149

THE NATURE OF THE NATION·STATE SYSTEM

David D. Warren

Today international society consists past, disappearing from the scene as of something like 120 units that we call they have failed to fulfill his needs. Nor states. The United Nations, with a roster have all of these been identified with expected to reach no in the Seven­ territory as is the modern state. Men in teenth General Assembly, is approach­ earliest times came together and or­ ing universality; only a few nonmembers ganized their lives on the basis of remain outside, such as divided Ger­ kinship in the family, clan, or tribe. And many, Korea, and neutral Switzerland. in the evolution of Western civilization, This represents a marked increase in the the present territorial state was pre­ size of the nation-state system over the ceded by the extreme political fragmen­ past 20 years, largely owing to the tation called feudalism, and before that liquidation of European-held empires by the empire and the city-state. All of and the emergence of so many countries these political units-the clan, the tribe, in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Yet the city-state, the empire, the duchy despite this growth, the international and fiefdom, the modern territorial community remains an exclusive club. state-are alike in the fundamental Each member-state has certain charac­ objectives they have sought: (1) sect rity teristics entitling it to admission-a de­ and (2) prosperity. The preamble of the fined territory, a permanent population, Constitution, for example, lists the pro­ the capacity to enter into relations with vision of the common defense and other states, and most important of all, promotion of the general welfare among sovereignty. For every state is the su­ the paramount concerns of the United preme law-maker and law-enforcer States. As the course of history shows, within its defined territory, recognizing failure to realize the aims of security no external authority as superior to and prosperity by any political unit has itself. It is this characteristic especially been responsible ultimately for its which has so much to do with deter­ downfall. Also to be found in these mining the nature of the state system, as political units, including the territorial we shall explain below. state, are the same bedrock causes of Now while there is a natural ten­ conflict, both economic and political­ dency for man to regard the territorial the desire for food and resources un­ state as the center of his universe, and evenly distributed, and the drive for to attribute to its permanence and aggrandizement. Moreover, major durability in the scheme of things, we changes have generally occurred through should not overlook the fact that other the use of force, the application of political units have served man in the overwhelming power. 150 It will be instructive to examine commitment of the people of individual briefly the world of the Greek city-state city-states to their own way of life, their because, in microcosm, that world so inahility to rise above their narrow much resembles our own. Like the parochialism. nation-state system, the city-state sys­ If pluralism was the central charac­ tem was pluralistic, made up of a teristic of the Greek city-state system, number of units varying in size and unity became the order of the day strength but autonomous, subjected to under the Roman Empire, a unity which no outside authority. Physical propin­ eventually embraced all of the Mediter­ quity, different resource patterns, and ranean world. Through conquests, the economic needs, made for interde­ Roman domain expanded; political pendence of the city-states. Some of genius was responsible for its longevity. them as maritime communities met the Bringing with them law and peace, pressure of population upon a limited extending citizenship to subject peoples, resource base by engaging in colonial the Romans carried through a program enterprises, establishing settlements, and of gradual assimilation. They accepted gaining access to food and raw materials many practices and institutions where away from home. Others sought se­ they went. They built a lasting empire curity and welfare by imposing their on the solid footing of consent. So large control over adjacent states or peoples did these holdings become, however, through a superior show of force. Thus that it grew increasingly difficult to the Greek city-states, too, practiced maintain effective control from a single imperialism. That same mechanism, the center. Countermeasures developed in balance of power, operated again and both the North and the East, economic again to frustrate the ambitions of disintegration sapped the empire's empire entertained by the larger city­ strength, and internal clashes weakened states-Athens, Sparta, Thebes or the fabric of imperial society. Rome, no Corinth. The hegemony established by longer able to supply security and wel­ any of these over the others was short­ fare, collapsed. lived, galvanizing them into unified Still, the appeal of unity, though action against the source of danger. gone, exerted an attraction over the Leagues or alliances came into being minds of men in the ensuing centuries. only to disintegrate after the common For once again pluralism characterized threat was ended or because of internal the political order. Briefly, it is true. discord. Intrasystem rivalries were for­ Charlemagne dominated Western gotten when the Greek city-states Europe. And in return for Charle­ banded together against the common magne's military support, Pope Leo III enemy, imperial Persia, in the 5th cen­ revived the imperial idea, making tury. Charlemagne the Emperor of the Yet the city-state ceased to be a Romans in 800 A.D. The empire lasted viable political unit; it could no longer only a short while, returning again, provide, singly, for the requisite security