A nation, sometimes used in the sense of a common ethnicity, may include a diaspora or refugees who live outside the nation-state; some nations of this sense do not have a state where that ethnicity predominates. In a more general sense, a nation-state is simply a large, politically sovereign country or administrative territory. A nation-state may be contrasted with: An empire, a political unit made up of several territories and peoples, typically established through conquest and marked by a dominant center and subordinate peripheries. A multinational state, where no one ethnic or cultural group dominates (such a state may also be considered a multicultural state depending on the degree of cultural assimilation of various groups). A city-state, which is both smaller than a "nation" in the sense of a "large sovereign country" and which may or may not be dominated by all or part of a single "nation" in the sense of a common ethnicity or culture. A confederation, a league of sovereign states, which might or might not include nation-states. A federated state, which may or may not be a nation-state, and which is only partially self-governing within a larger federation (for example, the state boundaries of Bosnia and Herzegovina are drawn along ethnic lines, but those of the United States are not).
A nation, sometimes used in the sense of a common ethnicity, may include a diaspora or refugees who live outside the nation-state; some nations of this sense do not have a state where that ethnicity predominates. In a more general sense, a nation-state is simply a large, politically sovereign country or administrative territory. A nation-state may be contrasted with: An empire, a political unit made up of several territories and peoples, typically established through conquest and marked by a dominant center and subordinate peripheries. A multinational state, where no one ethnic or cultural group dominates (such a state may also be considered a multicultural state depending on the degree of cultural assimilation of various groups). A city-state, which is both smaller than a "nation" in the sense of a "large sovereign country" and which may or may not be dominated by all or part of a single "nation" in the sense of a common ethnicity or culture. A confederation, a league of sovereign states, which might or might not include nation-states. A federated state, which may or may not be a nation-state, and which is only partially self-governing within a larger federation (for example, the state boundaries of Bosnia and Herzegovina are drawn along ethnic lines, but those of the United States are not).