In this age where the catchwords 'globalization', 'transnationalism' and 'postnationalism' have taken hold, nationalism and its political embodiment - the nation-state - appear to be outmoded. In its stead, 'cosmopolitanism' seems the obvious intellectual ethic and political project to better express real universalism (as opposed to 'particularistic' nationalism) This essay states that this is not so. It is skeptical of the mancipatory nature of cosmopolitanism based on contemporary globalization and argues that cosmopolitanism as an alternative to nationalism remains an open question in these contemporary times.