Politics & Power Quote by Peter Singer

Nationalism, Singer suggests, isn’t a reigning monarch so much as a scrappy contender in a crowded ring. The line is deliberately deflationary: it refuses the hot-take premise that we’re living through a simple “return of nationalism.” Instead, it frames nationalism as one force among rivals that also claim people’s loyalty and moral imagination - consumer identity, religious revival, global human-rights language, climate politics, even algorithmically amplified micro-tribes. That choice of metaphor matters. “Holding the field” evokes a battlefield or a parliamentary floor, but Singer immediately undercuts any idea of a single front line. The fight is multipolar.

The subtext is Singer’s signature move: weaken the intuitive authority of borders by treating them as one optional affiliation rather than the default. He’s not praising nationalism’s resilience; he’s denying it the aura of inevitability. “In contention” also implies volatility: what wins attention and allegiance can change quickly, and nationalism’s current visibility may be a function of media salience and political incentives, not deep legitimacy.

Contextually, Singer has spent decades arguing for obligations that don’t stop at the nation-state - from famine relief to animal welfare to effective altruism. This quote reads like a strategic reminder to moral and political commentators: don’t overfit the moment. If nationalism is just one competitor, then the cultural task isn’t to surrender to it as destiny but to build institutions and narratives that can outcompete it - ethically, emotionally, and practically.