Arvydas, there are many ways to answer your question. But none is definitive by itself. I find this short essay to be a good starting point:  Dani Rodrik, “Who Needs the Nation State?” Economic Geography, 89(1), January 2013, 1-19.

Thank You, Brian, for essay coordinates. I understand that the world and certain countries have to be examined carefully and in a more sophisticated way and avoiding beforehand definitive assumptions, but I argue already now that many neo-liberal type thoughts concerning national states and the future way of living were wrong from the very beginning (for example, Francis Fukuyama).

Arvydas, my own research has focused on "subnational" loyalties more than on supranational. I think there is something durable and fundamental in how people describe or identify themselves, not just as individuals or as social classes but also as a "people." Virtually everybody has a "nationality" (or ethnonym). Whether they have a self-standing  "state," is a different matter. And many forces contribute to this. Consider the historical boundaries of "Lithuania" (or Lithuania-Poland), and even when borders shrank, and even through the horrible repression in Soviet times, the ideology of "Lithuanian-ness" persisted in language and culture -- and in people's heads. I can't say that it's rational or not but it is persistent, even for a country that now numbers just 3.5 million or so.

By the way, I have traveled and done research in the Baltic states, only once to Lithuania but a lot more to Latvia and Estonia. Everybody has a nationality (tautyba), even if sometimes they are "mixed." I only ever met one person in the Baltic, a young woman in Tallinn who admitted that she did not know if she had a nationality, and thought she did not (one parent was Finnish, the other Estonian, but she didn't feel attached to either nationality).

Dear Professor Arvydas Guogis, I think nationalist separatist or independence movements ought to be looked at from 2 angles (I shall call them pull angle & push angle). If the country has an unjust system , which discriminates between the people on the basis of race or religion or color then there will be an internal "pull" towards devolution or separation. On the other hand, a super power may have the ancient Roman vision "Rome is master; others are slaves". This implies an effort  or external "push" to see others separated so the super power will stir troubles in order to see even the "divided" further "subdivided". It is the duty of the sincere intellectuals to work hard for unity since unity leads to strength. Differences ought to be resolved so as to never be the "small fish" which will be eaten by the "large fish".   

Creo que los movimientos separatistas o los movimientos de independencia, varían dependiendo del contexto en el que surgen y los motivos de sus orígenes. No obstante, debemos recordar que los estados nación como actualmente se les conoce, no son estados homogéneos, conformados en un periodo histórico de largo plazo o con el consentimiento e interés de todos los grupos involucrados. Los estados nación son producto de la conformación territorial delimitada por grupos de poder en un momento determinado, y que a lo largo de los años, no pudieron acallar, mitigar o integrar a las verdaderas identidades locales. Por ejemplo, en México existen más de 60 grupos originarios, distintos a la población mestiza dominante y se hablan más de 100 lenguas, además, hay muchas regiones en el país con particularidades culturales, económicas e históricas (de origen mestizo o moderno), que bien podrían determinar la conformación de muchos territorios independientes o separados, no obstante, creo que lo que aquí evita mayor efervescencia o un sentido de separación es la construcción sociopolítica, histórica y económica de los pueblos originarios (desde la conquista en los años 1500), la actual baja participación política que incluye el desinterés por una filiación nacional, la desigualdad y me atrevería a decir, el interés de mantener cohesionado un territorio (aunque no sus habitantes), por Estados Unidos y por los grupos fácticos de poder, destacando la delincuencia. Aun así, hay muchas expresiones de separación territorial y social, destacando EZLN, EPR, e incluso las actuales autodefensas que luchan contra la delincuencia...

traducción con google:

I think the separatist movements or independence movements, vary depending on the context in which they arise and the reasons for its origins. However, we must remember that nation states as they are now known, are not homogeneous states, formed a long-term historical period or with the consent and interest of all stakeholders. Nation states are the product of territorial conformation defined by power groups at a given time, and that over the years, could not quell, mitigate or integrate real local identities. For example, in Mexico there are more than 60 indigenous groups, other than the dominant mestizo population and over 100 languages are spoken in addition, there are many regions in the country with particular cultural, economic and historical (or modern mestizo origin), which could well determine the composition of many independent or separate territories, however, I think that here avoids more excitement or a sense of separation is the socio-political, historical and economic construction of indigenous peoples (from the conquest in the 1500s), the current low political participation including the lack of a national affiliation, inequality and dare I say, the interest of maintaining cohesive territory (but not its inhabitants), the United States and the factual power groups, highlighting crime . Still, there are many expressions of territorial and social separation, highlighting EZLN, EPR, and indeed the self-defense fighting crime

Dear Ardyas: Thanks for the penetrating and relevant question. I have spent my academic life studying the culture and history of Spain. Hence, the separatism of the Basque Country and Catalonia has particularly oriented my study.  Since the Middle Ages Catalonia has claimed an identity separate from centralizing Castile.  One can even find such antagonism in the Castilian national epic poem, "Poem of My Cid," where the Castilians regarded Catalans as effeminate warriors, and the poet made fun of the Count of Barcelona, the powerful Ramón Berenguer.  The Basques have always claimed a separate language and culture (although in fact there has existed a cultural symbiosis between them and Castile).  In modern times, the Basques have developed a powerful industrial complex, and the Catalans a potent bourgeoisie. Their own separatist impulses have enabled them to enrich their individual cultures even during repressive regimes like the Franco dictatorship.  The present constitutional monarchy of Spain gives all regions a great deal of autonomy vis-à-vis the central government, but nowadays, not satisfied with autonomy, many Catalans are pressing for full independence within the European Union. 

