Nationalism and Global Financial Crisis

Dr Jan Penrose

For years, scholars have debated the relationship between nationalism and globalization; some arguing that globalization makes nationalism redundant and others arguing that nation-states remain the cornerstone of international organization. In the autumn of 2008, Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, asserted that the ability of the British Government to bail out two of Scotland’s main banks was evidence that Scotland was better off as a member of the United Kingdom. In response, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond, argued that there was no evidence to support Brown’s claims. At the same time, he has pushed for bank headquarters and jobs in the new Lloyds-HBOS Alliance to remain in Scotland and has promoted alternatives to this merger when this has seemed unlikely. These events constitute excellent contemporary grounds for exploring the relationship between globalization and nationalism (both British and Scottish) in a very specific context and at a time when the interconnectedness of global financial systems is difficult to contest.