Since 1945 the UN has failed to prevent 162 wars and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and there is talk of a Third World War involving the Middle East, the Baltic states and North Korea. Competing nation-states seem powerless to achieve world peace under the UN. Continuing a tradition that began with the 1945 atomic bombs, Nicholas Hagger follows Truman, Einstein, Churchill, Eisenhower, Gandhi, Russell, J.F. Kennedy and Gorbachev in calling for a democratic, partly-federal World State with sufficient authority to abolish war, enforce disarmament, combat famine, disease and poverty, and solve the world’s financial and environmental problems.

In World State Hagger sets out the historical background and the failure of the current political order of nation-states. He presents the ideal World State - its seven federal goals, its structure and the benefits it would bring - and sets out a manifesto that would turn the UN General Assembly into an elected lower house of a democratic World State.