Shared Beliefs

The first and most basic assumption is that a nation is constituted by belief. Nations are not physical objects like mountains, rivers or buildings that exist whether or not anyone believes in them — they are not things that exist independently of the beliefs people hold about them. To call a group of people a "nation" is not to make a comment about their physical characteristics or their behaviour; it is to describe their collective identity and their shared vision for a future in which they have an independent political existence.

A useful comparison is with a sports team. When we talk about "a team," we mean a set of people who play or work together and, crucially, think of themselves as a collective group. If they did not think of themselves this way, they would simply be a set of individuals playing a game or doing a task, not a team at all. In exactly the same way, a nation exists when its members believe that they belong together. …