adam . # .

Well, he's actually careful to frame this discussion pre-WWII. He's explicitly concerned with colonialism, which in a broad sense is what all agrarian empires get up to with their neighbouring non-sedantary cultures. At the end of the day Scott is a senior professor at Yale; I'm sure he's familiar with the benefits of a modern state.

The predator / prey analogy is an interesting one. In the questions section of that excellent lecture he emphasises that the flow of population between the states and non-states is two way. In times of peace and prosperity the agrarian state attracts people because of stability, roofs over heads, luxuries, written cultural tradition, fame and fortune, all the classic reasons to favour self-defined civilisation.