States appear as much in our dreams and nightmares as in our lives. Movements of ‘national liberation’ typically aspire to a state of their own ; secessionist seek independence in order to found a new state . Only states are accorded the privilege of a seat at the (misnamed) United Nations. The European Union is feared by some lest it become a super state, just as the United Nations was opposed long ago by opponents of ‘world government’. Those sceptical about the possibility of world government often conclude that international affairs must be anarchic in the absence of a world state , as if state and anarchy exhaust the possibilities [see future Chapter 22]