TRANSNATIONAL SOCIETY VS. STATE SOVEREIGNTY

Abstract

SUMMARY The elaborate fabric of a transnational society and the organization of political power in sovereign states provide a dual system of order, and a source of disorder in the world. Each of the two elements tends to dissolve the other. History shows various models of harmonizing the conflict, but none has had lasting success. International catastrophes have been followed by fresh growth of the two elements and of their vulnerability. After World War II, the world has explored the organization of society and political power in two international camps, led by two great states, an unprecedented effort on that scale. The decay of the effort in the 1960's releases forces that threaten national and international life with a war of all against all. Alternative models show as yet little promise of stemming this process of disintegration, and of reconciling the ambitions for change and for order. Competition among the models is overlaid with competition among states and movements. There is but a slender hope that communities and liberties will be preserved until some kind of civilized government is found for the transnational society.