Can there be a state without nationalism?

Depends on what you think of as a "state". Nationalism is really a relatively modern idea. If you take the states of medieval Europe there was often no particular sense of national unity. People defined themselves not as "French" or "Italian" or "German" but by their own personal alleigence or place of origin. Yet France was one kingdom, and what we'd call Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire - they were "states" of a sort. So history suggests that a state *can* exist without nationalism. It would merely be a different sort of state, bound together by other loyalties. A prime example of how nationalism is not necessary to a functioning state is the United Kingdom - not one nation but four at least. Nationalism in the UK is more a matter of order of preference than exclusive alleigence - English, then british, the english speaking, and so on. Yet it still functions