Hazony argues that, for centuries, Western nations have been characterized by a struggle between two antithetical visions of world order: nationalism and imperialism. Nationalism, for him, involves nations that are able to chart their own independent course by cultivating their own traditions and pursuing their own interests without interference. In contrast, imperialism involves peoples united under a single regime of law and maintained by a single supranational authority. He argues that nationalism, built on mutual human loyalty to family and tribe, represents the true foundation of political order. No universal ideology - not Christianity, liberalism, Marxism - has succeeded in eliminating the intense human desire to protect and strengthen the tribe.