If there were an international organization for war as well as for
postage, and one or two nations should refuse to obey the decisions of a
majority, or three-fourths of the organization, each of these
recalcitrant nations could be boycotted economically and in many other
ways by the remaining member nations. It is very doubtful if any nation
would take such chances.
Any international organization helps toward peace by making action less
precipitate, for if it were known in advance that a conference were to
take place, this would tend to make nations less disposed to go to war.
In fact, all international conferences, like the International Congress
of Criminal Anthropology, tend to intellectual, moral, and sociological
solidarity between nations, in accordance with our demographic law of
interdependence. (See Equation of law later on.) This International
Congress of Criminal Anthropology, for instance, consists of some four
hundred university specialists in anthropology, medicine, psychology,
and sociology, who come from almost all countries of the world.
In the eighteenth century international relations consisted of
diplomatic conversations and were regulated by an occasional treaty,
but, owing to the very inadequate means of communication, few
international relations were required. In the nineteenth century the
change in international conditions was very great. When international
organizations represent some actual phase of life, whether educational,
commercial or scientific, they really regulate their relations between
nations and are often organs of international government. In short,
international conferences and congresses act like legislatures between
nations.
If conferences had been in vogue and one had been held concerning the
dispute between Austria and Serbia, very probably there would not have
been any war, because, if for no other reason, the diplomats would have
seen that it might lead to a general war in Europe, and as no nation
cared to take that responsibility the diplomatic procedure would
doubtless have been modified. Thus the conference over the Morocco
question killed it as a cause of war.
This and other practical examples of government between nations show
that the great success, convenience, and benefit to all nations
encourage the further development of international organizations. The
difficulties and dangers predicted have not come to pass. International
administration has come in the cases of railroads, ships, and
automobiles. An elaborate international government has come (through
treaties) in public health and epidemics, and international notification
of the presence of disease has been made obligatory.
SOVEREIGNTY CHANGES ACCORDING TO THE DEMOGRAPHIC LAW OF INTERDEPENDENCE
OF NATIONS.
The old idea of the independence of the State, mingled with that of
sovereignty, prestige, and honor, and exaggerated by false patriotism,
although limited more and more by conditions of civilization, is one of
the main obstacles to the development of international organization and
government.
The habit of holding conferences or congresses would get the people to
expect international government and insist on it, and any country would
hesitate long before refusing to agree to a conference.
The idea that sovereignty is destroyed because a nation is not
absolutely independent belongs to the old regime, when many modern means
of communication did not exist. In those days of comparative isolation
there was reason for much independence, but now countries are so closely
connected, as we have seen, that their independence and sovereignty are
necessarily limited, while their interdependence has increased to such
an extent that what benefits or injures one benefits or injures the
other. Thus it is to the advantage of each State to give up some of its
sovereignty, just as it is for the individual to give up some of his
freedom to the community for privileges much greater than the loss of
his so-called independence. It is well known how the States of our Union
have gradually yielded more and more of their sovereignty to the Federal
Government. Thus sovereignty decreases according to our law of the
interdependence of States.