What is the western concept of state?

The definition of what makes a state has not always been a clear element of western thought. Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Montesquieu saw a state as a territory in which a governing body makes decisions to protect the liberties and safety of its citizens. However, the philosophical definition of a state often falls short of defining one for practical matters.
That is why in 1933, a group of emissaries from over a dozen nations met in Uruguay to come up with a mutually agreed upon definition of a state at what became known as the Montevideo Convention. They came up with four essential criteria that a state must meet in order to be considered a country.
First, a state must have clearly defined borders. It must be clear where that state has jurisdiction and where it does not. Second, a state must have a permanent and well-established population. It cannot just be a territory devoid of people or one in which people only sometimes live. Third, a state must have a governing body that has the power to establish laws over the territory. Fourth, a state must have the ability to negotiate and treat with other nations. This is perhaps the most practical and fleshed-out definition of a state in modern western thought.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/intam03.asp

There are different definitions of the state in Western thought, but most agree that the state is a sovereign entity with the ability to exert political power over the people within fixed geographical borders. States have a government of one form or another with a bureaucracy and a hierarchical system of implementing policy. States can participate in international organizations like the United Nations that might require them to yield some of their sovereign powers, but a state is generally not subject to the rule of another state. (Note that this is different from the word "state" as it is used in the United States of America). States and nations are also two different things, though the concept of a "nation-state" that emerged in the late nineteenth century describes the organization of people with a shared heritage, creed, or other factors under a single state. As the famous sociologist Max Weber once observed, the state is also an entity that has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, whether in policing its own citizens or in making war on other states.