however, when Otto the Great was and prosperity of its people. It was too crowned Holy Roman Emperor in the small; some kind of effective and lasting 10th century. Thereafter the title was union was needed if the city-state was associated with one of the Germanic to survive. The inability, however, of rulers. But the facts did violence to the the city-states to create a wider union pretensions of empire. At most, that led to their absorption by Philip and empire was confined to a group of Alexander. The city-state, in short, German principalities; beyond these, it foundered on the rock of something exercised no real authority. In Europe resembling modern nationalism-the there existed real political decentraliza- 151 tion, a multiplicity of duchies, fiefdoms, by their rulers-the right to control their and principalities enjoying a large mea­ own affairs without interference. For sure of autonomy, over which wider there is a fundamental conflict between kingdoms had only a nominal control. the assertion of sovereignty by the Whatever limited unity there was grew territorial state, involving in essence the out of a common religion centered in rejection of any external authority, and Rome and fostered by a joint effort of the practice of imperialism, which the various crusades against the Eastern means the extension of one state's infidel from the late 11th century be­ control over another people and thus yond the middle of the 13th century. the denial of the latter's right to sover­ Great forces at work in the 14th and eignty. 15th centuries, however, undermined The striking contrast between condi­ the institutions associated with the tions within the territorial state and Middle Ages and led to the formation of those obtaining outside in the growing a new political unit, the territorial state. community of states, lies in the order of Contributing to this outcome was the the one as against the chaos of the growth of trade and urban centers other. That is, while sovereignty accompanied by the rise of a new brought peace, regularity, and stability commercial class; the alliance between to the territorial state, the refusal of the this class and the ruler, prince or king, state to recognize any authority above bent on imposing order by force upon a itself made for anarchy and conflict in congeries of petty principalities often at the relations between states entertaining war with each other; and the schism identical views about their sovereign within the Roman Church eventuating rights. The great achievement of the in the Reformation, the spread of territorial state internally has been its Protestant sects, and an end to religious ability to bring about peaceful change, unity in Europe. adjusting conflicts through a highly The territorial state, representing a developed machinery of government. In centralization of political power where international society, by contrast, that before there had been diffusion, was machinery is rudimentary, operating early associated with the personal ruler with nothing like the efficiency it has in or dynasty who had brought this about. domestic society. Starting in a small cluster of Western The absence of a supranational law­ European states-England, France, making, law-interpreting and law­ Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands-the enforcing authority armed with a new political unit has spread, attaining monopoly of force compels each state worldwide coverage over the past four to rely on its own efforts in order to and a half centuries. Situated as they preserve its identity and to realize those were on the Atlantic, these first terri­ aims which it considers vital. As a torial states were in a position to convey consequence every state is obsessed with their greater power via the ocean high­ maximizing the power, human and ma­ ways, and to impose that power upon terial, available to it in order to increase the weaker societies found on the great its security. frontier opened up by exploration in But power is always relative, involv­ the Americas, Africa and Asia. The ing a relationship between one person, European overlords brought with them group, or political unit and another. not only their superior technology and Thus one nation's increase in power is administrative techniques; they also in­ bound to be viewed as a threat by one troduced their methods of political or­ or some neighboring states. Politics ganization. The subordinated groups everywhere involve a struggle among gradually adopted the same claims made competing groups for power, for control 152 by one or more groups, over the be­ in 1648, accepting a pluralistic com­ havior of the other. That competition in munity of territorial states and the turn is the inevitable outgrowth of the principle of religious toleration, ushered divergent-and unlimited-wants and in a new age. During the next two needs impelling group organization and centuries wars still occurred but they activity. The nation-state is simply the were, compared to the earlier religious largest, most cohesive, and demanding conflicts, limited in their aims and of the many groups to which men prosecution, dynastic rivalries for the belong. But just because peace-making most part fought for modest stakes by and peace-keeping processes do not practitioners schooled in the rules of the function nearly so effectively as they do game. within the territorial state, interstate All this was to change, however, after relations come closest to resembling a 1900 in what the French writer, Ray­ naked struggle for power. Politics, while mond Aron, has aptly called "The Cen­ necessarily involving conflict among tury of Total War." Once more, and far groups, also requires some measure at more completely, war took on a total least of cooperation. In the interna­ aspect, pervading every level of society, tional arena, obviously, elements of making