Between Kin and Cosmopolis: An Ethic of the Nation

by Nigel Biggar

The nation-state is here to stay. Thirty years ago it was fashionable to predict its imminent demise, but the sudden break-up of the Soviet Union in the 1990s unshackled long-repressed nationalisms and generated a host of new states. The closer integration of the European Union has given intra-national nationalisms a new lease of life, confirming the viability of small nation-states under a supra-national umbrella - after all, if Ireland and Iceland, then why not Scotland and Catalonia? And then the world stage has seen new and powerful national players moving from the wings to the China, India, and Brazil are full of a sense of growing into their own national destinies and are in no mood either to dissolve into, or to defer to, some larger body. Nations, nationalisms, and nation-states are persistent facts, but what should we think of them morally? Surely humanity, not a nation, should claim our loyalty? How can it be right to exclude foreigners by policing borders? Can a liberal nation-state thrive without a cohering public orthodoxy? Does national sovereignty confer immunity? Is national separatism always justified? These are urgent questions. Between Kin and Cosmopolis offers timely Christian answers.

122 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2014

About the author

Nigel Biggar CBE is Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Pusey House, Oxford. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from Oxford and a Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago. He was appointed C.B.E. “for services to Higher Education” in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. His most recent books are Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (2023), What’s Wrong with Rights? (2020), In Defence of War (2013), and Between Kin and Cosmopolis: An Ethic of the Nation (2014). In the press he has written articles for the Financial Times, the (London) Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, the (Glasgow} Herald, the Irish Times, Standpoint, The Critic, The Article, Unherd and Quillette. He served on the Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians (London) from 2000 to 2014, the Royal Society’s Working Group on People and the Planet from 2010 to 2012, and the Pontifical Academy for Life from 2017 to 2022. He now chairs the board of trustees of the Free Speech Union.

He has lectured at the Royal College of Defence Studies, London; the UK Defence Academy, Shrivenham; the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, Hamburg; the US Military Academy, West Point; and the National Defense University, Washington, DC. His hobbies include visiting battlefields. In 1973 he drove from Scotland via Iran and Afghanistan to India. And in 2015 and 2017 he trekked across the mountains of central Crete in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh-Fermor and his comrades, when they abducted General Kreipe in April-May 1944.

Reviews

[Scott Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biggar’s work offers a stimulating defense of nations and nation-states. He asserts that nations are “here to stay for the foreseeable future” (97), a political fact that cannot be denied. However, Biggar’s argument goes beyond mere existence; he defends loyalty to these states as long as they uphold “customs and institutions that embody an understanding of what makes for human flourishing” (97). Whether or not one finds this convincing can only be determined by following his arguments.

Some of the most intriguing sections of his book delve into imperialism, establishment, and national sovereignty. I found his critique of the functionality of the United Nations’ Security Council particularly insightful. Despite being written from the perspective of a British, Anglican, Christian ethicist, this book remains relevant and valuable as we continue to engage in discussions about nations and nationalism.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking series of lectures from a Christian ethicist defending the nation (and the nation-state) as an object of qualified loyalty and affection. I think Biggar's argument for nations as legitimate vehicles for facilitating certain natural human goods is basically sound, and his argument for a mild form of Christian establishment was stronger than I expected, but I was less persuaded by the last two chapters (on humanitarian intervention and "empire"). This wasn't mainly because of a disagreement on principle, but because he didn't seem to grapple with some of the stronger objections. (Though the chapter on empire does include a fairly persuasive criticism of currently-fashionable views of Jesus as an "anti-imperialist.")

Relatively minor disagreements notwithstanding, this book provides a welcome counterpoint to the utopian political thinking you sometimes get from Christians on the "left" without falling into a purely conservative stance.

[John Jacobi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written and concise book. Not particularly helpful, but interesting to see this kind of political thinking in a recent book. Biggar mostly uses Christian ethics to justify the ideas of nation and national sovereignty. His parts on humanism and Christian variations of humanism were the most interesting to me. His final section on imperialism was interesting since he legitimated it with scripture (with reasonable reservations and great consideration for anti-imperial views also based on the Bible).