you have putin to thank not only for making the concept and reality of the nation-state respectable again, but for saving the nation-state system from the trash heap of history.  before putin showed the world that nationalism can exist in the 21st century and stand against the onslaught of globalization that ramped up in the 1980s and went into overdrive in the 1990s, standard wisdom from academicians, political leaders, corporate executives, and even ordinary people was that the nation-state was a relic of a bygone era and globalization would unite the world, and all its peoples, under a single global system.
United States