Timothy Snyder: The Nation-State and Europe, 1918 and 2018

A century ago, the end of the First World War ushered in an era of national self-determination, as the land empires of Europe collapsed and new nation-states took their place. Today the notion of the nation-state is resurgent in the region’s political discourse: we witness a renaissance of the rhetoric of national sovereignty in a populist backlash against the project of European integration. What lessons can we draw from the arc of the past century? What role will the idea of the nation-state play in determining Europe’s future? In this talk, Dr. Timothy Snyder joins us to give his thoughts on the above, and much more. Dr. Snyder is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University and IWM Permanent Fellow. He is the author, most recently, of, "The Road to Unfreedom," "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," the critically acclaimed, "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin," and, "Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning." The Institute of International Relations was excited to have him speak with us, and we are just as excited to bring you video of the event in case you missed it in person.

[@LuciFeric137]

Love Professor Snyder. What an intellect.

[@erikm2937]

Starts at 12:37

[@listener523]

You tha real MVP.

[@spacepigs]

thanks :D

[@askyeshka726]

Toda!

[@biledemon85]

3 goddamn introductions... Why do universities always torture their audiences like this when they have a guest lecturer. No-one is here to listen to an introduction....

[@tesfuweldemikael2902]

Thanks.

[@khaldunia]

Brilliant, Mr Snyder!

[@richardstephens9647]

Please have Professor Snyder on again!

[@Blackdragon1331]

sound in the beginning please, what is it? :P

[@maghdean]

Thanks very much for this really insightful lecture and discussion! As a Ukrainian who took part in the Maidan in Kyiv from the very first night I would suggest a little correction though: there were not only students there, and they were not even those who started the Maidan (although their role was symbolic in expanding the protests in the first couple of weeks). Those who could really understand and feel the importance of the European integration and the Association Agreement between EU and Ukraine as a first big official step on this path, were adult and mature Ukrainians who had a conscious Soviet or post-Soviet experience and could compare it with what they knew and had experienced about the EU. Those, like me, were also very often participants of the previous (and largely failed) Orange Revolution of 2004. And students in Ukraine are by and large of the age 17 to 23...

[@slavden]

True. I'll ad the participants of Ukrainian Revolution on the granite and Anti-Kuchma protests (myself).

[@marconatrix]

A most interesting POV. I wonder just where Ireland fits into this perspective, in many ways her history is much like the colonised middle-European nations, but located in the western extremity. Also possibly pivotal as Brexit threatens the EU guaranteed GFA. How does this look from the speaker's pan-European historical viewpoint?

[@dukedematteo1995]

Good point. Definitely has the peasant politics, small trade zone problem and lack of industrialization that fits his description of those interwar small states of Central and Eastern Europe.

[@jakecarlo9950]

Profound. Right on. Thanks very much.

[@sosrope3420]

The future of Europe depends on human rights, primaril those of subsistence and welcoming refugees, and education, of the kind that Snyder talks here.

[@rubenjames7345]

Not sure that I buy into the speaker's premise, but it a new take at least.

[@RoepernRuppMcRitter]

I gather that NATO has to play no part at all within this prof's sophisticated lecture...😢

[@loliloloso]

China （中國）is the other remnant of empire (Daicing Gurung, 大清國）， actually, the term “中國” is reinvented to match the term “China” . Interestingly CCP is reinventing a Chinese nation through mythology. But it is in fact another land empire colonizing the peripheries, and it is also an existentially important to build up to compete with American empire, it’s economy has structural contradictions to prevent it realizes itself,…..as Lenin saw it 😂

[@rogerhagger7967]

. What I take away from the lecture is stuff like "post Imperial European solution" as being a "good"reason for the creation of the EU. Another quote from T Snyder is: " ..in all relationships there are stories that we tell to justify those relationships, .. " . Think about this when you think of the role of the EU in the international arena, particularly Trade Deals between the big global blocks- USA China/Japan etc. The failing of T Snyder's vision/analysis is that those smaller nations outside of these "deals/rules" are left completely out and kept in poverty! He talks about Post Collonialism BUT not about the nations that were set back or were left behind by Colonialism. This is the failing of the EU, as a European Nationalist Project and the fact that ALL these "democracies", including the USA, are all dependent on the raw materials extracted under slavory , or slave based exploitation . .

[@sylwiatime]

The smaller nations that are part of the EU aren't left behind. The point is that they'd never have a chance to sign fair agreements with China, Japan or USA if they were not part of the EU.

[@sosrope3420]

You're not wrong, and Snyder literally says there must be a school European history that DOESN'T hide the colonial reality.

