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National Identity
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What is National Identity?

National identity refers to the shared sense of belonging that binds individuals to a nation through common history, culture, language, and collective memory. It appears across disciplines including sociology, political science, history, cultural studies, and international relations. The topic attracts academic attention because national identity is never simply given — it is constructed, contested, and reshaped over time. Courses examining social problems, globalization, and political ideologies regularly ask students to interrogate how nations form cohesive identities and what happens when those identities fracture or collide with outside forces.

The papers archived on this topic approach national identity from a wide range of angles. Some take a historical perspective, examining how events such as world wars or diplomatic failures shaped national consciousness. Others use case studies — Serbian spiritual heritage, Israeli politics and society, Slavophilia in Russia, or creative writing in Singapore — to ground abstract concepts in specific cultural contexts. Comparative essays weigh nationalism against patriotism, while broader analytical pieces explore how forces like globalization and international events such as the World Cup either unify or fragment national communities. Fashion and culture also appear as lenses for understanding how identity is visually and symbolically constructed.

A strong essay on national identity begins with a clearly scoped thesis that specifies which nation, period, or dimension of identity is under examination. Evidence drawn from cultural artifacts, historical events, political movements, or community practices tends to carry the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating national identity as a fixed, natural phenomenon rather than an ongoing process shaped by power, conflict, and negotiation — an assumption that weakens analysis before it begins.

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Paper Undergraduate

Race as a cultural fiction: examining scientific claims and social consequences

The concept of race has had a profound impact upon human history. However, it is also a scientific fiction. Genetically speaking, members of one 'race' can have many genetic dissimilarities. As a species, different 'races' share more in common than they differ as human beings. This paper argues that race is no longer a useful construct with which to analyze human society.

Paper Doctorate

How institutions help states overcome barriers to cooperation

In her essay on the barriers to cooperation that limit effective communication between state actors within the international arena, Jennifer Sterling-Folker posits that three primary types of barriers to cooperation exist in the realm of international relations: Domestic, Structural, and Cognitive. According to Sterling-Folker, the domestic political climate within a pair of seemingly willing allies may preclude them from engaging in productive diplomatic negotiations, such as when impending national elections cause national policymaking to refocus on internal affairs. Structural barriers include the lack of common ground between communist and capitalist economies, and the gulf in understanding which separates dictatorships and democracies. Cognitive barriers are those which arise from ideological motivations, such as theocracies refusing to communicate with competing religions, or secular states scoffing at the religious norms of their neighbors. The liberal concept of interdependence, or providing a clear incentive to cooperate through the construction of complex institutions, is also discussed by Sterling-Folker, who observes that barriers to communication within world politics is due to the fact that nations invariably develop as autonomous entities with unique political, social, and economic structures.

Research Paper Doctorate

National identity, culture, and race in the United States

The term "nation" refers to the political and geographic features of the United States of America, and nationality refers to citizenship within that nation. When citizens of the United States identify as Americans, they…

Paper Doctorate

U.S. counter-terrorism strategies: Bush and Obama administrations compared

The incidence of September 11, 2001 led to an anti-terrorism campaign by the government of U.S. and was called the war or terror. Since 2001, U.S. government has taken several steps to maintain security and counter terrorism by implementing certain strategies at national and international level. These approaches and steps, whether useful or not have been discussed in this paper.

Radical multiculturalism and the civil sphere in contemporary America

This paper answers 31 specific questions about four readings: Alexander (2006), Integration Between Solidarity and Difference, The Civil Sphere, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 395-406; Alexander (2006), Encounters with the Other, The Civil Sphere, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 409-424; Habermas (1989), Social Structures of the Public Sphere, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Cambridge Mass., The MIT Press, 27-56 and ; Habermas (1989), The New Obscurity: The Crisis of the Welfare State and the Exhaustion of Utopian Energies, The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians' Debate, Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press.

Research Paper Doctorate

Media's responsibility for ethical reporting during national crises

¶ … media's role in time of national crisis. The writer explores what occurs in a national crisis and argues that the media has a duty to exercise caution when reporting during times of national crisis.

The future of hot rod culture amid legal and cultural challenges

The car has been long an emblem or icon of freedom. With the invention of automobile and later the mass production of the car, the lifestyle for the average American definitely changed. No longer was anyone tethered to the location in which they were raised. People were now free to explore, in comfort, the world at large. It didn't take long at all for the car to become integrated with all facets of popular culture. However, various subcultures also developed right along with the automobile. One of these subcultures also found another form of freedom – freedom of expression.

Paper Doctorate

Identity and cultural stereotyping in immigrant and minority experiences

This is a simple essay geared towards culture conflict. Adaption and relinquishment of identities lends for a more complex understanding of self when faced with the possible merging of former culture and present culture. Because there is no need for sources, it is more of a free write based on some personal experiences as well as common experiences for people in their respective cultures.

Thesis Undergraduate

Expatriate impact on the domestic population in the United Arab Emirates

This analysis looked at the opinions of emirates and residents of the UAE and their opinions of the large and growing number of expatriates living in the country. Although there is a fringe element of the culture that is deeply afraid of losing their national identity, these citizens constitute a small fraction of the population. The next most concerned group seemed to be students who were somewhat worried about their political opportunities as well as their opportunities for employment, yet they were completely tolerant of the trend at the same time.

Paper Undergraduate

Home ownership and the American real estate industry's development

¶ … legendary "American Dream" is home ownership. From the beginning of the republic, the right to own real estate in the United States has been recognized as an important right of all citizens, rich and poor (Mozilo).

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