Ultranationalism or extreme nationalism is an extreme form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains detrimental hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific interests.[1][2][3] Ultranationalist entities have been associated with the engagement of political violence even during peacetime.[4]
In ideological terms, scholars such as British political theorist Roger Griffin have found that ultranationalism arises from seeing modern nation-states as living organisms directly akin to physical people such that they can decay, grow, die, and additionally experience rebirth. Political campaigners have divided societies in stark mythological ways between those perceived as degenerately inferior and those perceived as a part of a great cultural destiny. Ultranationalism is an aspect of fascism, with historic governments such as the regime of Nazi Germany building on ultranationalist foundations using specific plans of supposed widespread national renewal.[3]
According to Janusz Bugajski, "in its most extreme or developed forms, ultra-nationalism resembles fascism, marked by a xenophobic disdain of other nations, support for authoritarian political arrangements verging on totalitarianism, and a mythical emphasis on the 'organic unity' between a charismatic leader, an organizationally amorphous movement-type party, and the nation".[5]
British political theorist Roger Griffin has stated that ultranationalism is essentially founded on xenophobia in a way that finds supposed legitimacy "through deeply mythicized narratives of past cultural or political periods of historical greatness or of old scores to settle against alleged enemies". It can also draw on "vulgarized forms" of different scientific studies such as anthropology and genetics, eugenics specifically playing a role, in order "to rationalize ideas of national superiority and destiny, of degeneracy and subhumanness" in Griffin's opinion. Ultranationalists view the modern nation-state as, according to Griffin, a living organism directly akin to a physical person such that it can decay, grow, die, and additionally experience rebirth. He has highlighted Nazi Germany as a regime founded on ultranationalism.[3]
U.S. historian Walter Skya has written in Japan’s Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shinto Ultranationalism that ultranationalism in Japan drew upon traditional Shinto spiritual beliefs and militaristic attitudes regarding the nation's racial identity. By the early twentieth century, fanaticism arising from this combination of ethnic nationalism and religious nationalism caused opposition to democratic governance and support for Japanese territorial expansion. Skya particularly noted in his work the connection between ultranationalism and political violence by citing how, between 1921 and 1936, three serving and two former Prime Ministers of Japan were assassinated.[4]
Israeli political journalist Gideon Levy wrote in late 2015 that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to a decay in the civil society within Israel, with an ultranationalist movement that "bases its power on incitement to hatred" using "folkloric religion" gaining ground over decades such that:
"They were the only ones willing to fight for a collective goal. They did not rule out any means. They extorted and exploited the weaknesses of government, the guilt feelings and confusion of the secular camp, and they won. They did so systematically and smartly: First they established the foundation of their existence, the settlement enterprise. After they achieved their goal– the killing off of any diplomatic agreement and destruction of the two-state solution– they were free to turn to their next target: taking control of the public debate in Israel on the road to changing its power structure, character and substance."[6]
^Stewart, James (2 November 2019). "Anti‐Muslim hate speech and displacement narratives: Case studies from Sri Lanka and Australia". Australian Journal of Social Issues. 54 (4): 418–435. doi:10.1002/ajs4.83. S2CID211418443.
^Berlin, Oliver Moody (23 July 2019). "Frankenstein pact puts AfD in coalition". The Times. A married couple have run into trouble for forging the first local pact between Angela Merkel’s party and the ultranationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in defiance of the chancellor.
^"Beautiful Harmony: Political Project Behind Japan's New Era Name – Analysis". eurasia review. 16 July 2019. The shifting dynamics around the new era name (gengō 元号) offers an opportunity to understand how the domestic politics of the LDP’s project of ultranationalism is shaping a new Japan and a new form of nationalism.
^ ab"Abe's cabinet reshuffle". East Asia Forum. 14 September 2019. Abe also rewarded right-wing politicians who are close to him — so-called ‘ideological friends’ who are being increasingly pushed to the forefront of his administration — such as LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Koichi Hagiuda who was appointed Education Minister. As a member of the ultranationalist Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), which seeks to promote patriotic education, he can be considered ‘reliable’ as the government’s policy leader on national education.
^Mark Poysden, Marco Bratt, ed. (2006). Global Studies: Japan and the Pacific Rim. KIT Publishers. p. 97. ... Koizumi calls the war criminals 'martyrs', a view shared by many elderly veterans, Right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers and ultra-nationalist groups . He now claims that he visits the shrine as a private citizen, not as the prime minister. It is an open secret in Japan that most LDP politicians are linked to ...
