What follows from this analysis? First, that in a world of political and cultural pluralism where states and ethnicities operate with rival conceptions of the nation and its boundaries, ethno–national conflict is endemic. Second, that nations and nationalisms are a political necessity in a world of competing and unequal states requiring popular legitimation and mobilisation. Third, that because so many people feel their nation performs important social and political functions, it is going to take more than a Maastricht Treaty to wean them away from these deeply felt national allegiances. And finally, because so many nations are historically embedded in pre–scendence of the nation and the supersession of nationalism, of which so many utopians have dreamt!

— Anthony D. Smith, Nations and their pasts