New America and the Global Order: The Free World’s End? by Tom Nairn

Like Abraham Lincoln’s United States after the defeat of the secession, all are in truth forms of the unitary, armoured state designed to prevent unavoidably diverse peoples from wanting things too diverse and uncontrollable, above all in relationships with other states. Federation is an expression of nationalism, not a repudiation of it. As Galbraith himself explains, there would not be the faintest chance of Kurds accepting federation with a Shi’a–national majority, and calling it “loose” won’t make it possible.