The Return of the Nation

I think what studying empires tells us, and I think the more we study it, the more we all realise this, is that empires are places where people are mixed up. That's just the logic of the situation. It creates these rich, dynamic, original entities. If one ponders the state of the world today, there is something to bear a John Darwin's view in his book after Tamalen. The idea that the world is full of nation states is actually a 20th century invention. And if we think of America and Russia and China and Iran and India and Brazil, there's something to be said for that. I mean, empire is not over, but we do need