[@Boymanjusri]

Blame USA for your own valor Ute; accusing USA for slavery in 21 century. Bravo

[@awuma]

As Poland attempts to define a model of nationhood, it reaches back more and more to the interwar "Second Polish Republic". But, despite the heroic efforts of its people at the time, it is such a flawed model. Unfortunately both the governing Law and Justice Party and Civic Platform refuse to recognise the also heroic efforts of the Polish people to build up their state between 1945 and 1989, despite Soviet domination during that period. Only grudgingly do those parties accept that the greatest motivators for reform and democracy were dissidents emerging from the Communist Party and not members of any nationalist movement.

[@MrOdrzut]

We've just had political murder in Poland :( I'm pretty much feeling like a German in early 20s. The political scene is divided, populism is winning, and basic minority rights aren't just ignored, they are actively fought as "harmful for Polish culture and society".

[@sosrope3420]

I've listened to what feels like 100s of hours of Snyder now, and I noticed he studiously avoids the 2 main cultural keys to Europe: the Jewish sense of a nation of Destiny, and the Christian concept of secularity. These 2 poles make sense of the sometimes tortuous history and indeed very identity of Europe.

[@cultphetus]

For being such a well-read historian, the simplicity of his analysis is astounding. When he's done repeating himself, his fundamental thesis is "Europe didn't learn anything from world war. And nation states are impossible because they didn't exist in the past." And the EU is the solution to the problem because, cybersecurity? Countries can't pass laws on their own? How has Switzerland managed this whole time to exist even though it's impossible?

[@giovannichiaranti9775]

I think switzerland Is a huge excep tion

[@johngame2119]

@@giovannichiaranti9775 yeah switzerland exists because of the arrangements around it.

[@sylwiatime]

But is Switzerland a nation state to begin with? Don't they speak 4 different languages there?

[@sosrope3420]

Switzerland IS A EUROPEAN UNION 🤦‍♂️🤣

[@sylwiatime]

@@sosrope3420 No, Switzerland is not in EU.

[@johnries5593]

Curiously enough, England has not stood alone since the Norman Conquest in 1066. Arguably, the true founder of the British Empire was William the Conqueror.

[@madalinaanton3253]

First time I hear him mention Romania, I also want him to talk about romanian fascism more, he mentions it in passing every time. We romanians don't want a nation state, we cannot have one, we are aware of what the EU did for us, we lack the conplexity of the high society and political elites that fought the turks, that made political reforms and we lack the sheer number of intellectuals that basically created the Academy, sciences, language and literature just 100-200 years ago, communism erased every trace of intellectualism. I also think romanian militarism has only existed alongside romanian fascism, 1859 was a peaceful electorial Union, 1878 was Independence from the turks through military power, the russians actually took teritories from although we were allies, that's when the russo-phobia began, 1918 almost got us all wiped from the map, but the Union was done through the voting of every Province,it was a miracle that all romanians were united, a tragedy that nations exchanged minorities afterwards, we gave the bulgarians away from Dobruja for example, that's why I say that I only find all of what he is saying true for the legionar regime because then Antonescu actually did go over the borders of where romanians lived into Ukraine. In a sense every cm of land was fought for, but there was also a huge amount of luck and în the teritories that weren't in Romania after WWII romanians were oppressed by russians, that's why even romanian historians find the fight alongside the nazis inevitable and going into Moldova as defence and fighting back, but they think the crimes that Antonescu regime committed despicable.

[@hannamajewska6611]

Słuchając o powstaniu Instytutu i jego twórcach : Michalski i Patocka najczęściej powtarzane - Wspominam OBU ze wzruszeniem...

[@spacelemur7955]

Summer 2023: Professor Snyder such was proved correct regarding Russia and it's desire for Europe and fracturing the EU so that it can dominate (and even take over) the smaller states.

[@rubenjames7345]

(Sigh) Three opening speakers; the sadistic bastards. Why??

[@0532phillipjoy]

This should be required listening for all those who thought leaving the EU was a great idea for giving us a future.

[@robertgordon5339]

The EU is an empire or an emerging empire just like the USA, China and Russia. Successful nations states may join the EU (Czech republic) or go it alone (Switzerland). That is the decision of the nation state. The future of these empires like the go it alone states is very dependent on technology. Countries without landmass, minerals, oil, ports and populations can only get wealthy by industrialisation. Finance being controlled by western powers. You could argue that empire made the first Industrial revolution in Great Britain, meaning that it needed the empire to power things along. But many countries in Europe had an industrial revolution without a significant empire e.g. Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. There is a case that empire in USSR and Russia has got in the way of progress of the second and third industrial revolutions there. Cars, electrical goods and Computers/social media are a tool for the state not the people. In China the communist regime has been very successful but could be even more successful if they stopped Communist empire state planning (e.g. building cities with no people and junk weapons) and left things more to consumer choice in their local fragments (Hong Kong).

