The Functional Approach in Historical Perspective Author(s): David Mitrany Source: International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs

1944-), Vol. 47, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 532-543 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Royal Institute of International Affairs Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2614439 Accessed: 10/10/2010 01:23
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THE FUNCTIONAL APPROACH IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE*

David Mitrany

been subjectedto such continuous strain.' The new unremitting inventionsand discoveries ' have rendered traditionalideas of "what politics is about" almost as obsolete as astrologyand a if alchemy. In this unique historical context, we are to win through, is of supremeeffort politicalcreativity needed'.- The whole of human revolution-a political societynow is stirred and shakenby a threefold upheaval, a social surge and a scientific eruptionwhich is moving beyond man's foresight and control. If these new forcesare not to the world,the world must learn how to bringthemunder overwhelm commoncontrol. And for that,all the old political devices,fromthe Roman forumto the Russian soviet, from city-states federations, to would prove useless. The situationis unique, unlike any other period or experiencein of in history, that the impact and repercussions these revolutionary and no region forcesare felt across the whole universe. No country can insulateitselfagainsttheireffect.' With satellitesand space travel 2 reachedthe " no man's land " of sovereignty.' These we have in truth problemsare global, and so must be the answers. While generally the over the years,its international sphereof politicshad solidified sector the centurieswithoutany common was left to staggeralong through sense or common authority.We can do so no longer-that is our historicalproblem. Yet the very need to make good the deficiency means that past ways and means are of littlehelp. Any assessment of the task has to begin with a simple but absolute proposition: that view of politics,as based upon and workthe whole of the traditional testof poweris forceand its ing through power,is dead. The ultimate use: when that has come to mean nuclear force,uncontrollable its in
* In July1948 thisjournal printed the lecturegivenby Mr. Mitrany ChathamHouse at

'A

T no period history human creation in for has capacity political

1
2

on 'The Functional Approach to World Organisation'. The lecture has been several times in volumes of international reprinted studies. The article above was the introductory paper (here somewhatreduced) for an international academic conferenceon 'Functionalism' whichmet at Bellagio in October 1969, under the joint auspices of the Carnegie Endowmentfor International Peace and the Institute for of the Studyof International Organisation (University Sussex). Review articlein the Times Literary November18, 1965. Supplement, Peace System See the author'sA Working (Chicago: QuadrangleBooks. 1966), p. 19.

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penetration effects, and power has become too wild to be used as an instrument policy. And so the whole corpus of theory of and political devices linked to it no longer have relevancefor the studentor the statesman. Nor does this philosophical assessmentcover the whole human situation.There is a corollary, with ominous undertones.Politically, power is relevantwhen used in and by organised societies; the old worldacceptedsome traditional and restraints, the tools of power were relatively tame. Now social life is dominatedby the marvelsof our technological and scientific achievements; these are cumulative, easily passed on in time and in space, and in fairness are doing our best we to make themavailable to all people,throughout world. But human the naturehas not changedin step withand in relationto thesemechanistic advances: thereis no evidencethatman's brain or his moral outlook are more advanced by one step than they were at the time of the classic Greeks. Indeed, thereis some groundfor fearing that reliance on mechanicalslaves,withtheirblind obedienceand easy replacement, is steadilyblunting the humanistic sensibilities our kind. That is of the predicament the new world society; our nuclear prowess may of be putting Olympianthunderbolts withinthe reach of Calibans. And thereis a second corollaryto the way thingsare going now. We cannot rely on any patternor conditionto stay put. Speaking sociologically, presentrevolution, the with its threeinterrelated sides, seems trulya permanent not like that of Marx, but in its revolution; very nature. There is no visible horizon or predictablespectrumto the social and political prospect-the only constantin our historical pictureis change. Any schemefor a new international ordermust be able not only to contain and guide all the presentcurrents, under their givenconditions, mustalso be capable of adaptingits working but to whatever freshissues may come up as scientific ingenuity pitted is againstold politicalways and inhibitions.It will have to work thereforewith new ways of political organisation, breakingwith the fixed untouchable territorial of sovereignty the past; and withan authority different fromone based on power and its claims.3 Speakinggenerally, thereare to my knowledge only two broad approachesto thattask: a political-constitutional approach,or a functional-sociological approach.
THE POLITICAL-CONSTITUTIONAL APPROACH

