The Birth of a Nation State in Kosovo. Is the Nation an Outdated Concept?

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Cultural Studies - East European Studies, grade: 1,0, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Institut für fremdsprachliche Philologien), course: Introduction to Cultural Studies, language: English, abstract: On the following pages I will try to point out the key role nations still play today. What one associates with a nation forms the national identity which is - for many maybe subconsciously - a crucial element of the individual identity. In my opinion nations will always strive for nation states as they guarantee most reliably the protection of national and therefore personal interests such as cultural determination, security, political self-determination and financial and economic prospect.

Kosovo is a recent example where the 'denationalisation' described in the paragraph above seems to be inversed. The former Yugoslavian province has become Europe's youngest state, not only chronologically but also demographically. What motivates this young generation to stand in for a nation that has so little to offer to them? I will deal with the two sides of nationalism and describe how a moderate sense of nationality radicalised and drove the Balkans into the Kosovo crisis. Despite the negative consequences overreaching nationalism can bring about I will talk about the necessity of national identities and explain why the nation is not an outdated concept.