^Lunning, Frenchy, ed. (2013). Mechademia 4: War/Time. U of Minnesota Press. p. 291. ISBN9781452942650. The overturning of the cab driver's 1998 sentiment in Akamatsu's 2007 piece had its political correlative in the victory of the ultranationalist wing of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) when Abe Shinzō became Japan's prime minister in ...
^Estrin, Barbara L. (2012). Shakespeare and Contemporary Fiction: Theorizing Foundling and Lyric Plots. p. 17. ISBN978-1611493702.
^Arman, Murat Necip (2007). "The Sources Of Banality In Transforming Turkish Nationalism". CEU Political Science Journal (2): 133–151.
^Eissenstat, Howard. (November 2002). Anatolianism: The History of a Failed Metaphor of Turkish Nationalism. Middle East Studies Association Conference. Washington, D.C.
^Piacentini A., Make Macedonia Great Again! The New Face of Skopje and the Macedonians’ identity dilemma edited by Evinç Doğan in Reinventing Eastern Europe: Imaginaries, Identities and Transformations; Place and space series; Transnational Press London, 2019; ISBN1910781878, p. 87.
^Stojarová, Věra; Emerson, Peter. "Political parties in Serbia"(PDF). bochsler.eu. Bochsler, Center for Comparative and International Studies, University of Zurich.
^Katsikas, Stefanos (2011). "Negotiating Diplomacy in the New Europe: Foreign Policy in Post-Communist Bulgaria". I.B. Tauris: 64. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ ab"Ultra-nationalists, populists form 'Bulgarian Patriots' alliance for July elections". The Sofia Globe. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021. Ultra-nationalist parties VMRO and the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria, along with populists Volya, have agreed to stand together in Bulgaria’s July 11, 2021 parliamentary elections under the name "Bulgarian Patriots", the parties announced on May 20.
^Tsatsanis, Emmanouil (2011), "Hellenism under siege: the national-populist logic of antiglobalization rhetoric in Greece", Journal of Political Ideologies, 16 (1): 11–31, doi:10.1080/13569317.2011.540939, S2CID143633586, ...and far right-wing newspapers such as Alpha Ena, Eleytheros Kosmos, Eleytheri Ora and Stohos (the mouthpiece of ultra-nationalist group Chrysi Avgi).
^P. Ramet, Sabrina (1997). Whose democracy?: nationalism, religion, and the doctrine of collective rights in post-1989 Eastern Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 128. ISBN9780847683246. ...Meciar established his 1994 coalition government with the extreme-nacionalist Slovak National Party (SNS), led by Ján Slota, mayor of Zilina...
^Fionna, Ulla, ed. (2015). Watching the Indonesian Elections 2014. ISEAS Publishing. p. 106. ISBN9789814620833. Prabowo has accepted support from and declared his willingness to work with such organizations as the (notorious) radical Islamic group Front Pembela Islam (Defenders of Islam Front) and the ultra-nationalist Pemuda Pancasila
^O'Connor, Eimear (2009). Sean Keating in Context: Responses to Culture and Politics in Post-civil War Ireland. Carysfort Press. p. 36. ISBN978-1904505419.
^"Japanese minister becomes first in two years to visit Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine". South China Morning Post. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2020. Eto is serving in his first cabinet position and is a member of the ultranationalist Nippon Kaigi organisation, whose aims are to revise the "national consciousness" surrounding the prosecution of Japan’s war criminals and to change the nation’s pacifist constitution implemented after the war. The group also promotes "patriotic education".
^"Japan combats rise in hate speech". Al Jazeera. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2020. ... and many don’t speak Korean or have ties to Korea. Even so, ultranationalist groups like Zaitokukai have singled them out and used Japan’s very liberal protection of speech to harass, intimidate and silence Zainichi with noisy street protests and attacks online, often anonymously.
^"Head of anti-foreigner group Zaitokukai to step down". Japan Times. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2020. The longtime chairman of the ultranationalist group Zaitokukai has announced he will step down and even give up his membership in the group, saying the move will eventually bolster the organization’s influence.
^Alessio, Dominic; Meredith, Kristen (2014). "Blackshirts for the Twenty–First Century? Fascism and the English Defence League". Social Identities. 20 (1): 104–118. doi:10.1080/13504630.2013.843058. S2CID143518291.