The political-constitutional approach is a naturalone for us, with its outlookand practicesettledsince the Middle Ages in a whole range
'3 The risksof nuclearwarfaremay be too great to be combinedreliablvwith what has heretofore been considereda key attribute sovereignty: of the unilateralright of a sovereign state to alter its strategic politicalviews.' (Henry Kissinger, or New York Times, December3, 1968.)

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of polities,fromduchies to empires. In our own time it was given of fresh life withthe formalenactment the principleof 'national selfat determination' Versailles in 1919, and the mass creationof new a states,even without nationalbase, afterWorld War II. At the same time,the shock of that war broughtfervent calls for 'world government', 'world federation' and other such 'pre-fabricated Cities of by God'; calls uncluttered the baggage of practicalways and means, but all patently on resting theold conception a 'state', of a compreof hensive and closed politicalsystem. withmorescholarly Many students, caution,in their search for a line of advance have in recentyears fallenback upon the indeterminate '-which is conceptof 'integration apt to rangein its use from worldgovernment theinternal to consolidation of new states. In this article we are concernedonly with the international range-can historical experience help us withthat? T'he articleon 'Integration' in the new International Encyclopaedia of theSocial Sciences(1968, vol. 7, sec. III) notes thatscholarsuse the termwidelybut are far fromiagreed what theymean by it. In so on faras politicalunionshave emerged modernhistory, in theyhave led to some national unit-the union of England and Scotland, of the Americanstates,of the GermanEmpire,and so on; all of these have been searchedby colleagues for guidinglights,4 and generally seems it clear that theirown quest has also been for some kind of politicalterritorial 'integration'. Now, whateverthe nature of the grouping, it seems certainthat its dimension iholds many consequencesfor its working. One mightnote that political ideology by itself (whether democratic communist fascist)has not, any more than race or or or adhesive. On the otherhand, it is evident religion, proved a sufficient that the larger the number and diversity the initial partnersof a generally desirablebasis in functional arrangements-the harderthe prospectfor political union. An inverseratio would generallybe a fairassumption.No rigidlimitcan be laid down,but it is as certainas any physicallaw that thereis a limit,that political integration makes no sense and has no substanceas a globally unifying principleand prospect.
THE REGIONAL AND THE GLOBAL DIMENSIONS

As far as I know, it will indeed be found that political scientists who have triedto identify elementsof integration the have all fallen
4

of The attractiveness some past political experiment does not prove its fitnessfor the presentconditions. In a friendly debate some years ago in the reviewCommon Cause (Chicago), I submitted thatit was patently fallaciousto use the success of the AmericanUnion as an examplefor a widerinternational union now. The argument mighthave been valid in some degree if the originalthirteen states had developed untilour own day as separatenational states. In that case, could theybe federated now?

