384 Chapter Tenfrom arming themselves so elaborately as to endanger the sovereign’s
easy superiority. War in such a world would therefore sink back to
proportions familiar in the preindustrial past. Outbreaks of terrorism,
guerrilla action and banditry would continue to give expression to
human frustration and anger. But organized war as the twentieth cen
tury has known it would disappear.
The alternative appears to be sudden and total annihilation of the
human species. When and whether a transition will be made from a
system of states to an empire of the earth is the gravest question
humanity confronts. The answer can only come with time.