Why do people always say ‘nation state’ in these situations? It’s not a fancy word for ‘major country’ - it means something specific. For example the UK is definitely not a nation state. The US is arguably not a nation state either, due to its cultural and lingual heterogeneity and tribal sovereignty.
Jargon nitpicking is my second-least-favourite kind of HN nitpicking, coming in close ahead of "Boy there was an advert on that article!/Why U no adblock?" nitpicking.
A nation state is a nation that is also a state. The UK clearly is a union of four nations into one kingdom. I mean - the clue's in the name.
Unless you're going to separate out historic county kingdoms (Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Gwent, etc.) then England annexed the counties that compromise the region we now call Wales as lands of the English Crown.
The UK was initially formed by the Union of two kingdoms, England and Scotland at which time all the parts of Great Britain were under the same Monarch.
Your contention doesn't necessarily disagree with this historical fact.
It's "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", not the "United Kingdoms of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and whatever 3rd one you have in mind"
I was under the seemingly false impression that the Queen was separately Queen of England and Scotland still/again. But it does appear she is Queen "of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas" making her Queen of 2 kingdoms (Great Britain, Ulster) within the UK?
Additionally "nation" can refer to the collective people rather than a centralized government in action.
Dictionary result for nation state noun a sovereign state of which most of the citizens or subjects are united also by factors which define a nation, such as language or common descent.
so you can call anything a nation state as long as that thing issues a passport i guess?
What? No - you just gave the argument against that!
> are united also by factors which define a nation, such as language or common descent
This means the UK isn't a nation state - we have four nations in the UK, with different cultures, descents, and in some areas even languages.
It also means that the US is not a nation state - the people there have very distinct descents. Today Americans literally still say they're 'Italian' rather than 'American'. Many Americans don't speak English. The US literally describes tribal lands as 'dependent nations', so it isn't one nation even by their own federal definition.
Examples of nation states are places like Iceland and Portugal. These are the major military players that the original comment was trying to refer to.
MAGA-style nationalism is quite popular and powerful at the moment...