ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that although the great transition from civilization to postcivilization is now under way in many parts of the world, there is no guarantee that it will be completed successfully. It identifies at least three traps which may either delay or prevent the accomplishment of this transition and may even lead to irretrievable disaster. The war trap is the most immediate and urgent. A major nuclear war at the present time would certainly be a massive setback, and in view of our ignorance of its ecological consequences it is at least possible that it might be an irretrievable disaster. It is probably true, as Toynbee suggests that war has been the downfall of all previous civilizations. A strong case can be made for the proposition that war is essentially a phenomenon of the age of civilization and that it is inappropriate both to precivilized and postcivilized societies.
