
This article makes both a theoretical and empirical contribution to understanding economic nationalism. It does this first through providing an appropriate definition of the term. Taking issue with the generalised remit of economic nationalism in recent writings, it suggests that it consists of practices to create, bolster and protect national economies in the context of world markets. Taking this definition, the subsequent history section identifies economic nationalism’s rise in the late 19th century, the impetus of crisis after 1929 and its institutionalisation after 1945. Simultaneously, the accelerating growth of world markets through greater exports undermined the reality of national economies. This takes us to the period after the financial crash of 2008. In its aftermath, commentators warned of a resurgence of economic nationalism, that is, protectionism. Some states did increase tariff levels but this has not led to a generalised increase in barriers to trade in the pursuit of national economies for interrelated reasons: (1) the integration and therefore interdependency of economies; (2) the complexity of the global economy, making it all but impossible to separate by nationality; (3) the greater extensity of world markets compared to the mid-20th century; (4) the redundancy of the various models of economic nationalism.