States, Nations, and Regional War: A Response to Toft, Saideman and Wolff

I would like first to thank the three commentators for their thoughtful and constructive reviews of my article in this symposium. This article is based on some of the key theoretical components of my book, States, Nations and the Great Powers: The Sources of Regional War and Peace (Miller, 2007). All of the three commentators highlight important and instructive points and issues, which can be very useful for future studies on this subject and hopefully also for revisions in a potential second edition of the book. I shall start with the most general level—Toft's challenge of the relations between my work and international relations (IR) theory—then refer to the ethnic-conflict level and variations in peace addressed by Saideman, finally commenting on Wolff's empirical test of the theory by the important German Question.