immoderate demands upon its conflict far outweigh elements of co­ participants and seeking total, not operation. The great dilemma for the limited goals. But owing to the intro­ nation-state system has always been, duction of a new factor it may well be and still remains, how to bring about that there shall never again be a total peaceful change in a world whose only war. That new factor is, of course, the certainty is change, thereby making technological revolution in weapons impossible any and all attempts to fix a achieved through the invention of given status quo permanently. In sum thermonuclear bombs. It has pro­ then, given an environment of interna­ foundly altered the nature of war, pre­ tional anarchy, the constant striving for cluding resort to the big war between security by each state only serves to wielders of this awesome power. If intensify the storms of insecurity by man's actions were always guided by which the world of nation-states is rational motives, this belief in the elimi­ buffeted. nation of total war might be soundly Reflecting these conditions, states based. There is little in the record of have employed war as a means to man's behavior, unfortunately, to further their important objectives. The justify such confidence in his ration­ very acceptance of the legality of war ality. The big war which nobody wants, well into the 20th century was proof of arising simply from human miscalcula­ the reliance on self-help and, ultimately, tion, excessive ambitions, or sheer mad­ violence by states in resolving disputes. ness, cannot be ruled out. And even if it Not for nothing has war been termed could, war would still have to be reck­ the "endemic disease" of the nation­ oned with as a very real possibility in its state system. The history of that system limited forms, both conventional and could almost be described as one of unconventional. In fact, the very un­ chronic warfare punctuated by brief suitability of total war in the modern respites of peace. This is not to say that world puts renewed stress upon ade­ the character of war has remained the quate preparations for limited war in all same. Before the territorial state system its varieties. had fully evolved, war became total as An extremely influential force Europe was convulsed in the 16th and moulding the nation-state system and early 17th centuries by religious contro­ not to be ignored in any critique of this versy. At last the Treaty of Westphalia system is, of course, nationalism. Every 153 political unit in history has drawn was the search for these prime goals and strength from an emotion analogous to the failure of the preexisting system to that of modern nationalism. For no provide them that led to the birth of the political unit will endure for long unless territorial state. The purpose of central­ it is able to arouse and maintain among izing political power and of establishing its members a sense of loyalty and the ruler's supreme authority was to devotion. Now modern nationalism is achieve more security. And in this re­ distinguished from manifestations of gard, the territorial state had some pride in being associated with a tribe, success. By augmenting its own power city-state or-empire, by its greater inten­ and refusing to acknowledge any higher sity and the extent to which it reaches authority, the state originally did bring and moves nearly all members of the security to its own defined territory and nation-state. The rulers responsible for inhabitants. In effect, its territory be­ centralizing political power in the first came impermeable. Even in the eco­ territorial states won the active allegi­ nomic realm everything was done to ance of only a portion of their subjects. further the exclusiveness of the state. The transition from the dynasty to the Dependence was undesirable, so each nation-state, starting with France in the state in the 16th, 17th and 18th centu­ late 18th century and thereafter gaining ries strove for self-sufficiency, an excess rapid momentum elsewhere, was of exports over imports in trade and the marked by the identification of the accumulation of gold holdings. The masses, the people themselves, with the colonial acquisitions of this imperial interests of the state under which they epoch were sought because they fur­ lived. They and their energies were nished supplies of raw materials re­ enlisted in the causes of the state: they quired by the mother country and suffered and gloried in its defeats and absorbed surplus products available accomplishments. A widely held expec­ from it. Thus the state, in both the tation in the 19th century was that once political and economic spheres, fol­ the different peoples sharing this sense lowed a policy of exclusiveness. of identity, of common purpose, had But certain fundamental forces satisfied their desire to run their own worked gradually to defeat this policy affairs, conflicts among national groups of exclusiveness. Under the impact of subsisting under their own governments the industrial and communications revo­ would evaporate. But the triumph of lutions, states became interdependent, nationalism almost everywhere has had their self-sufficiency destroyed by the no such result. In actuality nationalism vastly increased production and circula­ has only abetted the drive for power tion of goods, greater specialization, and and influence among the nation-states. higher standards of living. The main­ It has magnified that sense of superi­ tenance of prosperity within the state ority over other groups which lies at its became hostage to economic move­ core. It has distorted the attitude of ments over which the state could exer­ national groups in their relations with cise little control. A single international each other and justified any course of economy had come into being; no state action that a people wish to pursue, was immune from the