The current appearance of the search for national identities may be understood in contexts of broader cultural structures. One such structure is Western Modernity, and provides a background which plays a multiple role in the search for identity: in its secular form it provides an opposition to national/ethnic groups of specific religious type; in its technical form it provides means for economic transformation or military enhancement; in its homogenizing universality, it sets a tone for postmodern movements and anti-modern oppositions; in its individuating form it becomes an attraction for freedom and liberation. This essay explores the relationships of Western modernity to various nationalistic and ethnic movements and, in a final analysis, raises a question concerning the constitution of nationality