Binational state
A multi-national state (most commonly a binational state or a trinational state) is a nation-state that has several distinct and (if the status of the state has come to issue at all) rival cultures within it that compete for control. It is usually an unstable situation, but can come to be stabilized for long periods if the balance of power is managed carefully.Most such states have historically ended with one of a small range of outcomes:
- federation that delegates each nation some powers within the state, e.g. as First Nations and Quebec have within Canada.
- secession of one nation within the state, e.g. that of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic when Slovakia seceded.
- civil war leading to either secession, federation, or some new balance of power that puts one nationality firmly in charge of another, e.g. the U.S. Civil War which was won decisively by the industrial North or Union forces who subordinated the Confederate States of America, still considered by many to exist as the informal "nation" of Dixie (with a flag and anthem).
Assertions that any state not formally federated as such, is binational or trinational or more fragmented, is usually denied and opposed politically and militarily. Some examples:
Spain has fought Basque separatists for decades.
Russia strongly opposed separatists in Chechnya. A referendum later established the desire of Chechens to remain within the Russian federation.
Iraq has a Kurd and Shia region, each of which has a history of political and military opposition to the Sunni region which contains the capital, Baghdad. Among the predicted effects of invading Iraq were a bloody civil war among these factions - not yet realized as of August 2003.
Turkey is strongly opposed to any declaration of statehood by Kurds in Iraq, and has militarily suppressed both the Kurd population in its own southeast, and denied them the right to use their language.
Israel is asserted by three distinct groups to be a binational state: those who advocate expelling Palestinian Arabs, those who advocate forming a new state of Palestine, and those who advocate formalizing the status quo of a single state, and giving all Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip a citizenship and vote in a possibly-renamed state Jews and Arabs would share. This assertion is violently opposed likewise by at least three other groups: those who seek to avoid recognizing any nation status for Arabs within Israel and to maintain it strictly as a "Jewish State", some of whom advocate explusion, and others subordination (the status quo), and those Arabs who see the entire Mandate of Palestine as an Arab nation, and all Jews as colonizers or invaders.
In Canada, assertions that Quebec was a "distinct society" were met by strong opposition from English-speaking citizens who felt that each of the provinces of Canada were just as distinct. This debate was serious enough to cause an agreement to bring Quebec formally under the Canadian Constitution failed. Another agreement failed due to overlooking First Nations as "founding peoples". Quebec remains outside the Constitution, formally. The territory of Nunuvat was later created as the first fully native ruled jurisdiction in the Americas, much celebrated by indigenous peoples as an example of self-rule.
In Europe, some states, such as Belgium and Switzerland, formally recognize two or more official languages, and have remained stable for many years. Although these are admired, they are exceptions rather than the rule.
A multi-national state usually requires a great deal of work to keep together. Success or failure may be due to success or failure at creating a functional multi-ethnic society. There are however external military and economic pressures that may cause a clearly distinct society to remain within a state. Thus a multi-national state does not always imply a multi-ethnic society. There are also peoples or nations united by something other than ethnicity, like for instance religion. And, there are nations that have no states at all, or which are split among states, like the Kurds, who are poorly integrated into several societies that are weakly multi-ethnic, some of which, like Iraq or Turkey, can be said to be multi-national states.
See also: urban secession
