Richard,
An all-too plausible scenario. What I like about it is what I
also like about the world-system perspective in general: it does not
surrender to a mindless economism but recognizes that states are also
players in the system, driven by considerations that often make no
economic sense whatever. Nationalism and capitalism are like the giants
in Wagner's RING, Fafner and Fasolt. And who knows which one might wind
up killing the other in a fit of lunatic rage? At any rate, all talk of
the demise of the nation-state is preposterous, and the same goes for
Huntington's vision of Kulturkampf.
Regards,
Warren Wagar