ABSTRACT
The guided missile with the nuclear warhead has really done for the national state, even the largest national state, what gunpowder did for the feudal baron. It has destroyed its military viability and if the institution itself is to survive it will have to be profoundly transformed. For the United States disarmament would mean a little more luxury. For the Soviet Union it would mean comfort. If the Russians can devote the fifteen percent of their economy that they are devoting to arms, to consumer goods, at the end of ten years they would have refrigerators, automobiles, ulcers, and all the conveniences, traffic accidents, and luxuries of modern life. The survival of the national state in the modern world depends on its ability to organize disarmament, for in a world of armed deterrence it will surely be destroyed, simply because its cost of upkeep is so high and its returns in terms of human welfare are so low.
