I've often heard Timothy Snyder make the claim that the nation-state has not really existed in Europe. (Example: https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-creation-project-myth-history-nation-state/). How do you think he defines "nation state" in this case?
It seems to me that he's drawing a distinction between nation states and empires- and thus not classing most western European states as nation states, because they had imperial identities instead, which then were replaced with a European identity. By contrast, he says states like Serbia were nation states.