This engaging volume scrutinises the causal relationship between warfare and state formation, using Charles Tilly's work as a foundation.This engaging volume scrutinises the causal relationship between warfare and state formation. Leading scholars ask whether Charles Tilly's famous dictum 'war made the state and the state made war' still stands in contemporary state formation theory and debate.This engaging volume scrutinises the causal relationship between warfare and state formation. Leading scholars ask whether Charles Tilly's famous dictum 'war made the state and the state made war' still stands in contemporary state formation theory and debate.Arising from renewed engagement with Charles Tilly's canonical work on the relationship between war and state formation, this volume situates Tilly's work in a broader theoretical landscape and brings it into contemporary debates on state formation theory. Starting with Tilly's famous dictum 'war made the state, and the state made war', the book takes his claim further, examining it from a philosophical, theoretical and conceptual view, and asking whether it is applicable to non-European regions such as the Middle East, South America and China. The authors question Tilly's narrow view of the causal relationship between warfare and state-making, and use a positive yet critical approach to suggest alternative ways to explain how the state is formed. Readers will gain a comprehensive view of the most recent developments in the literature on state formation, as well as a more nuanced view of Charles Tilly's work.Introduction: state formation theory: status, problems, and prospects Lars Bo Kaspersen, Jeppe Strandsbjerg and Benno Teschke; Part I. Lineages: 1. After the 'Tilly-thesis': social conflict, differential state formation and geopolitics in the construction of the European system of states Benno Teschke; 2. Otto Hintze, Stein Rokkan and Charles Tilly's theory of European state-building Thomas Ertman; Part II. ChallengeslCá