ABSTRACT
Introduction States can arouse great passions. Millions of people die in their name. During the Cold War, the military superpowers ultimately were prepared to threaten the world with the global catastrophe of a thermonuclear war in order to preserve their right to exist (even though the right itself might have been one of the only survivors of such a war). Yet developments are now underway which threaten the existence of states in their traditional form without a single shot being fired. It is these which form one of the central concerns of this and the next chapter. Before they can be considered, however, a definition of the state and a few initial thoughts are in order.
