Global Migration - Immigration - Multiethnicity: Challenges to the Concept of the Nation-State

Professor Delbriick begins his article by briefly discussing the history and development of the nation-state, and then examines how changes in the political and social environment, often international and cross-cultural in nature, have altered the traditional notion of the nation-state. He argues that the modern form of the State should be based on the concept of the "Open Republic, " rather than on that of the traditional closed, self-centered, and self-reliant nation-state. Professor Delbriick demands that his concept of an "Open Republic" first be grounded in the form of a republican State-a constitutional government involving the democratic participation of all citizens and a "marketplace of ideas." He focuses on a republic geared in nature and character toward an "openness" to accepting and assimilating citizens of different ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds, with equal rights for those diverse citizens. He concludes that such an "Open Republic" is suited to preserving a national public interest, while at the same time meeting the global challenges of the present and future.