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back upon some regional dimensionfor a valid framework-without who simplyprescribedan 'intermediate followingearlier regionalists of stage' withthe easy assumption thata string 'intermediates'would intoa universal union. Now even some functionalists end by coagulating for have soughtrefuge the regionaldimension; to be able to identify in ' as such seemingly unifying elements ' spill-over ' epigenesis and so on ', theyhave to place them in a restricted area; and so the end-product could onlybe a restricted politicalunit. Whatthatadds up to, therefore, have been dubbed, but a as is not a 'neo-functionalism', these efforts with one half, the process,new in parts,but the semi-functionalism; in concept ultimateprospectstuck firmly the old sovereign-territorial of political organisation. one to Withoutpresuming say that these points are self-evident, can may claim that theyare evidentenough: that politicalintegration come about only within a limited dimension; that the greater the numberof unitsto be integrated, more dubious the prospect;that the the greater theirnumber and variety, moreintense the would have to be thepressures giving thema new cohesion,and thussome distinctness for all from the rest of the world. Admittedly, these are speculative at arguments.But the factualevidenceis even stronger.All attempts leaving politicalunion since World War II have failed,some tragically, greaterdisunity behind,thoughthe federalidea was a triedone and thoughthere were sound natural groundsfor some of the attempts. In WesternEurope the Six also startedwithideas for political union, but even limited proposals, like the Fouchet plan, are still on the would cloud the prospectof shelf; and any additionto membership political union still further.Nor have the countriesof the Warsaw Pact shown any greaterinclination, spite of theirneed for mutual in ideologicalinsurance.Theremustbe solid reasonsfortheseperplexities and hesitations.
THE NEW S1'ATE

One central reason is hidden in the general trend towards conin centration government. The 'integration' school have, if anything, given even less thought the opposite implications the idea-not to of the global but the municipal: the uttertransformation the state of under the pressuresof nuclear securityand the new philosophyof social security.When the political organs so penetrate the life of the community througheconomic and social planning that public and privatesectorscan hardlybe separated,we cross a threshold whichhas been jealouslyguardedin modem times. Soviet Russia offersthe fullestexample. 'It is a distinguishing markof thiskind of regimethat thereis nowhereany firm distinction betweenthe state and the rest of society.' It is 'a forcibleamalgama-

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tion of the two', a permanentrevolutionfrom above. We used to but staticand remote, 'Soviet autocracy as think autocracy something of is dynamic,and pervasivein the highestdegree'.5 The whole system and administration self-propagating thus becomes a vast all-embracing, no 'politics' is left-not in the sense we ihave understoodand used the concept in the West. But the trendis not peculiarto dictatorship-infact,even dictatorWhateverthe formof the ships now have to be servicedictatorships. the state,everywhere executiveis gainingin power and the represenintrusion the state of tativeelementis fallingaway. Yet the spreading imposition,as under the old and its servantsis not an arbitrary autocracies,but the responseof the political systemto ever-widening thoughnational in make-up, popular claims. All the old federations, are facingstressesbetweenthe centreand the parts because they are like Even an old unitarycountry tied to fixed written constitutions. new local pressuresfromScotland Great Britainis now experiencing and Wales. In a newly integratedregional system the task of re-creating economicand social unityout of mixed parts,and withina reasonably policy-making shorttime,would make the pressuresfor concentrating all and administration the more insistent. Here again we need not of rely merelyon criticalspeculation: we have the benefit a straight opinion from the most developed regional authorityto date, the it European Commissionitself. In the Statement sent to the European on Parliament July1, 1968,the Commissiondeclaredthatthe timehad come to 'take a step forwardin the field of political union'. The ' Treatiesshould be replacedby ' a singletreaty in existing Community powers, which 'the single'Commission must be given implementing powers that enable it not only to take the initiativein Community for the progressbut also genuinelyto nmanage Community, the task policy comes into growseach time a new Community of management tellsthe European it force'.6 And then,to completethe picture, simply Parliament that 'It would be wrongto wait untilthe European people consultedand takes part constitutionally [sic] as a whole is officially and organically the political life of the European Continent'. in Whateverelse it may be or do, the 'integration' of a region or other groupingunder present conditionsis bound to end with the temperand ways of the national state; the political shape will be to changed,but not its political nature. It is difficult follow students of 'integration' when they assume that theirmodels and analysis of' institutional growthcould be valid' over the whole political range by
5 G. L. Arnold, The Patternof World Conflict(New York: Dial Press. London:
6

Allen & Unwin. 1955), p. 114. Italics are the author's.

