for Nationalism in a Warming World

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.

Anatol Lieven is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a fellow of the New America Foundation. He worked as a British journalist in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the former USSR and Eastern Europe. He has commented on current affairs for leading journals including The New York Times. His books include Pakistan: A Hard Country; America Right or Wrong; Ethical Realism; Ukraine and Russia; and The Baltic Revolution, which won the 1994 Orwell Prize.