Only superpowers win at geopolitics

With the Balkan situation so volatile, and public opinion so divided on issues relating to identity and self-determination, the word "nationalism" is getting a bad press.

The movement towards independence in the 19th century in the Scandinavian countries, Ireland and the Balkans, was fueled by cultural nationalism which attempted to define people in terms other than politics. You emphasized your difference from the powerful neighbor who had been suppressing you, maybe for centuries. And the difference was not an attitude to politics but your language, or religion, or your attitude to life and the land you lived on.

Finland "invented" its epic poem, "The Kalevala," which inspired Sibelius and, eventually, the whole independence movement. In Norway a playwright and a musician spearheaded the restitution of the Norwegian language which had been overcome by Danish. These...