What drives a state's choice to assimilate, accommodate or exclude ethnic groups within its territory? In this innovative work on the international politics of nation-building, Harris Mylonas argues that a state's nation-building policies toward non-core groups - individuals perceived as an ethnic group by the ruling elite of a state - are influenced by both its foreign policy goals and its relations with the external patrons of these groups. Through a detailed study of the Balkans, Mylonas shows that how a state treats a non-core group within its own borders is determined largely by whether the state's foreign policy is revisionist or cleaves to the international status quo, and whether it is allied or in rivalry with that group's external patrons. Mylonas injects international politics into the study of nation-building, building a bridge between international relations and the comparative politics of ethnicity and nationalism.

Winner of the 2014 European Studies Book Award, Council for European Studies

Winner of the 2013 Peter Katzenstein Book Prize, Cornell University

Honourable Mention, 2014 Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies, Association for the Study of Nationalities

'Mylonas deftly combines quantitative analysis of cross-national data with an in-depth study of policies toward non-core groups in Greek Macedonia and provides impressive evidence to support his theoretical propositions. Summing up: recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections.'

A. Paczynska Source: Choice

'Mylonas highlights a hitherto understudied aspect of minority policy making in the Balkans: whether newly nationalizing states tolerated, assimilated, or forcibly removed ethnic minorities from their territories crucially depended on whether or not these minorities were supported by other states and whether these other states were allies or enemies. Combining broad statistical analysis with detailed archival research, the book puts the international aspects of domestic nation-building into sharp relief.'

Andreas Wimmer - Princeton University

'There is much to praise in this book. To begin with, Mylonas is one of those rare scholars who adopt a sophisticated positivist methodology that combines large analysis with a detailed knowledge of (some) historical cases obtained through patient archival research. Second, while much scholarship discusses two policy options (inclusion or exclusion), Mylonas interestingly broadens the analysis to include three policies - assimilation, accommodation and exclusion - producing, respectively, co-nationals, minorities and refugees. And, third, in an age of liberal interventionism Mylonas advances sober and thoughtful recommendations on how the international community may be able to diminish the recurrence of crimes of mass atrocity by intervening less, not more.'

Roberto Belloni Source: Buchbesprechungen

‘The core of the argument is that the international system plays a key role in determining the types of policies that states pursue as part of their nation building strategies. Mylonas makes several theoretical moves that each constitute a major contribution to our understanding of nation-building policies … Mylonas' book is destined to influence future scholarship on nation-building policies, not just in the Balkans but throughout the world.’

Dmitry Gorenburg - Harvard University

‘Harris Mylonas is one of the rare scholars who combine sophisticated knowledge of political science techniques with in-depth historical expertise. This book will be of great interest to political scientists, international relations scholars, and historians, and it will also be a valuable resource for policy makers. Most of the events it discusses happened a century or more ago, but the repercussions from those events are still very much in evidence in the Balkans today.’

Mark Kramer - Harvard University

‘Through thorough analysis of archival records and integration of theory from both international relations and comparative politics, Harris Mylonas argues that external factors often override internal factors in the formation of nationality policy. In contrast to more common approaches, Mylonas concentrates on the processes underlying nationality policy formation. He persuasively shows how elite perceptions of international threats shape such decisions.’

Roger D. Petersen - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

‘This book makes an important, original argument about the international factors that exert substantial influence on a state's decision to assimilate, accommodate, or exclude its ethnic minorities. Based mainly on analytic comparisons of case histories of Balkan nation building, Mylonas shows that states are much more likely to exclude, expel, or exterminate such groups when they receive backing from foreign enemy states and when the host state is a dissatisfied power harboring a grievance over lost territory. Many readers will find Mylonas's insights to be of great interest.’

Jack Snyder - Columbia University

‘In The Politics of Nation-Building, Harris Mylonas shows the direction to which the next generation of researchers might turn … Mylonas is not only a good historian, capable of conjugating the microlevel of everyday life with shifting macrohistorical structures. He also proves himself a virtuoso political scientist, capable of formulating fruitful puzzles and illuminating hypotheses where all might seem so painfully familiar … The result is a richly textured and compelling analytical narrative that supports the main argument of the book.’

Georgi Derluguian - New York University Abu Dhabi

‘The Politics of Nation-Building by Harris Mylonas distinguishes itself on several dimensions. It addresses an important question at the intersection of international and comparative politics by productively combining insights from theories of Comparative Politics and International Relations and by reformulating key concepts in the study of nation-building … Mylonas fashions creative hypotheses linking these elements and tests them on a body of rich empirical material; his analysis is sophisticated, subtle, and insightful.’

Source: The Katzenstein Prize committee