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simple extrapolation.Beyond a certainpoint any comparisonbetween the natureof an egocentric regionalsystemand the limitlesspurpose of a universalsystem becomes meaningless.The 'actor roles' become so different and distantin scope that they no longer belong to the same discourseof theoryor world of achievement.One may admire the European Economic Community, as students cannotbut be but we aware that, internationally and historicallyspeaking,its limits are also its limitations. Perhaps one mightillustratethe point, and the urgenciesof our position,with a global problemwhich well shows how new our new world is-the problemof the deep seabed. There is wide supportfor the view that only some special arrangement and underthe United by Nations could deal with it; not only is there no standingrule or precedentthat fitsit, but perhaps the most respectedrule of international law, the grand old rule of the 'freedom of the seas ', may actuallyprove an obstacle to the collectivesolutionof this vital issue. Indeed, the UN declarationof legal principlesin regardto space, to which both Russia and America have given theirassent,would seem to confirm that dilemma. For in declaringthat the moon and other celestial bodies should be free for explorationby all 'in conformity withinternational law' and not subject to sovereignclaims, does that not in fact restatethe doctrine the 'freedomof the seas '? The old of rule may well be takenas a licence fora scrambleforthe deep seabed 'scramble for Africa'. And so more wanton than the 19th-century rule international does notprotect, abandons,the the onlyestablished but seabed, and by a misshapenanalogy now also space, to the few who can explore and exploit them,and in effect passes by the claims of at the world community large. The inescapable conclusion must be that in so far as political 'integration'has to workwithina regionalor otherlimiteddimension, towardsthe tamingof the nuclear nightit has nothingto contribute mare, much less towardsthe loomingproblemson the seabed and in space.
THE FUNCTIONAL ALTERNATIVE

The peacemakers at the end of the two world wars had little of prescience the world for whichtheywere legislating:theirthinking and policies still moved withinthe politics of sovereignty, private of security and development.But now the effort must somehowembrace and controlall the threerevolutionary elements;and whilethe creation of new statesis about reaching limit,the social pressures stillin its are flood, and the scientific-technological eruption is beyond anyone's control. And there is somethingmore beyond their unpredictable dynamics: politically thesetwo trends movingin criticalopposition. are

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The scientific-technological trend is heavy with global issues which demand global answers; the 'planned' social-economicscheme of the national state into a tighter things- hardening is workingunit,for time reallyclose to the oft-usedorganicanalogy. the first That is the existentialsituationout of which studentand policymaker have to shape some common system;and the task bears little since the end of resemblance the measuredprocess of state-making to the Middle Ages. If in such conditions political regrouping along old lines cannotopen a path to global co-existence, whatof the alternative? This is not the place to restatethe generallines of the functional idea. Here we are concernedwith its fitnessfor the issues and conditions is we have sketched out; and perhapsthe clearestconfrontation to look at the main doubts raised by some political scientists. criticism has been that functional The most frequent arrangements are unlikelyto end in some formof comprehensive 'integration',of the kind discussed above. That may well prove true,but it is a mistask and of the functional both of the historical conception philosophy and purpose. Our present historical the task is 'to bring nationsactively not to keep them peacefullyapart'; and so find ways for together, of the common government the new criticalglobal issues. That is as preciselywhat the functionalway tends to offer, it cuts across and racial divisions, without. existing political,ideological,geographical in the process breedingfreshdistinctions and divisionsof its own. Some criticshave raised a second 'basic' issue-that functionalism does not take enough account of the workingof politics; that 'the impact of politics upon functionalism may never give it a chance to test the impact of functionalism upon politics'. We have indeed seen in that tragically illustrated the Middle East and betweenIndia and betweenNorth and South in Ireland, and betweenEast and Pakistan, West in Europe generally. But what are the. implicationsof the criticism?Surely,not that these inimicalregimesmightjoin in some politicalunion wheretheyrefuselimitedand mutually beneficial workHas it not been proved that the mere mentionof ing arrangements? political union between the two Irelands, of federationbetween Pakistan and India, causes the two sides to raise the barriersand bolt the gates more firmly against each other? Is the reluctanceto join in visiblybeneficial practicalarrangements due preciselyto a not fear that these might overlayold political spites in the mindsof theirpeoples? No theoryand no experiencecan force states and politiciansto if work together they are intentupon fighting each other.The whole sense of the functionalapproach springs from an 'agonising reappraisal' of the essence and working such traditional of international politics; and its submissionsare solidly related to the historicaland

