Obstacles to World Government [1950]

The discussion of world government, or more accurately of the impediments to its creation, was prepared by Russell for members of the AIIA. Russell had stubbornly argued for more than thirty years that the only sure safeguard of a lasting peace was an international authority reinforced by its exclusive control over all major weapons of war. This chapter is essentially a condensation of a public lecture series which was delivered by Russell at the Assembly Hall, Sydney, on 26 June and 3 and 5 July 1950—between other engagements in the state capital, notably three philosophy seminars he gave at the University of Sydney. The two urgent problems—besides demographic pressure—that Russell dissected in his lecture series also attracted more notice in Australia than did his endorsement of world government as their ultimate political solution.