The Nation-State, War and Human Equality

Abstract

This chapter explains Elias’s analysis of the inseparability of intra- and inter-societal relations. It highlights his position on the split within civilization – on the widespread belief that the standards of restraint that are widely observed within civilized societies have to be relaxed in struggles with external enemies. Elias nuanced the point by exploring the duality of nation-state normative codes, namely the co-existence of nationalist-Machiavellian standpoints and the conviction that universal and egalitarian principles should be upheld in intra- as well as inter-societal relations. The duality gave rise to the peculiar entanglements of civilized peoples. The chapter builds on Elias’s argument by showing how those themes influenced doctrines of imperialism and conceptions of a civilized international society.