From my experience in the industry my guess is that the term originated in the US to resolve the ambiguity of the term "state" here. "State actor" is really wha

From my experience in the industry my guess is that the term originated in the US to resolve the ambiguity of the term "state" here. "State actor" is really what's meant, but to many US listeners would not necessarily imply a "top level" sovereign. Yes, that probably came out of a misunderstanding of the meaning of the term "nation-state," but I think the number of people who know the correct definition of the term is really pretty small.