First, the nations must submit to law and to right in the settlement of
their disputes.

Secondly, they must reserve force for the coercion of the law-breaker;
and that implies that they should construct rules to determine who the
law-breaker is. Let him be defined as the one who appeals to force, instead
of appealing to law and right by machinery duly provided for that purpose,
and the aggressor is immediately under the ban of the civilized world, and
met by an overwhelming force to coerce him into order. In constructing
machinery of this kind there is no intellectual difficulty greater than
that which has confronted every attempt everywhere to substitute order
for force. The difficulty is moral, and lies in the habits, passions,
and wills of men. But it should not be concluded that, if such a moral
change could be operated, there would be no need for the machinery. It
would be as reasonable to say that Governments, law-courts, and police
were superfluous, since, if men were good, they would not require them,
and if they are bad they will not tolerate them. Whatever new need, desire,
and conviction comes up in mankind, needs embodiment in forms before it
can become operative. And, as the separate colonies of America could not
effectively unite until they had formed a Constitution, so will the States
of Europe and the world be unable to maintain the peace, even though all
of them should wish to maintain it, unless they will construct some kind
of machinery for settling their disputes and organizing their common
purposes, and will back that machinery by force. If they will do that
they may construct a real and effective counterpoise to aggression from
any Power in the future. If they will not do it, their precautions against
any one Power will be idle, for it will be from some other Power that the
danger will come. I put it to the reader at the end of this study, which
I have made with all the candour and all the honesty at my disposal, and
which I believe to represent essentially the truth, whether or no he agrees