Not only in education, but also in other social practices, the history of "internationalisation" is correlative to the history of "nationalisation". In this broad sense, this article outlines four main constellations of the links between education and nationalisation/internationalisation dynamics. After a brief description of the creation of "nations" "within" communities in the Church and universities from the Middle Ages onwards, the article focuses on a context in which the modern "nations", understood as a difference between distinct communities, emerged at the turn of the nineteenth century. This classical form of internationalisation "between" separate units eventually led to the emergence of a supranational level of communication "above" nations, basically in the form of international organisations and meetings. These experiences determined the nature of international communication regarding education for many decades. "Nations" certainly enacted this first wave of internationalisation. The breakthrough of new media and a world-market economy during the late twentieth century seems, however, to have favoured a second wave of supranational practices and discourses about education "beyond" any national frame. The article outlines these four main constellations and analyses the main features of scholarship dealing with them.