ABSTRACT
A half-century historical conspectus that could be appropriately characterized as one of peace and prosperity by no means implies that both were uniform or continuous. If four sets of changes in the underlying forces shaping world politics continue, they will offer the explanation for the optimistic prediction for the next half-century: transformations in political organization, in ideology, in social organization, and military technology. The ideological transformation coincides with the penetration of all corners of the world by the global market in goods, capital, and, to some degree, labor. Market capitalism is the carrier of two important wider ideological and cultural currents: instrumental rationalism, and individualistic hedonism. The ongoing and accelerating revolutions in technologies of transportation and communication, which have been central to the increasing global integration of national economies into a single world economy, are also creating a world society.