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sociological essence of world society now. The welfare surge is so claim upon powerfuland universalthat it makes a new and insistent international co-operation;in the new undeveloped states-and even in India and elsewhere-their revolutionary social-nationalism, paraa doxically,could hardlymake much headwaywithout new benevolent internationalism. Some studentsindeed have taken it for granted-as functional an inherent limitation rather thanas a criticism-that arrangementsare mainlysuitablefor 'non-controversial.' matters, especiallyin the fieldof welfare.Until the end of World War II it may have been reasonable to link functionalism with welfare and such things,but since thenthe picturehas changeddramatically. Since the war the coming of nuclear power, of space exploration ' to and other' one-world issues has shownthat thereis no alternative and most for mutualfunctional arrangements these most controversial fatefulinternational issues. That was proved when the two leading in atomic powers,America and Russia, jointlyoffered 1968 a strictly answerto the problemof nuclearcontrolthrough revised functional the non-proliferation treaty.That treatyis meant to ensure to all United Nationsmembers access to the peacefuluses of atomicenergy 'through an appropriateinternational body on which non-nuclearstates would be represented'.What political arrangement, short of a fullyfledged world government, could now provide an answerboth for the control and the fair use of atomic power? What is the political answer for the control the deep seabed and of space? No doubt,all such partial of have their shortcomings. arrangements Would it be more promising for these particularneeds and for peace in general not to attempt such workingfunctionalpacts, but instead to wait till Russia, the United States and China and othersare ready to join in some comprehensivepolitical union?
THE HUMAN FACTOR

ratherthan a Finally,and again perhaps as an implied limitation it criticism, has been said thatfunctionalism presumesa naturalwillingness of people and nationsto work together. The two approaches,of course, express two attitudestowards human society,related to the view one takes of politicalman. Those who believe 'there will always be wars' presumablysee human nature as incurablysinful-whether it be a matter originalsin or Freudiansin,or simply our biological of of make-up-and so in need of politicalhalters.On the otherside, others have assumedthatfunctionalism impliesthatman is innately 'good and and devoted to the commonweal'. The factsof politicallife rational, show that he can be all that; but equally they show that he can be irrationaland selfish and even vicious, whateverhis standing and '. ' culture And one veryrelevantthingthat experienceteaches is that

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the constitution a state and society(empire,monarchy, of republictheocratic, at capitalist, socialist)has in thisrespectmade no difference all, and has never proved a reliable selectorof the more decent and peacefultraits. Functionalism centredas much as anything is else on a sense of thistragicdichotomy human societyand history. in it Therefore would use, through naturalsocial selection, a of every prospect linking together the life of the peoples in particular as servingunities,removing many sectionsof international as possible fromthe ambitof confrontation life to the ambit of co-existence; whereasfromlong experiencea general political appeal has tended ratherto draw out competitive-aggressive traits-and fromthe sanme people,in the same timesand fromthe same devotionto a common weal. Indeed, its mass nature inevitably now makes politics appeal less to particularjudgmentthan to collective a identification-with party, nation,an ideology.And the sad parathe dox is that the new advanced means of communication, instantand uniform, provingcompleteservants thattrend. are of We have reached a point where the once potent 'democratic' has become a snareand a delusion.The wide extension the principle of suffrage and the wide expansion of public action in mattersthat are largely technical, have between themproduceda crisisin 'participation'. Prioritiesand policy are increasingly determinedby the immediate purpose in hand, as worked out by 'experts', while the egalitarian idea rejectsany selectivequalification the people's representatives. for And so, themoregovernment the people,theless government the for by people. And when a serviceor industry whollytaken over for the is people, through 'nationalisation',it is also takenout of the controlof the people's forum, the sovereign Parliament. But the second is in no in way inherent the first; the international in sectoreach of the UN's specialised agencies has 'its own little functionalparliament, which meetsperiodically and lays down policy,establishesthe budget,and on the nextoccasion reviewstheexecution thatpolicy Such functional of '.7 a representation offers valid remedyforthe growing power and insulation of the administrator:it brings togetherthose who know with the thingstheyknow, and in which theycan both initiatepolicy and judge its performance. And giventhe presentfluidity economic and of social life, policy has to be a matterof continuousand adaptable choice and action, not a grand one-timepolitical act, like a general election.In the incipientvast ranges of international government no otherway of real participation appears evident. Functionalarrangements spreadingbecause theyare necessary; are and the necessityis induced-apart fromthe older fieldsof welfare,
7 See the author's 'An Advance in DemocraticRepresentation', A Working in Peace System(Chicago: QuadrangleBooks. 1966), p. 125.

