Cosmopolitisme ou internationalisme methodologique

In: Raisons politiques: études de pensée politique, Volume 2, Issue 54, p. 87-102

Abstract

Criticizing methodological nationalism first amounts to attacking a myth of political interiority which would suggest that the state exists in itself and by itself, independently from foreign countries and foreigners. Highlighting the transnational phenomena of globalization, as the methodological cosmopolitanism does, helps to counter such solipsistic illusions. However, the critique of methodological nationalism is insufficient when it duplicates such a myth by ignorance or neglect of norms of international law. This is obvious in research on population migration. Cutting through methodological nationalism and cosmopolitanism, this paper proposes a methodological internationalism, that, against the myth of interiority, takes into account the immanence of the international in the national. This methodological proposal, here limited to its critical dimension against methodological nationalism, is then developed into a thought experiment showing how the national can be coextensive with the international and foreign relations. The critique of methodological nationalism is all the more relevant and effective that it takes into account the international constitution of state phenomena. Adapted from the source document.