The three main features of the national state (borders, citizenship and sovereignty) are changing. In particular, territory and borders are weakened; national communities are increasingly composed of non-citizens; and State sovereignty is shared, because the state powers are redefined, divided, reallocated, and responsibilities are shared. These developments entail a redefinition of the State and produce numerous contradictions, revealing the historicity of the state phenomenon, in both its phenomenic and its conceptual cores.