162 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946: 
strengthened by unlimited power from atomic fission and forced away 
from war by the examples of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 
I want tonight to consider the human consequences of the release of 
atomic energy in three major directions. First is its effect on war 
and the world’s political structure. Second is its application to the 
practical tasks of peace. Third is its effect in changing the form 
of our social life and customs. 
1. HOW SHALL WE PREVENT ANOTHER WAR? 
World government has become inevitable. The choice before us 
is whether this government will be agreed upon or whether we shall 
elect to fight a catastrophic third world war to determine who shall 
be master. Unity by agreement will bring greater life. Unity forced 
by another war will bring death to many millions and disaster to all 
mankind. 
The primary function of this world government must be to prevent 
international war. With regard to its economic and cultural life the 
world has during the past century been developing into a unit in 
which the welfare of each person depends intimately upon that of 
the rest of humanity. We have indeed become “members one of an- 
other.” Such development has not however resulted in political world 
unity. The great destructiveness of an atomic war, even to the victor, 
makes it necessary now for self-preservation to insure peace. In a 
quarrelsome world the only means of insuring peace is, however, for 
the nations to set up an international police force which monopolizes 
the power to wage war. 
Now for the first time, however, it becomes feasible for a central 
authority to enforce peace throughout the world. Before World War 
II many parts of the earth were difficult of access by a world police. 
If not a Maginot Line, at least a strong fighting front could keep out 
a policing army. During the time required to bring this policing army 
to the scene the defense of the recalcitrant group could be strengthened. 
Today this is changed. Fast airplanes, long-range rockets, and 
~ atomic bombs have now solved the technical problem of bringing to 
_ bear on any area at any time whatever destructive force may be re- 
guired to quell resistance. A central authority having virtual monop- 
oly of these major means of warfare can now be equipped to enforce 
international peace. 
The fact is that the United States now has in its possession a sufli- 
cient monopoly of the weapons needed for such policing that it might 
be able to act in this capacity of world police. That we do not set 
ourselves up as the world governors is simply because we do not 
want the job. We feel that world control is the world’s business, not 
ours. We know that, if we should use armed force to prevent other 
nations from fighting when our own interests were not directly 
