Economic nationalism in the Anthropocene

Nationalism is an all-pervasive ideology informing most aspects of political life. One of its manifestations is economic nationalism, which lies at the centre of several governmental agendas. This chapter explores the limit of economic nationalism in an increasingly interconnected world, which is rapidly moving towards a radical existential crisis, that demands an unprecedented degree of international consensus and rapidly reachable decisions. Most international climate negotiations have been seriously hampered, obstructed or, at least, affected by government representatives embracing specific sectoral interests, rather than those of "the Commons". Therefore, the chapter argues, most forms of economic nationalism are incongruent with the current global emergency situation. But, because nationalism is difficult to abandon or renounce totally, it is imperative to identify forms of economic nationalism that can be more clearly mobilised to tackle the ongoing, but laggard, energy/ecological transition required by the global emergency.