influences however partisan and self-seeking their exerted by that economy, and pros­ real motives might be. perity was indivisible. Nor has the state A central question which must be been able to insure the security of those asked about the nation-state is whether under its jurisdiction. Thermonuclear it has been able to meet the demands weapons combined with accurate de­ upon it, as upon all political units, for livery systems have shattered the state's security and prosperity. For, after all, it impenetrability. Territorial demarca- 154 tions and defensive measures afford no states imperiled by hegemonial ambi­ effective barriers against attack; the tions. And all thrusts for extensive state no longer is invulnerable. power over neighboring countries have For these reasons, many observers of eventually been frustrated by that the international scene argue that the massing of counterpower which is the nation·state, like the political units that essence of the balancing machinery. preceded it, is in decline, headed for Whether it was a Philip ll, Louis XlV, inevitable demise. Left to its own re­ Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Hitler or sources, the state just does not have the Stalin, each met failure in reaching his capacity to produce the requisite se­ goal. curity and welfare. Some wider political The attitude of the United States unit, it is argued, is called for in the face toward the balance of power has altered of such great changes. Yet, despite these to fit its role in world affairs. During syndromes of a fatal disease, it is one of our long isolation from international those extraordinary paradoxes that the politics, made possible by geographical nation-state system at the same time factors and a European-maintained exhibits great vitality, as its rapidly equilibrium, the American view was one growing membership attests. National­ of suspicion and distaste for the balance ism would still appear to be the most of power, as if it were not an inevitable powerful current in international corollary of the nation-state system. society, responsible for the emergence Even involvement in World War I did of more than forty nation-states in the not change that view. According to past two decades alone. To the peoples President Wilson, his voluntary associa­ of these newly independent countries, tion of states, representing a concert of there is no higher value than their organized power, would do away with hard-won sovereignty. In the older entangling alliances and competition for nation-states, it is ture, extreme na­ power. It took World War II and its tionalism has lost some of its appeal as a aftermath, however, to convince the result of bitter experience, prompting United States that there was no alterna­ some of them to move beyond the tive to participating in the balancing exclusive national grouping into a wider process. The Soviet Union by its blatant society, as in the European Coal and attempt to change the postwar distribu­ Steel Community and the European tion of power in its favor, forced the Economic Community. But no one United States to employ its considerable would claim, even within these Euro­ strength as a counterweight. Reduction pean states, that nationalism has ceased in the number of truly major powers to to be a potent force. two has in no sense destroyed the How has the nation-state system balancing machinery. Wherever there are been able to endure for so long if the two or more autonomous forces, the foregoing description of anarchy, balancing operation will take place. Ad­ chronic instability, and collective in­ mittedly the balance of power worked security is accurate? The answer can be best when there were six or eight states found in the operation of the balance of of roughly equal strength, with no single power. With all of its shortcomings, no one strong enough to dominate the other mechanism has functioned so well others and uncertainty as to what the in restraining the unbridled quest for alliance groupings might be. But today power by nation-states. As in the Greek the greater inflexibility implicit in a city-state world so in the nation-state direct confrontation of two super­ community, would-be dominators of powers is offset by the "balance of that community have met determined­ terror," the inability in the interests of and combined-resistance from those survival for either great power to resort 155 to total war. To meet the Soviet chal­ legislative and judicial bodies are within lenge to the balance of power, the the national society. Nor does the Secre­ United States has used traditional de­ tariat of the United Nations have any­ vices, constructing an intricate complex thing like the power of the executive of alliances and a great military estab­ branch in the nation-state. Nevertheless, lishment It would appear then that as rudimentary though these institutions long as the nation-state system survives, may be, however restricted their knowledge of the balance of power and strength, they have demonstrated their skill in making it function are essential. value in the handling of many interna­ Thus far we have discussed divisions tional conflicts. Moreover, there is the in in ternational society. Are there co­ hope that out of the experience hesive forces present, binding the states acquired in operating these international of that society together? As already organs, they will be endowed over time mentioned, a world community has by their creators, the nation-states, with developed gradually over the past increasing power and responsibilities. several centuries, and markedly so since After all, though the nation-state system 1900. It is commonplace today to say is more than 450 years old, only in the that the world has been made one, past fifty years have there been any brought together by the scientific, tech­ experiments in building permanent