The sovereign power of modern states was not formed prior to their involvement in the nation-state system, even in the European state system, but developed in conjunction with it. Indeed, the sovereignty of the modern state was from the first dependent upon the relations between states, in terms of which each state (in principle if by no means always in practice) recognised the autonomy of others within their own borders.

XREF: Connects to constructivist IR theory and the notion that states and the interstate system are mutually constitutive rather than sequential.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 172