Natioalism is one of the big forces building our modern world. Beyond the perennial, modernist (Anderson, Blaut, Nairn) and etnonational (Smith) debate the topics on hot nationalism's always emphasizes nationalism as a problem. By other side, the problem in postcolonial world could be the oversimplification of 1 single nation equal to 1 state. To avoid this simplification on nationalism studies I recommend you John Agnew works on territorial trap. 

About the hypotetical diminishing roles of national states we need to re-think the liberal and realist asumption that all states are equal. Moreover, never in history has been as many nation-state as today. How can be  in crisis an artefact -the Nation-state-  that is in the peak of extension? 

Of course considerable empirical apparatus need not to confuse neoliberal discourses around the end of the state to changes in their roles. We need do not forget the ways in which historically and spatially different spheres of sovereignty and territoriality have coexisted. To believe in dismishing role of national states implies believe that before globalization nation states was the single sobereigntity in the world. 

A political geographical perspective on nationalism could be usefull to avoid these ovesimplifications. 

Arvydas, just yesterday I saw a reference to this volume of ''Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity,'' July 2014 issue. I don't know whether you have access to it, but you should probably try to find it. It does present and test a theory related to your original question here: 

Regimes of ethnicity and nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey, by Şener Aktürk

DOI:

10.1080/00905992.2014.924915

Dmitry Gorenburg*, Sherrill Stroschein, Güneş Murat Tezcür & Şener Aktürk

Dear Brian,

Thank You, I shall try to find both Your recommended works.

Arvydas

Almudena,

I became a friend of one of the most fervent Spanish nationalists, Pedro Laín Entralgo, in the final decades of his life.  As you probably know better than I, Laín at one time was the most powerful intellectuals under Francoism, but gradually moved from center of right to moderate leftism.  He even privately tutored your former king Juan Carlos in leftist moderation.  One of the greatest themes of Laín´s essays was the "sickness" of the Spanish nation, its inability to reconcile Left and Right.  The note always sounded by Laín was reconciliation to create a stronger nation.  I remember that in his final years he was most disheartened, as a nationalist, by increasing signs of Catalan separatism. He deplored, "I don´t know what will become of the Spanish nation!"  He never considered Catalonia as a nation or the Basque country either.  Shortsightedness? Who knows? I can only tell you what he told me.

High level of contributions! Not my case. I came from other specialities. Anyway, I recently have read two interested books about present crisis and post-crisis, Alain Touraine and Manuel Castells. They both underline the basic (but often forgotten) interrelation between the different parts of a social ecosystem: culture, economy, society and politics, as a key to understand correctly every thing that happens inside it. And both authors also agree on the next: present crisis has discovered the increasing distance between economy and the rest of parts of social ecosystem, specially the distance between economy and society... Miss-balance in one dimension will destabilize the dynamic equilibrium that maintain, more or less stable, the "status quo".

Passing over the causes of economic (actually financial) crisis, any sociologist would agree with that these critical moments are typical when in history we observe high growing level of nationalisms, more generally, increasing of self-confirmation (possible bad translated...). People look inside us, searching for who is me a my partners, and look outside looking for who are "in the other side", very probable as the causes of my troubles.

Only one more thing: Is it a coincidence that President of Catalonia got to the press-arena the nationalist or auto determination issue just in the middle of the worst moment of his public image, and in the middle of the highest level of catalan public debt? Actually, in this point I mean that one thing is what is really happening in the collective sense, and other (often different) is what is intentionally promoted by the political class, for their own interests.

Dear Nelson, 

thank you for share your experiences with Lain Entralgo. I suppose you know Spain pretty well maybe better than me because my field is Latin American Studies.

However as a political geography teacher my interest on nationalism have to do with politization of issues that involves territory and identity politics. I am far from a pain with the nation but I understand how important is this feeling to do politics. 

Best

Dear Nelson, my field of study is electoral geography and nationalist parties in Slovakia and Central Europe, when it comes to nationalist in Slovakia it is generaly a topic of ethnicity alone, that is the only thing that the correlations on regional level indicate. It is very hard to connect this topic outside of fieldwork based questionares that would than be regionaly connected to the support of specific party or a movement. In slovakia none reaserch in this field has been done before.

I think you can find some interesting suggestions in the work of Ulrich Beck: I don't know the original title of his book, but in italian sound liche "power and counterpower in global age".

The intermediation between populations and globalization is still done by nation-states. There are no other regimes - subnational or local - able to represent territories in the globalization process. Although what we call globalization is a multiscale process, the nation-state is still dominant. Separatist and nationalist movements basically aim to transform a social space gathered by diverse unifying structures -- language, cultural practices, geostrategic position, etc. -- in a nation-state regime that enhances the territory's political and economic presence, representation, and opportunities in a globalized world. Global organizations as the UN, WB, WTO, IMF have as members nation-states. So the nation-state still is paradoxically a major attracting ambition for countless nationalist, separatist, and independentist movements worldwide.