Where do political identities come from, how do they change over time, and what is their impact on political life? This book explores these and related questions in a globalizing world where the nation state is being transformed, definitions of citizenship are evolving in unprecedented ways, and people's interests and identities are taking on new local, regional, transnational, cosmopolitan, and even imperial configurations. Pre-eminent scholars examine the changing character of identities, affiliations, and allegiances in a variety of contexts: the evolving character of the European Union and its member countries, the Balkans and other new democracies of the post-1989 world, and debates about citizenship and cultural identity in the modern West. These essays are essential reading for anyone interested in the political and intellectual ferment that surrounds debates about political membership and attachment, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, humanities, and law.

'Political membership centered in nation-states is making room for other affiliations and allegiances. These are shaping novel assemblages of interests and identities with local, regional, transnational, and even imperial geographies. Can these become stable meanings and gain the power historically associated with national citizenship? The essays in this extraordinary collection map complexities rather than easy answers. They leave few established propositions untouched.'

Saskia Sassen - University of Chicago and author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

'Identities, affiliations and allegiances ignite passions - especially when the borders they define - territorial or otherwise - are transgressed. Their analysis, when done well, ignites similar passions in the battle fields of academia where identities, affiliations and allegiances are as entrenched and uncomfortably account for normative and cognitive boundaries. This volume, rich and provocative, will ignite strong passions.'

J. H. H Weiler - Global Law School, New York University

'An exemplary demonstration of the creative benefits of collaboration between normative theorists and social scientists on a vital subject of growing concern world-wide. Its special strength is to lift issues of citizenship, immigration and ethnicity out of their specialized niches and reconsider them in the context of what one of the contributors properly characterizes as a ‘PostWestphalian World.’ Deserving a wide readership in philosophy, political science, sociology, and international affairs, this book will undoubtedly stimulate a reconceptualization of the entire field.'

Aristide R. Zolberg - New School for Social Research