The editors lay out three goals for this book. They wish us to question contemporary understandings of economic nationalism, to appreciate the importance of identity in shaping economic policy, and to recognize how ideas and identity can be integrated into work in international political economy (IPE). The editors and contributors go a long way toward achieving all three aims, though not with equal success. They are most successful in highlighting the importance of identity in establishing the goals of political action, including economic policymaking, and thus any reader will think more seriously about the possible contributions of constructivism to IPE.

The editors begin by arguing that economic nationalism is not merely realism applied to economic questions, nor is it about state security per se. Separation between nation and state is a crucial and obvious distinction rarely explored in IPE. Nationalism can embrace a variety of particular economic strategies, well beyond protectionism in trade or resistance to foreign investment. National aspirations can be described in a variety of ways, and these may lead to the adoption of policies quite the opposite of those consistent with realism. While this thrust of the book is useful, it also raises questions about the utility of the concept of nationalism, given that it is so open to interpretation.

The contributions address particular cases underscoring why we need to rethink the meaning of economic nationalism. In their examinations of the former Soviet bloc, Rawi Abdelal, Andrei Tsygankov, and Maya Eicheler illustrate how nationalism has led some countries to embrace economic openness. Opening up to the international economy was an obvious way for some to escape the grasp of other states, dominated by other national groups. Eric Helleiner explains the stance that Quebec separatists have taken on monetary policy in the same terms. One can question whether national aspirations are more likely to be met in some of these strategies than in others. Will deeper engagement in the global economy necessarily lead to better defense of national identity? Indeed, debates in Quebec over separatists' economic policies hinge on such points. Strengthening economic ties with the United States may make Quebec less dependent on the rest of Canada, but deeper ties with the United States may present greater challenges for the separatists' goal of defending the purity of the French language. Nationalism involves the creation of “insiders” and “outsiders”—and thus there is an inherent tension between international economic liberalization and the maintenance of this division. Are there certain aspects unique to the current international system—it being highly institutionalized and unipolar, with open trade and investment but largely closed to flows of people—that allow nationalists to pursue such strategies?

The chapters by Derek Hall and Klaus Müller turn the equation around by discussing how the postwar economic success of Japan and West Germany reformulated national identity in those countries. Both also illustrate how an appreciation of nationalism can yield insight into examples of policymaking when citizens and policymakers do not pursue materialistic goals as expected, because they are unwilling to trade off particular values for material gains.

The authors may have gone a little too far out of their way to ignore the role of the state. After all, much of what they describe could be translated into scenarios devoid of nationalism (e.g., claims on other bases of identity, such as a “buy local” campaign pitched at the municipal or state/provincial level). Nationalism gives us a conceptual hook that is missing for local communities. The only contribution to examine lower-level phenomena more closely is Patricia Goff's, which has many themes running through it—her chapter would have been more helpful had the various threads been a bit more disentangled in the conclusion. Surely the prominence of economic nationalism (over economic localism) has something to do with the amount of power vested at the national level. Otherwise, we need to know when and where nationalism trumps other claims to identity.

Jacqui True's chapter on New Zealand is valuable precisely because it addresses the sort of protectionism most would associate with economic nationalism. While True argues that nationalism can be a tool masking individual gain, she also raises some interesting issues about why nationalism is chosen over other possible instruments. Meredith Woo-Cumings provides a wonderful description of the role that societal values played in the economic success of South Korea, but more importantly, she examines the concept of nationalism itself in a bit more detail. In the end, she concludes that the term provides little guidance to the content of policy, though policies cloaked in nationalism often gain legitimacy and support. One wonders whether their position on economic nationalism is merely a restatement of what others describe as an analytical version of liberalism—looking inside countries to determine what goals citizens ask states to pursue. Along these lines, Andreas Pickel cites Harry Johnson's notion of “psychic income” (p. 3). Economic nationalism may be a more specific version of how demands on the state are framed, since Pickel claims that these demands differ by being about the nation's interest (i.e., not individuals' interests).

Helleiner makes two strong points in the conclusion. First, economic policy reflects domestic values, with nationalism one way of establishing what those values might be. Second, constructivism gives us the tools for understanding how identity and values shape policy. The editors and contributors persuasively make the case for deeper discussions between those who study nationalism (or the politics of identity more broadly) and those studying international economic policies. This book is a long step in that direction.