Traditionally the role of the state in the realm of political economy is primarily described and prescribed in realist, liberal, and Marxist renditions. While entering the epoch of globalization, what kind of role do we expect states to play? This paper first provides a richer account of globalization in both substantial and conceptual terms and indicates that globalization has (1) caused the hyper-competition global economy; (2) contributed to inequality and instability of societies; (3) facilitated the emergence of non-state actors; (4) posed challenges to and constraints on state's sovereignty, authority, legitimacy, territoriality, and functions. Under these impacts of globalization on states, some analysts suppose a zero-sum relationship between globalization and state power/capability, and some others believe that states remain strong actors and increased capacity of states enable them to adapt to many new challenges. But, in the context of globalization, what we find is that the state is not going to disappear anytime soon and with the waning of traditional roles like commanders, controllers, dominators, and protectors, states may increasingly assume such roles as initiators, facilitators, coordinators, persuaders, and regulators, internally and externally in order to increase their survival capacity and deal with problems generated in the processes of globalization.