The nationalist ideology needs a manufactured enemy to mobilize

Evidence

Buddhist monks will continue to play a pivotal role in Sri Lankan politics unless drastic changes take place within the sangha. So will Buddhist nationalists, whose influence has now reached new heights. Once the LTTE’s separatist struggle is neutralized, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists may even renew campaigns against Christians and Muslims, for their ideology is fundamentally antiminority and requires agitprop to mobilize and survive. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 303

Categorization

• XREF: Directly bears on the reader’s question of whether solidarity sustained by an external enemy decays or manufactures a new one when the original threat vanishes — here DeVotta predicts a manufactured next enemy (Christians, Muslims). — connects to: National identity requires crafted enemies to become activist ideology — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1656; Needing mass mobilization against a fellow-Muslim foe made revolutionary Iran embrace nationalism — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1748; A solidarity crusade collapses when its manufactured threat vanishes — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1579 (+12 more)
• ADDENDUM: Connects to the reader’s broader inquiry on manufactured external enemies sustaining group solidarity; a clear case where defeat of one enemy (LTTE) is predicted to produce a replacement.

Broader Connections

• Selfhood and national unity are forged through conflict with a common foe #corroborates (0.85) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1194
• Ideologies that succeed in hard times generate enemies even if they start without them #corroborates (0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3976
• A government can manufacture crisis to construct its own people as enemy #exemplifies (0.75) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 111