Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In want to argue that it time to abandon the term and concept of “nation-state.” I am not using “deconstructing” in the usual sense. Rather, seek to extend arguments made in earlier papers which build on the work of world historian William H. McNeill, that state are always “polyethnic,” adding to that argument that ethnicity and/or race (in short status groups) are always ranked hierarchically. I purse this argument through the twin, and often intertwined, lenses of indigenous peoples and frontiers. To some extent this grows from a discussion with William I. Robinson about the concept of nation-state. While I disagree with him that we should preserve the term, I think we are in broad agreement.