BETWEEN US AND THEM

EXPLORING THE NATION'S PROCESSES OF FAILURE AND PERMANENCE

Abstract

Despite its successive failures and discontinuities, the nation endures as a political project and an object of collective identification, shaping the very parameters through which we think about the world. Why does the nation remain as the main object of identification and organization of what we call the international sphere, and where can we locate individuals and their agencies, as well as their desires for this object, in that permanence? In this article, I seek to answer or point out possible pathways for thinking about these questions, drawing from the literature of International Relations regarding the “problem of difference”, which elucidates the productive role of the dichotomies that underlie the conception of the nation and its borders. Finally, in its second and final section, the article elaborates on the theme of affections and emotions in IR, aiming to shed light on the phenomenon of the nation’s permanence through an attentive look at the affective responses and promises evoked by it.