Wars between these social units cease the moment sovereign power is transferred from them to a larger or higher unit. If human society were organized so that relations between units in contact were regulated by democratically controlled legal institutions, then modern science could devise the most devastating weapons, and there would be no war. But if we allow sovereign rights to reside in the separate units without regulating their relations by law, then we can prohibit every weapon, even a penknife, and people will beat out each other's brains with clubs. It is tragic to witness the utter blindness and ignorance of our governments and political leaders in regard to this all-important and vital problem. The idea of maintaining peace by armaments, is just as complete a fallacy as the idea of maintaining peace though disarmament.
Arms have as much to do with peace as frogs with the weather.
The problem of peace is a social and political problem, not a technical one. . . . No matter what kind of treaty is signed, the next war is inevitable. We can never arrive at a legal order by means of treaties. To believe that we can maintain peace among men living in separated, sovereign national units by the method of diplomacy and policy, without the creation of lawmaking institutions is a mere dream. . . . If the state of New York enacted economic or social legislation that reacted harmfully on economic and labor conditions in Connecticut, and no higher sovereignty existed, such an act on the part of the sovereign state of New York could not be prevented by the sovereign state of Connecticut, except by war.