Beginning with the discussion of the nature of the nation, the paper argues that globalization is an expression of the economic nationalism of economically dominant nations and not, as is generally believed, a negation of nationalism. As a result, it does not lead to economic integration, but, rather -- to some extent -- to the imposition of the dominant nations' interests on the others, often generating, instead of diminishing, conflicts.
The impression of growing economic interdependence the observer sometimes gets is largely due to the globalization of nationalism itself, specifically, to the mass conversion to nationalism -- and the adoption of nationalist competitiveness -- in China and India. In effect, what observers in the West may perceive as the spread of the Western economic model is the sign of the decline of the West as the model and the beginning of the Asian era of history.