Nationalism and Anthony Smith's anti-primordialism in his view of modern Asiatic history and the construction of what is 'Asia'

Nationalism and what makes a nation a cohesive and functioning unit has been one of the essential questions of modern political philosophy, particularly in Asia today, where in India, China, Tibet, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea, a plurality of different regional and religious identities fight to dominate particular national territories. Anthony D. Smith is one of most important contemporary scholars of nationalism and is the author of many books on the subject including such classics as his 1986 The Ethnic Origins of Nations, a book of supreme relevance in particular for the region, given the frequent rhetorical role of ethnic identity in a people's claim to territory and nationhood.

According to Smith, the idea of essential ethnic origins of nations has caused some scholars to assume nationalism and nations as preexisting entities,...
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