Modern state, then, are distinctive territorial forms of political organization that claim sovereignty over their realms and independence from other states. A state system can be thought of simply as a group of state interacting in ways, often hostile, that significantly affect the fate of each.
This general characterization of the state may not be suitable for all purposes, and I do not wish to say that all other characterizations of the state are straightforwardly mistaken. Some are, but many others are not. Different characteristics of related forms of political organization may be emphasized, depending on one’s explanatory or evaluative purpose. For some purposes it may be useful to distinguish less sharply between modern and premodern forms of political organization (For instance, differences between state, empire, principality, or polis may not be important for many anthropological research projects.) By contrast, my characterization is helpful for raising certain normative questions about distinctively modern forms of
political organization and considering alternative ways of arranging our world. The world of state appears to be changing – the effects of the demise of the Soviet Union, various trends clustered under the label of ‘globalization’ , the threats of Islamist terrorism or insurgency- and evaluating these changes requires understanding the modern state.