patriotism

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Nationalism, patriotism, humanism, not necessarily exclusive. Unless one is a one-trick pony, of course.

[Coito ergo sum]

That's quite possibly true. However, the problem becomes a "you first" problem. When country X is acting according to its perceived interest in a world of competing competing countries, than country Y must do the same or it will be stomped on by country X. That's the world we live in now. I don't think the solution is for country Y's people to simply roll over and say "we are not patriotic, we don't support country Y any more than country X" and act accordingly. If they do that, then country X will say "thank you very much, and proceed to stomp."

I think this analysis is incomplete as it focuses only on competition to the exclusion of cooperation. Often countries stand to benefit mutually from cooperation. Giving in to competitive impulse will often - I would say usually - result in a lose-lose situation.

Of course they do. That's when countries make alliances, mutual nonaggression pacts, mutual defense agreements, trade agreements, etc. That's generally occurring because the alternative is deemed worse, or there are benefits to be gained by alliance or cooperation than by conflict. However, as long as there are groups of people associated in nations, there will be nationalism. And, loyalty to one's nation is patriotism.