ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall attempt to set out the case that can be made on behalf of the nation-state, by which I mean a political institution exercising most of the powers and rights that we traditionally associate with ‘sovereignty’ over a group of people who share a common national identity. I describe the defence as a modest one partly in order to distance myself from bellicose forms of nationalism, but partly also because I do not believe that such an institution is always and everywhere a possibility. Even in the modern world there are circumstances in which the creation or maintenance of a nation-state is not a realistic possibility. But one may concede that, and also believe that in the majority of cases the nation-state represents the best form of government for contemporary societies and should be supported on those grounds.
