Pursuing National Interests

There are many different perspectives to how far nationalism should be

pursued. George Bernard Shaw believed that it shouldnt be pursued. He
thought that when national interests become too extreme, it hurts everybody
involved, and that war in general doesnt help anybody in the end. Lots of
people believe that leaning towards supranationalism is what is best for the
world. Organizations like Greenpeace and Red Cross are examples of this.
They believe that if you strive for what is best for the world, you will get the
best results. By helping each other, and putting other countries first, it
creates a peaceful world. If you pursue nationalism to any extent, it will
eventually lead to conflict and the downfall of countries. Others would argue
that national interests should be pursued as far as possible, to the extent of
ultranationalism. They believe this is the only way to advance and gain
power in the world. Examples of this are people like Hitler and Stalin. They
believed that to get what they wanted, and to help their country gain control,
they had to fight for it. They threatened other people and other countries,
and they fought as much as they could, without worrying about who they
hurt. This creates conflict between countries during and after war, and could
hurt countries long term. I believe that national interests should be pursued
for the sake of the country, but not to the extent that others are being hurt in
the process.
Pursuing nationalism to an extreme often leads to genocide. A current
example of this is the Islamic extremist rebel group, ISIS. ISIS has been held

responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and has been
designated as a terrorist organization. The group has killed hundreds of
prisoners of war, and over 1000 civilians. They have been accused of mass
killing, burning, and beheading. ISIS is an ultranationalist group, who
believes that by killing all these people, they are performing widespread
ethnic and religious cleaning. ISIS wants to redraw Middle East borders in
order to create an Islamic state governed by their interpretation of Islamic
law, and is willing to kill mass amounts of people to achieve what they want.
However, by doing this, they are making many enemies with other countries.
While they believe that what they are doing is right, they are hurting many
people in the process. This will only cause more war and feud. War is not
good for any country. It costs lots of money, and lots of lives. Pursuing
national interests to the extent of genocide is not necessary, nor will it help
accomplish what the group truly wants.
Ultranationalism can lead to many enemies, and can cost your country
greatly. In 1871, Germany finally unified. However, they found that they were
lagging greatly behind France and Britains large empires, both economically
and politically. They decided to pursue what they thought was in their
nations interest. They started to build their armies and threaten other
countries. Germany believed that this was the only way to truly build their
empires and become the powerful country they wanted to be. However, they
created many enemies, and the Allied countries defeated them. The Treaty of
Versailles was created, which wasnt in the interest of Germany, and set

them back even further than when they had begun. The Big Four also made
Germany sign saying that they were the reason for World War One. Germany
could have done many different things. They could have pursued the
national interest of their country to make it better, but they didnt have to
harm other countries to do that. Rather than attack other countries for
power, they could have made agreements. That way, nobody would have
been hurt, but the countries would build each other up instead. Pursing
national interests for your country is important, but hurting other countries
will only make the situation worse for everybody involved.
It is important to strive for what is best for your country, and pursue
nationalism. However, if you begin to pursue it too much, it creates conflict.
It is better to pursue nationalism to a smaller extent, and make sure you
arent hurting other countries to make your country better. Staying
somewhere between internationalism and nationalism is a good place to be.
Pursuing nationalism to too much of an extent can lead to genocide, conflict,
and enemies. Like George Bernard Shaw said, the war was a horror, and
everybody is the worse for it.