The "nation-state" refers to the modern notion of a sovereign nation, wherein a unified ethnic and linguistic group, a "nation," is essentially synonymous with a unified political power, a "state." The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the lengthy wars of religion in Western Europe and redrew political boundaries, is one of the key moments in establishing nation-states in a modern viewpoint. From that point forward, nationalism took on the nation-state as a primary goal and motivating force.

A homogenous nation-state is a country with a population that is ethnically, racially, or religiously homogenous. 98% of Japan's population is ethnically Japanese, while the other countries listed are all multi-cultural states.

The Kurdish people inhabit territory in the Middle East that includes the territory of many independent states. The Kurdish land includes parts of Iraq, Syria, and Armenia, and the Kurdish people are often the majority in cities in this region. However, the Kurds do not have a state of their own and are therefore referred to as a “stateless nation.” A “stateless nation” is a nation of people who self-identify as a common national group, but who do not have their own political state. The Jewish people were once a famous “stateless nation” in history, until the creation of Israel in 1948.

The concept of nationality can sometimes be nebulous, but within the United Kingdom, there are at least four nationalities: English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish. These four nations together make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland. In the recent independence movement, many Scottish people were campaigning for an independent Scottish national state, completely separate from England and the rest of Britain. The Scots were seeking “self-determination,” the right to determine the political character and direction of their own nation.

Irredentism is a political movement that is strongly tied to nationalism. It is a political movement that intends to reunite a nation or reclaim a lost territory. This was a particularly powerful force in European history from 1850 to 1945, during the height of European nationalist fervor.

The Falkland Islands (or Las Malvinas, as they are known in Argentina) are part of the dwindling remains of the British Empire. The islands are physically located a few hundred miles off the Argentinean coastline and are thus logically claimed by the Argentinian government. In the early 1980s, Argentina declared war on the United Kingdom in an attempt to “reclaim” the Falkland Islands. Any attempt to “reclaim lost territory for a nation” is known as “irredentism.”

“Manifest Destiny” was a prevailing American ideological myth throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It stated that the United States had an inevitable destiny to expand continually westward until it controled the whole of the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

A state with more than one center of activity is a multicore state, identifiable from the meaning of the word "multicore"- "multi" (many) and "core" (center).