The Warrior Ethos and The Spirit of Nationalism

CSGN talk by Professor Sinisa Malesevic (University College Dublin).

Moderator: Rasmus Glenthøj (SDU/Nordic Humanities Center).

In popular culture nationalism is often associated with the battlefields. The combatants are often deemed to be inspired by the strong sense of patriotic duty.  From the French revolutionary armies, the two world wars to the contemporary conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza or Myanmar nationalism is regularly identified as the principal source of one’s motivation to fight. In this presentation I challenge such simplistic views and aim to show that nationalism plays a marginal role in the combat zone. I argue that in most cases the warrior ethos is not linked directly to the nationalist ideas and practices. Instead, most combatants fight from the sense of moral obligation and emotional attachment to their micro-level groups. However, this is not to say that nationalism is irrelevant in the context of violent conflicts. On the contrary, I aim to show how nationalist ideas and practices permeate the organisational and ideological scaffolds of the wider social world. I argue that nationalism is primarily generated and reproduced in the civilian institutions and other domains of the civilian life.

After the talk, there will be a reception with drinks and snacks.

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Bio

Sinisa Malesevic is a Full Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology at the University College Dublin. He held previous positions in Zagreb, Prague (Centre for the Study of Nationalism) and Galway, as well as visiting professorships in Amsterdam, Uppsala, Brussels, London, Vienna and Canberra. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Academia Europaea and an Associated Member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Prof Malesevic's main research interests are the study of war and violence, ethnicity, nation-states, and nationalism, empires, ideology, sociological theory and the comparative historical sociology. Recent books include the award winning Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence (Cambridge UP, 2022), Comparative Sociological Theory (Sage 2021), Classical Sociological Theory (Sage 2021), Grounded Nationalisms: A Sociological Analysis (Cambridge UP, 2019), The Rise of Organised Brutality: A Historical Sociology of Violence (Cambridge UP, 2017, Nation-States and Nationalisms: Organization, Ideology and Solidarity (Polity, 2013), and The Sociology of War and Violence (Cambridge UP, 2010. He has also authored over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has given more than 200 invited talks all over the world.

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