[@pacajalbert9018]

máme mamičku zem ktorá sa musí chrániť pred požiarmi vybuchmi

[@RaufikTajuddin]

I highly recommend "The Road to Unfreedom" by Timothy Snyder. In it, Snyder discusses the origin of the word "fake" as in "fake news." "It meant creating a fictional text [LIE] that posed as a piece of journalism, both to spread confusion about a particular event and to discredit journalism as such. [President Trump and then other] politicians first spread fake news themselves, then [claimed] that all news is fake, and finally that only their spectacles are real." The ultimate real spectacle occurred on Jan 6, with the assault on the Capitol. On that day, the world witnessed the ultimate power of THE LIE. Trump lied so often about so many things that THE LIE became the truth, and the truth became the lie. THE LIE became the truth for so many because it was supported by so many for so long: actively in partisan politics (Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Matt Gaetz, David Nunes, Ron DeSantis, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Marco Rubio, Rudy Giuliani, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election results, and so many, many more). Passively, by the SILENT, passive-aggressive Republicans on Capitol Hill, and across the country. While THE LIE is old news in politics, as a strategy it has never been so pervasive in our culture as it has been during the past four years. THE LIE has caused thousands upon thousands of unnecessary deaths due to Covid and government inaction (the new way to spell science became l-i-e). THE LIE has challenged the most fundamental of all our democratic values, truth in voting. The assault on the Capitol was four years in the making-the cumulative effect of THE LIE, topped off by actions of Trump, Giuliani, and Brooks on the day of the assault. The Republicans have no choice but to clear Trump. To find him guilty is to find themselves guilty of aiding and abetting Trump's violation of democracy and the truth. Ironically, by doing so, by so ubiquitously supporting THE LIE, they placed themselves in real physical danger. That is a TRUTH they will have to live with.

[@Djordj69]

I find Snyders history a little ,or very suspect .He has a view which serves him and who ever his backers are .And yes i know that discredits him as an historian. But i have seen him smileingly tell obvious distortions on numerous occasions. For examlple he exagerates ,certainly in his own mind, the power of USA culture and his own proffesional integrety

[@pamcam4385]

Wow, what a comment. No substance whatsoever but a nice conspiracy instead. Plus something vacuous appended in the end. A+

[@miguelchippsinteligente6072]

Tesla referenced human energy 🌪👻jesus christ referenced living waters 💎🤍science described water memory 🌊👨‍🎓existence reflecting psychologically psalms16:24 k,j 👻💎🤍👨‍🎓💖🗽🌪🌪🌪

[@Yiannis_Fasoulas]

16.25 - 17.15 Actually, since Brexit took place, there has been a United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and North Ireland, which still includes some diverse "nationalities". So, I guess it is still a euphemismus to talk about a nation-state in a narrow sense of the word.

[@yoavsapir8146]

Cringy comment on Jews in minute 34

[@joseantoniocastro1486]

This guy is so froundily wrong, he confuses ethnic nation with state, so...

[@marconatrix]

What then is the purpose of the state, if not to represent the ethnic nation? A purely geographic construct? If so where to draw the boundaries and who should draw them?

[@joseantoniocastro1486]

@@marconatrix if we have to live in ethnic nations, world would be very different from current states boundaries. There is no one pure ethnic nation in the whole world, and on the other hand there are ethnic nation which are divided between many countries, so, what about Slavic ethnic nation? From Rusia to Slovenia?, Celtic ethnic nation? From Scotland to Portugal?. What about the USA, what ethnicity is the USA? Blacks, Natives, Spanish, Germans, Italians, Poles, English?. Even China have around 50 different ethnicities. To build a nation upon ethnic is impossible and dangerous, thanks God we are so mingled and interrelated that to go back to the primordial tribal world would be impossible.

[@marconatrix]

@@joseantoniocastro1486 If every nation is then a mix, on what basis can laws or even norms be made? What is acceptable in one culture may be taboo in another. And if you mix everyone and everything up, then surely you lose much of what's interesting about society. This is I think one reason why many people object to the EU's "one size fits all" approach, and indeed to 'globalisation' in general. Why Brexiteers cry out, "Give us back our own laws and standards" etc.

[@joseantoniocastro1486]

@@marconatrix Most nations were build upon history. EU is not an example EU is a market, never will be a nation, that´s impossible. In Europe despite we share history every single nation has its peculiarities, thus EU is a club of nations which share a común background, mainly based upon Christianity, therefore others nations which different backgrounds can´t be part of the club because they don´t belong to the same historical ground.

[@paulinawarsza3919]

he is evoking the concept of nation state. It s noot the same as ethnic nation, the natnic stae is political and historical construct, and he is accually deconstrutting it as a mith...so by the way there are multination states per se...the federal stats, for exeple the usa.