Quote:
Originally posted by Cletus Miller
But, that requires strongmen accustomed to autonomy throwing their lot in with strongmen accustomed to total control (e.g. Uzbekistan). Not sure how that benefits the Afghan Uzbeks, Tajiks, etc. May make sense to the Pashtos, if Pakistan let the rest go.
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The strongmen are the only thing holding back the "national unification". That was how the non nation states held themselves together in Europe for so long but there is this constant pressure towards the nation states so once there is a weakness in a non nation state then the natural tide kicks in. The non nation states in Europe were headed by "strongman" who just wanted as much power as possible and national unification was not in their interest so they thwarted it. But they were fighting the natural pull of things.
The problem is the people want to be united with their national bretheren. Every once in a while a "strongman" will realize that this is a good excuse for extending their power and take advantage of that. Hitler is a perfect example of this. They will try and grab more land using the excuse and the people (in their own country and the land being grabbed - like the Austrians and the Sudatenland germans) will go along with it because they want to be united with their bretheren on the other side of the border.
Why people have this tendancy towards national states - I don't know. After the end of the Cold War the West Germans wanted to be unified with their East German neighbors eventhough it was totally not in their economic interest. Once uunification of the Korean peninsula is possible, the South will want unification with the north even though it will cost them a ton of money and will diminish their standard of living.
The only power holding back Arab unification is strong men. Baathists came to power in both Syria and Iraq because the poeple wanted Arab unification, and these parties gained power in both countrys because they promised unification. But once the strongmen who used the baathist party as tools to get into power got into power they ignored the will of the people because Arab unification meant diminishing their power. But the desire is still there.
I think in this modern world there is intense pressure to go democratic. In order to stay an authoritarian dictatorship you have to constantly fight your own people and international pressure. And the first thing people seem to want once they have influence on their own government is they want to form a nation state.
The only thing holding back Arab unification are strongmen. Same thing with Turkish, Pashtun and Baluchi unification (again their seems to be no persian nationalism, and I don't know why). But once these areas go democratic, or a strongman realizes he can use this nationalistic tendency to extend his or her power, the hankering of the people will push these areas toward national unification.
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