Internationalism (politics)
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Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation between nations for the benefit of all. Partisans of this movement, such as supporters of the World Federalist Movement, claim that nations should cooperate because their long-term mutual interests are of greater value than their individual short-term needs.
Internationalism is by nature opposed to ultranationalism, jingoism and national chauvinism as well as to strictly economic globalization movements which deny the value of other nations' culture and differences. Internationalism presupposes the recognition of other nations as equal, in spite of all their differences. The term internationalism is often wrongly used as a synonym for cosmopolitanism. 'Cosmopolitanist' is also sometimes used as a term of abuse for internationalists.
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The Modern Ideal of Internationalism
In today's world, Internationalism is most commonly expressed as an appreciation for the diverse cultures in the world, and a desire for world peace. People who express this view take pride in not only being a citizen of their respective countries, but of being a "citizen of the world". Internationalists feel obligated to assist the world through leadership and charity.
Internationalists advocate the presence of a "United Nations" type organization, and often support a stronger version of a world government.
Contributors to the current version of Internationalism include Albert Einstein, who believed in a world government, and expressed the follies of patriotism as "an infantile sickness".
The various trends of internationalism
The left vs right balance
Contemporary free market globalization is not internationalist - it promotes purely economic integration, while ignoring the political and social aspects. In addition, it promotes a very different economic system than the one advocated by internationalists. The Left speaks more and more of a "globalization of solidarity". The modern anti-globalization movement is internationalist in nature, and often advances the notion of alter-globalization.
The sovereign nations vs supranational powers balance
Internationalism, in the strict meaning of the word, is still based on the existence of sovereign nations. Its aims are to:
- encourage multilateralism (world leadership is not held by any single country),
- create some formal and informal interdependence between countries, with some limited supranational powers given to international organizations controlled by those nations via intergovernmental treaties and institutions.
The ideal of many internationalists, among them world citizens, is to go a step further towards democratic globalization by creating a World Government.
However, this idea is opposed or thwarted by other internationalists, because they believe any World Government would be inherently too powerful to be trusted, or because they dislike the path taken by supranational entities such as the United Nations or the European Union and fear that a World Government would walk in their footsteps. These internationalists are more likely to support a loose world federation in which most power resides with the national governments.
Other Uses of the Term
In a less restricted sense, internationalism is a word describing the impetus and motivation for the creation of any international organizations. The earliest such example of broad internationalism would be the drive to replace feudal systems of measurement with the metric system, long before the creation of international organizations like the World Court, the League of Nations, and the United Nations.
In linguistics, an "internationalism" is a loanword that, originating in one language, has been borrowed by most (ideally all) other languages. Other examples of such borrowings include "OK", "microscope", and "tokamak".
