How to have an identity in such a world? Nationalism becomes semi-obsolete before it even completes its conquest;national governments everywhere are challenged from front and rear, past and future. They are forced to do battle against pre-modern tribal and ethnic identities even as they resist the threats to their fragile sovereignties that are posed by international organizations and movements and economic forces. The weaker national sovereignty is as an absolute principle, the less secure we are in defining ourselves according to national citizenship.