This book began with a relatively simple question, whether democracy tends to increase or reduce nationalist conflict. Such a question raises a host of objections and qualifications that render its answer immensely complex. Democratic regimes are quite varied in their character and quality; a large number of them can even be questioned on the basis of their democratic credentials or objectionable on the basis of measurable criteria. Similarly, there are no objective criteria to identify nations. As constructivist scholars have conclusively defended, nations are self-identified and mostly recognized by their claims and political goals. Finally, conflict takes on a variety of forms; while the literature more recently focused on its violent expression, there are other modes that are also relevant to assess but more challenging to measure.