Understanding International Relations, Third Edition

particular cultural heritage – that of Europe, or, to be more specific, that part
of Europe whose cultural heritage was shaped by Catholic Christianity and
the Western Roman Empire. The contrast between the cultural specificity of
the current international order, and the cultural diversity demonstrated by its
members, provides a backdrop to the following discussion.
Politics in industrial societies
Of course, this diversity might be on the wane, and in the 1970s, the
advanced industrial capitalist countries did indeed seem to be settling down
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Understanding International Relations

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into a kind of common pattern shaped by the process of industrialization
itself. Most of the industrial societies had been through a nationalist phase,
a period of nation-building, but in most cases nationalism was no longer the
dominant force in domestic politics, although it could still be powerful in