"Why did the nation-state emerge and proliferate across the globe? How is this process related to the wars fought in the modern era? This book offers a new perspective on these issues. Analyzing datasets that cover the entire world over long stretches of time, Andreas Wimmer shows that political power and legitimacy are central to our understanding of nation building, ethnic politics and the violent conflicts associated with both. He argues that shifting from dynastic or imperial legitimacy to rule in the name of a nationally defined people was both the consequence and the cause of wars between and within states. Once the 'like over like' principle was established, the ethno-political inequality that characterized nation-states with weak institutional capacity led to further ethnic conflict. Waves of War demonstrates why nationalism and ethnic politics are crucial for a proper understanding of world and domestic politics over the past 200 years"--