A state is a territorial political unit: a nation is a people sharing a particular identity, regardless of the political arrangements. Confusingly, many people use the words ‘nation’ and ‘state’ interchangeably. This is not the only confusion. True nation-states, in which a very high proportion of the citizenry share the same national identity, are rare. Out of today’s 196 sovereign state, there are only about ten proper nation-state, with Japan as the biggest. Most are multinational. The nation-state is therefore largely a fiction, though it has gained currency in international law. International relations, like all politics, are full of fuzzy language.