What with the European Union, globalization, the United Nations, and being a “citizen of the world,” the trend was supposed to be for the elimination of narrow nationalisms in favor of cosmopolitanism and ever-larger unions. But now nationalism is back, and little countries are trying to break away from big countries. After the jump, links to those efforts, including the upcoming vote in Scotland to secede from Great Britain. How do you account for this phenomenon?Examples of current secessionist movements (not including the long-running efforts of the Basques, the different groups in Belgium, the independent movement in Wales, and others):
Crimea recently voted to secede from the Ukraine and other ethnically-Russian areas reportedly want to do the same.
Secession fever flared up in Quebec until the separatist party got beat in a recent election in Canada.Scotland will vote on whether to secede from Great Britain in September. (Would that mean removing the X-shaped St. Andrew’s cross from the UK flag?)
Venice wants to secede from the rest of Italy. (So said 89% of Venetians in a non-binding referendum.)
Catalonia wants to vote to secede from Spain and may defy Spanish authorities who are forbidding the referendum.
