[SAI_Peregrinus]

The USA has 50 states, none of which are nations (and thus not nation-states), but which together comprise the whole nation-state union. So the US government and US institutions tend to use "nation-state" more often than others do, because it's a useful disambiguation for them.

[pradn]

That makes sense but I think it should be possible to tell that a "state" refers to another country, not a US subfederal unit.