ABSTRACT
It is no longer revolutionary to suggest that people live in a revolutionary world. By now, both the achievements and the failures of the revolution of modernization in national societies have created forces and tensions which are beginning to transform international society as well. Theory can help us analyze alternatives and costs in the revolution of modernization. This mode of analysis and the conclusions which flow from it also alert us to the fact that the revolution of modernization is transforming not only national but also international society. The revolution in international society is also caused by the unevenness of development among national societies in response to the revolution of modernization. As a result of the scientific and technological changes that are part of the revolution of modernization, a number of national societies now also possess the power not merely to coerce other national societies but to annihilate the entire international society.
