… As the United States celebrates Independence Day with fireworks, flags and armored tanks, here’s what you should know about nationalism, patriotism and foreign policy attitudes. …
Some people use the word patriotism as shorthand for “love of country” — a subjective feeling of inclusion in a national group that many scholars label “national attachment.” People who feel connected to the United States in this way view their nation positively, but their “in-group love” does not imply hostility to outsiders.
On the other hand, nationalism involves feeling committed to one’s country and seeing it as better than all others. Nationalists believe the world would be better off if more countries resembled their own.
Research shows that patriotism and nationalism are not just conceptually distinct but form separate dimensions of a person’s national identity when scholars measure them together in U.S. surveys. This means that people can strongly identify with the United States without being nationalists and vice versa. CONT.
Kathleen E. Powers (Dartmouth), Monkey Cage