By Kathleen Kern

Gambling has never tempted me. The thought of losing money for the slim chance of winning a greater amount fills me with dread, rather than anticipation.

I feel the same way about nationalism, because its effects are also unpredictable. It can lead to stirring music, family picnics and fireworks displays or genocide and mass expulsions — sometimes both.

After the United States affirmed Kosovo’s declaration of independence and I saw the Serb hooligans subsequently trashing the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last month, my first thought was, “Well, at least they’re not attacking defenseless civilians this time.”

I then reflected that I have never known nationalism to make anyone kinder, more just or compassionate. Indeed, far more examples exist of nationalism leading to human rights abuses.

But I also wondered what separated the nationalism of Kosovar Albanians from the nationalism of the Serbs, or the nationalism of the Croats who had also committed atrocities for patriotic reasons during the 1990s after the break up of Yugoslavia.

For that matter, what separates Serb nationalism from that of the Basques in Spain or the Corsicans in France or the Tamils in Sri Lanka or the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria?

Of course, I speak from the perspective of someone whose nationality brings her privileges. Even my criticisms of my government have at their roots a sort of nationalism. Just as I get more upset at family members whose values bother me than I do at strangers holding the same values, I suspect I get angrier at my own country for deterring democracy and supporting human rights abuses than I do at other countries for behaving in the same manner.

But in the end, the United States is the only country in which I feel at home.

So who am I to deny anyone the same sense of security? The Kosovars have suffered much from Serb nationalism, so I don’t blame them for feeling they would be safer as a nation.

Additionally, I have a soft spot for them because of their sustained nonviolent grass-roots campaign against Serb oppression in the 1990s. If the West had supported the nonviolent activists calling for autonomy, instead of ignoring them, I suspect that Kosovar Albanians might not have driven out thousands of Kosovar Serbs in reprisal for atrocities directed from Belgrade. Kosovo might have parted from Serbia on better terms, similar to those on which India separated from England.

Or maybe not, given the shared border. Maybe, given that the European Union now makes economic and military decisions for its constituent countries, no reason exists for the Basques, Catalonians and Corsicans not to have their own nations within that union.

Or maybe the separation of these aspiring nations from Spain and France might cause a crumbling of the Union, if the French and Spanish governments use their militaries to crush these nationalist movements. Maybe the 40 million Kurds, if given a nation of their own, would drive out the Arabs, Turks and Persians in their region.

Maybe the Quebecois, if they voted to secede from Canada, would abrogate the minimal treaty rights Canada’s federal government granted First Nations like the Mohawks.

That’s the thing about supporting nationalist impulses. It’s a gamble.