[gamblor956]

As a friend in the State Department exlained, it's because of the French and the British. Generally,"nation" is used to refer to an autonomous political unit, but "nation-state" refers specifically to a sovereign nation.

And the French and the Brits have/had a lot of "nations" which are part of their "nation" and which thus are not "nation states" of their own. For example, Scotsland (and even technically Britain itself) are both nations that are themselves part of the nation-state that is the U.K. For the French, it gets a bit more complicated, since they have a number of territories which are nominally sovereign but are legally subordinate to the French government in Paris (like Tahiti).

[beardyw]

"Britain" is a bit confusing. Most often it is used to refer to the UK itself, or sometimes to Great Britain the island. I doubt that's what you meant.

[gamblor956]

Yes, didn't notice the error until after window for editing had passed. I initially meant England, but "Britain" itself still works because the UK includes more than just the nations on the island itself.

Also, it's my understanding that the main island is Britain, and that "Great Britain" includes the smaller outlying islands, but not the island of Ireland.