Topic: Rising Nationalism and Political Extremism
Country: Guatemala
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Guatemala position papers GLIMUN 2018 committees
Nationalism, to an extent, is, and has always been, prevalent in all society. The obligations of a denizen to one’s nation create the basis of society. When this is extremified, nationalism as we know it now becomes an issue. Political extremism and nationalism may sometimes create unity in a nation, but it also typically leads to conflict with other nations or people groups within one’s own nation. Oftentimes this is played off as patriotism, stating that they are doing the best for their nation. Sometimes this is true, but oftentimes the extremism exemplified in nationalism only harms the nation.
Guatemala is still attempting to recover from a lengthy civil war, and thus is victim to a side-effect often displayed by nations coming out of a civil war: massive patriotism and arrogant pride. There is severe prejudice in the nation towards some of its own people groups due to the nationalist pride of the group in power, believing that the other group is harmful for the nation, which is a common sentiment among many other nations. Changing this rooted view in Guatemala would be very difficult, and needs to occur over time, potentially by integrating the people. Not very much actual violence or instability has occured from this yet however, showing the possibility of a change in attitude of the people and a change in any political extremism.
A stronger public school system overseen by the UN may be a potentially effective solution to stop future nationalism and political extremism. Educating the future generations of the people in their nation and of the outside world, as well as integrating the different people groups of Guatemala may temper extremism born of prejudice or lack of knowledge. Preventing immediate violence is a bit trickier without potentially creating more corruption or an oppressive state for the citizens. Creating some kinds of support groups for children, likely immediately after school, may reduce their liability to be caught in violent situations, or from committing acts of violence themselves. Organized neighborhood watches may also reduce the violence. Essentially, there needs to be organizations established and run by the people in order to both help reduce violence and prevent an increase in corruption or oppression.
