President Trump’s rhetoric about Canada as “the 51st state” is treated by many as political theater — a ploy by the president to destabilize the opposition, perhaps. But his remarks allude to something much less innocuous and more unsettling.

By now, all of us have heard the rather boisterous rhetoric of America's new president. Headlines from Fox News say, “Trump suggests Canada become 51st state after Trudeau said tariff would kill economy.” Politico reports that “Trump threatens to retake Panama Canal.” And the Associated Press says “Trump again calls to buy Greenland after eyeing Canada and the Panama Canal.”

Admittedly, audacious remarks from Trump are neither new nor are they taken too seriously in most quarters — just more political messaging by an incoming president with much to live up to.

Yet Trump's bold talk about these states does mine something much deeper than mere rhetoric. And while his admonitions may not eventuate, that is beside the point.

President Trump is stirring the cauldron of world politics. Comments about tariffs as well as annexing, buying and reclaiming sovereign territories have elicited a caustic response as well as their own share of media humor.

Beyond its entertainment value, Trump’s provocations (even if he is not aware of it), do point to a subtle and potentially more dangerous issue: Could nation-state sovereignty no longer be the inviolable precept we have believed in since the 17th century?

Although the concept of the sovereign nation-state has its origin in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia and the end of the Thirty Years’ War of Religion, the “inviolability of borders” is a relatively recent phenomenon.

The idea of a “

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