Nationalism strikes back. Emile Durkheim, Ukraine 2022 and the political theology of Vladimir Putin.


Piotr Ahmad, University of British Columbia

From the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to the turmoil caused by the recent assassination of the Sikh nationalist activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in June 2023 to the most recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, current political developments across the globe serve as a powerful warning that we are witnessing a resurgence of ethnic, cultural, and “tribal” nationalism. Liberal democracy has not triumphed. We have not been able to transcend cultural and ethnic nationalism (Smith, 2003). Firstly, grounding my analysis (Smith, 2003) in Emile Durkheim’s notions of religion, ritual, and the totemic principle, I will argue that (especially cultural/tribal) nationalism continues to be a relevant force in contemporary politics precisely because, like religion in Durkheim (1912), it constitutes a really existing, stable and deep social (and moral) force, and speaks to objective human needs (e. g. belonging). My key point here is that nationalism could not be effectively instrumentalized by politicians otherwise, since appeals to it would not resonate with the audiences to whom these appeals are directed. National identity remains an effective tool of political mobilization because it has deeply running social and communal sources, even if we often (as I argue, incorrectly) locate these sources elsewhere (for example in a voluntarist liberal community centered around constitutional values). In the second part of my paper, focusing on the ideas of “the chosen people” and “the 1,000-year/Holy Rus’ and, applying Durkheim’s ideas discussed above, I will discuss how cultural nationalism has underpinned Putin’s “political theology” and Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

This paper will be presented at the following session: