Whereas John Humeís politics suggest concrete moves beyond
ethnic nationalism to a political strategy that attempts to suture
sectarian division by emphasizing Irelandís role in Europe, Kearneyís
writing is removed from any sense of what ëdisseminating sover-
eigntyí would mean. He also completely ignores the problematic case
of the Balkans, where it is perhaps less easy to skip over ethnic
nationalism in pursuit of his post-nationalist vision. Kearneyís post-
nationalism becomes too easily equated with a liberal concept of
internationalism and this is supposed to provide him with a retreat
from the totalizing tendencies of ethnic nationalism. Imagining that an
ëinternational world viewí will cure us from nationalist insularity and
separatism overlooks how the international world picture is not so
rosy and governed by nation-states whose politics are far from his
ënew configurations of federal-regional governmentí.
There is confusion in Kearneyís philosophy over the meaning of
ëinternationalismí as it is regarded as the same as a critique of
nationalism and post-nationalism. International Relations theory tends
to hold onto the central concept of nationality whilst looking at the
interrelations between different states. A post-nationalist vision of
Europe theorizes the crosscutting of identities and attempts to address
non-statehood, as in European Studies, which debates the feasibility of
a Europe of Regions (drawn on by Kearney). In Turbulence in World
Politics (1990) James Rosenau makes the distinction between ëinter-
national politicsí that are breaking down along with the nation-state
and ëpost-international politicsí.^32 As the boundaries between
domestic and international politics are disintegrating, there can no
longer be pure theories of either domestic politics or International
Relations. According to Rosenau, this is because the nation-state no
longer has such importance as a political entity when the interactions
that sustain world politics unfold without the direct involvement of
nations or states. The old ideas of nationalism coexist with powerful
international and paranational bodies which were considered by
32 Cf. Howard Williams, ëInternational Relations and the Reconstruction of
Political Theoryí, International Relations and the Limits of Political Theory
(London: Macmillan, 1996), pp.152ñ3. Cf. James Rosenau, Turbulence in
World Politics (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990).