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health, common services-by our ceaseless scientific-technological cleverness.Every new invention, is every discovery, apt to give rise also to a new problem,one thatdemandsjoint controlor mutualselfcontrol. Broadcastingoffersa good, thoughnow a relativelysimple, illustration. Radio is such a potenttool foreveryday policyand government thatno country could allow it to come underthe kind of international authority that it may accept for atomic power. Yet at the same timeeverycountry shows a strict observanceof the wavelengths agreed internationally-simply because withoutsuch self-control the function could not function all. Incidentally, at this also shows how functional arrangements be adapted to each particular can task and the relationships generates, it using everydimension-regionalor local or universal-that suits the natureof the task and the conditionsof the moment. There are in this respect two central aspects which should be emphasised,especially as they help to put into relief the contrast betweenpolitical 'integration' and functionalism general systems. as It is not necessary,and in a way not desirable,that functional links should cover the whole range of international activities.To lay the basis for a peaceful international community should be enough if, it gradually,those activities were brought under joint control which concern the essential needs of the peoples at large; and, of course, those whichby theirnatureare a threatto general security. Whereas with the presentways of 'planned' controlsof economic and social life, the seeming success in coveringthe whole field and the whole rangeinternationally would in fact tend to a totalitarian concentration, inevitablydistant and heavy-handed, and so difficult maintainin to willingco-operation.
THE METHODOLOGICAL ERUPTION

These mattershave to be spelled out because the yearning for a rounded,measurableinternational unitycan prove a mentaltrap when its livingimplications leftout of sight-whatL. T. Hobhouse named are as the very essence of political science, the uncovering the inner of 'relation of things'. Even some students witha sympathy the funcfor tional idea have complainedthat one could not finda comprehensive expositionof it as a system. The fact is true,but the complaintmisconceived.Politically, functional the idea is not anotherdogmatictenet witha prescribed formand structure, 'system' withits own canonical a Rather is it a conceptof community the development blueprint. for of a lasting international community. is a 'working' theoryof how It to fitinto an international mould the new kind of 'service' state and gove rnment that are here to stay-but which at presentare actually causing us to slip back fromthe greatflowering freeeconomicand of