nological, and industrial revolutions. international government. It is far too But thc degt;ee of political integration early to dismiss these experiments in achieved has heen comparatively small. limiting the struggle for power as in­ This is not to say that progress in the effectual. Until recently men were pri­ evolution of a more closely knit society marily concerned with devoting their has not occurred. It has been outpaced, full energies to their own nation-states; however, by the high degree of integra­ creation of a more stahle international tion so typical of the national society, order tended to be neglected. overshadowing and even threatening the Today, the necessity for such an very real gains made in the international order is more pressing. Some see in the community. universal fear of annihilation an irre­ One has only to consider, for ex­ sistible impetus driving men to erect a ample, the various organs of the United supranational government capable of Nations. The Security Council has been regulating relations between states. This given primary responsibility for main­ I regard as too sanguine a view. Men taining peace. But it has not been able often do not act in their own best to discharge this function when the interests; men and nations cannot be superpowers, the United States and the presumed to be so rational that because Soviet Union, have been at loggerheads. destruction confronts them they will It has no preponderant force to bring to avoid it. Besides, the pull of nationalism bear in the absence of agreement be­ remains so strong that any world gov­ tween the superpowers and can be ernment, no matter how compelling or paralyzed by use of the veto. Still, we logical the need for it may be, seems a should not forget that permanent peace­ long way off. Those essential elements keeping machinery has been an inven­ of consensus upon which a lasting com­ tion of quite recent origin. And the munity is built just do not exist. same thing can be said about the Gen­ There are also many who believe that eral Assembly with its quasi-legislative the way to world peace is through the powers as well as the judicial agency, development of world law. But if Pro­ the International Court of Justice_ fessor Quincy Wright's analysis of the I Neither of these are effective govern­ evolution of political society is correct, mental organs in the same sense that this is to put the cart before the horse. 156

Arguing by analogy to the domestic flicts whose resolutions will not be order, Professor Wright brings out that easily found. Some broader political the first step, preliminary to the later unit than the individual nation-state growth of effective law, the legislative seems essential if men are to find the process, and administrative organs, is security and prosperity they seek. The the bringing of peace to the society in creation of such a political unit or units question. Generally such peace has been would not represent a radical departure imposed by overwhelming power. In the from the existing state-system. More­ larger framework of international over, there is a device at hand which society, is any state capable of domi­ might be used, a device particularly nating the globe? Not even a super­ familiar to Americans and one which power, the United States or Russia, they have put to work with remarkable seems likely to have that capacity or at results in their own country. This is, of least the ability to maintain the peace course, federalism, the creation of a once established. Despite the instru­ central government of limited powers to ments of control now available to a reap the advantages of unity and, at the universal imperial power, the world is same time, retention of the political too large, too diversified to be ruled identity of the component states in from any single center for long. The order to preserve a desirable diversity. Soviet Union, bent on carrying through Transferred to the international scene, its design for world state, has run into federalism could be adopted by those serious difficulties already trying to states of, let us say, the Atlantic Com­ dominate the narrow sphere of Eastern munity, building upon shared values, Europe. Moreover, its role as undisputed beliefs and experience. The foundation interpreter of Marxist doctrine has come stones for an edifice of federalism al­ under sharp attack within a communist ready exist in such notable advances as camp torn by centrifugal tendencies. As the European Economic Community, for the United States, its democratic the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, ideology, its commitment to the self­ and the Organization for Economic determination of peoples peculiarly un­ Cooperation and Development. It would fits it for the task of world empire­ be foolish to minimize the obstacles in building. building this federal system. Such a A review, such as we have made here, venture calls for unusual vision, initia­ of the characteristics of the nation-state tive and political genius, qualities always system might easily arouse gloom about in scarce supply. What is more, time is its prospects. One is almost prompted to running out. There are two further say, as does the title of an English alternatives, but one seems impractical musical play, "Stop the world, I want to and the second grim. As we have get off." For international society does pointed out before, creation of a world not appear headed toward any immi­ government is unlikely. On the other nent and fundamental change. This hand, continuation of the nation-state means then that so long as there is a society along its present highly differen­ pluralistic society composed of sover­ tiated course impels us to move beyond eign units, there will be wide divergen­ the national community toward federa­ cies of interests and deep-rooted con- tion-and soon. ----\f!----