Most conceptualizations of the state in archaeology remain rooted in Enlightenment ideas of interlocking institutions that existed external to individuals and their interactions. These static conceptualizations often run counter to the temporal and spatial variability often seen in a state’s impact, and fail to capture the globalizing effects of the widespread circulation of ideas, goods, people, and other things. States are more fruitfully seen as dynamic assemblages that leaders, as well as other agents, attempt to manipulate to achieve their desires. The state is (re)created in each encounter, though often in ways that are both unanticipated and uncontrollable. This lecture considers the Wari expansion in Peru during the Middle Horizon (CE 600-1000) from an assemblage perspective. The variation in Wari-related encounters in the region provides insights into the relationship between early state-making and globalization that may prove useful to those studying expansive polities in other regions of the world.