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Reference to two other concepts -- nationalism and sovereignty -- may help to reveal the contours of the new principle.

In its beginnings the nation-state had to struggle to assert itself -- internally, against feudal groups, and externally, against the power and influence of such other claimants for loyalty as the Church.

The breakup of the Holy Roman Empire and the downfall of feudalism led, not more than two centuries ago, to the surge of nationalism.

( Since the time-span of the nation-state coincides roughly with the separate existence of the United States as an independent entity, it is perhaps natural for Americans to think of the nation as representative of the highest form of order, something permanent and unchanging.

) The concept of nationalism is the political principle that epitomizes and glorifies the territorial state as the characteristic type of socal structure.

But it is more than that.

For it includes the emotional ties that bind men to their homeland and the complex motivations that hold a large group of people together as a unit.

Today, as new nations rise from the former colonial empires, nationalism is one of the hurricane forces loose in the world.

Almost febrile in intensity, the principle has become worldwide in application -- unfortunately at the very time that nationalist fervors can wreak greatest harm.

Historically, however, the concept is one that has been of marked benefit to the people of the Western civilizational group.

By subduing disparate lesser groups the nation has, to some degree at least, broadened the capacity for individual liberty.

Within their confines, moreover, technological and industrial growth has proceeded at an accelerated pace, thus increasing the cornucopia from which material wants can be satisfied.

While the pattern is uneven, some having gained more than others, nationalism has in fact served the Western peoples well.

( Whether historical nationalism helped the peoples of the remainder of the world, and whether today's nationalism in the former colonial areas has equally beneficial aspects, are other questions.