ABSTRACT
States do have a history. Their institutions and functions have changed over times. The capacity of states to provide physical security has thus been weakened. A similar erosion of capacity has also taken place in other areas where the effectiveness and autonomy of the state once had been unquestioned. States used to have quite some freedom in regulating their foreign trade through quotas and tariffs. The state is the crucial counterpart of enterprise in the process of economic evolution. States can articulate such political interests. But they will bring them to bear only if they join with other states in an organized, predictable way. States establish the rules that govern conflicts between those interests. The disintegration and disappearance of states are the counterfactual. It points to a continuing and essential role of states in keeping the global system going. States therefore continue to be important, even central in the system of global governance.
