"[1] According to Tilly's theory, military innovation in pre-modern Europe, especially the use of gunpowder and mass armies, made war considerably more expensive.

Herbst explains the relative failure of state building in Africa by the lack of external threats that forced European leaders to concentrate capital and power.

First, Tilly notes that the military apparatus in developing countries today is not generally concerned with conquering or defending territory, as opposed to European armies (p. 207).

Second, Tilly writes that the Cold War has led to a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to arm, fund and control developing countries, especially their militaries.

He further proposes three hypotheses to start to theorize the lack of civilianization in developing countries (p. 220): Tilly's main claim is thus that the European nation-state as it was constructed is certainly not a de facto endgame, or ideal polity model.

American sociologist Sidney Tarrow discussed the book during a 2008 conference organized by the Social Science Research Council in honor of Charles Tilly.

For that edition, Tilly made minor revisions throughout the book and added an extra section discussing the rapid changes in Central and Eastern Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.