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social intercoursethat marked the 19th century. Under national ' planning every point of economic, and even cultural,contact is ' implicitly also a point of political contact,.andthus potentially also a. point of conflict. Can we in this new and dangerously unsteadyconstellation hope to do more than workto replace the hundreds wilful of national plans with communal international planning and controls,. whenever and wherever possible? As a witness of the cataclysmictransformation the historical of scene I confess myselfgreatlybaffled the rash of methodological: by efforts pursuitof some 'scientificlaw' of international in unityand. disunity. There was nothing like it beforeWorld War II, when life in. the world of states was more simple and predictable;therehas been nothing like it since the war in the national field,thoughthis is closer to our experienceand steadierin its elementsand problems.The idea thatmethodological refinements workedout in the studymight precipitate, as in a chemical laboratory,a clear and stable solution of a unified global society out of the ancient and shifting amalgam of' peoples and states,of races and ideologies and claims and habits, is almost alarmingin its academic complacency.' The quality of science is to give a more exact insightinto how things work under certain conditions.In the flood of international witheverypractitioner methodologies, to tending use a contrived idiom of his own, thereis a risk tihat more 'scientific',the less relevant the it all becomes. Science is foundedupon constantswhich impose their own unityupon all working theparticular in but the international field, field is a turbulence inconstants of and of the unpredictable; and all the valiant efforts fix and categorisethem have in no way made to themany less so. As thesemethodological endeavours have been especiin ally diligent America,one might quote thejudgment twoAmerican of colleagues: 'American labourersin the vineyard international of relations seem no closer to agreementon a paradigm for international relations research than were their predecessorstwentyyears ago.' 8 'International . relations . . has ... numerous individualistic conceptual" izationsabout the " realities and the studyof those phenomena.. .. But the mechanisms professional of social controlsare so inoperative as to place every serious question at issue on a basis of personal 9 acceptanceor rejection.' That is a depressing stateforthe humanistic value of our voluminouswork. We are engaged not in scholasticdisputationsbut on uncovering vital relationof things, how world a on societymightmove in its social and politicalorganisation froma war
8 William T. R. Fox, The American Study of International Relations (Columbia:
9

Instituteof Interrnational Studies, University South Carolina. 1968), p. 116. of CharlesA. McClelland,'The Functionof Theoryin International Relations', Journ-ial of ConflictResolution,September1960, p. 306.

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systemto a peace system.The immediateissue is nothingless than breaking away froma conceptand practicewhichsince the end of the Middle Ages had been inculcatedas an ideal, the near worshipof the national-territorial state. But if we are to wean our minds and our ways fromthat centuries-old political acceptance,the objectivesmust and make sense to the vast generality the peoples everywhere, thereof can understand. fore be stated in language which people everywhere Esoteric constructions idiosyncratic and academic codes are the surest way to make nonsense thewhole argument a new way of political of for life. We are standingat a crossroads,but do not know what kind of worldwe are reaching for.As Horace says in one of his Satires: 'We are all lost in the woods, the only difference that we are lost in is different directions.' is beyond us, who live in the turmoilof the It to transition, grasphow greatan historical ours turning-point mayprove to be. In some fundamental wayswe are now breaking of theearthout bound history man, as it has been since its beginning, of and moving into a new universeof action and relationships. Satellites, space-travel, ICBMs-what are they all leading to? They do not leave much of national frontiers, sovereignty, national isolation. But theyconjureup veryhard new problems, imperative the realitiesof our time.Functionalism in essence means just that: a directattackon problems, mutual problems, such; in the processbuildingup, sectorby sector, as effective positive rules of international government-whatMr. WilfredJenks calls the 'new worldlaw'. For the studentthe spectacleis indeed strange-and it is the part of the studentto try to see throughthe inner disorderof the new ' relationof things Powerfulearthbound '. statesprodigally use all the power and means theycan command to push out into new spheres; everysuccess widensthe gap fromthe old politicalworld; and the new threshold bringsthemface to face in new confrontations-which they are thenforcedto adjust within some commonrule.It is an impossible and contradiction, it cannotlast. We will go on actingthe pretences of the old politicalideas till some calamityblasts themout of the scheme of humanorganisation altogether.

David Mitrany, D.Sc., Ph.D., was formnerly Professor and PermanentMember in the Institute Advanced Study,Princeton, for N.J.; Visiting Professor at Harvard, Yale, Smith College, etc. Hon. Fellow of the Institute for the Study of International Organisation; Associate of the Institutefor Development Studies at the Universityof Sussex. A uthor of various works on the functional theory of internationalorganisation, beginning with 'A WorkingPeace System' (1943).