A man does right, as a rule, to have his thoughts more occupied with the interests of his own nation than with those of others, because his actions are more likely to affect his own nation.  But in time of war, and in all matters which are of equal concern to other nations and to his own, a man ought to take account of the universal welfare, and not allow his survey to be limited by the interest, or supposed interest, of his own group or nation.

So long as national feeling exists, it is very important that each nation should be self-governing as regards its internal affairs.  Government can only be carried on by force and tyranny if its subjects view it with hostile eyes, and they will so view it if they feel that it belongs to an alien nation.  This principle meets with difficulties in cases where men of different nations live side by side in the same area, as happens in some parts of the Balkans.  There are also difficulties in regard to places which, for some geographical reason, are of great international importance, such as the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.  In such cases the purely local desires of the inhabitants may have to give way before larger interests.  But in general, at any rate as applied to civilized communities, the principle that the boundaries of nations ought to coincide with the boundaries of states has very few exceptions.

This principle, however, does not decide how the relations between states are to be regulated, or how a conflict of interests between rival states is to be decided.  At present, every great state claims absolute sovereignty, not only in regard to its internal affairs but also in regard to its external actions.  This claim to absolute sovereignty leads it into conflict with similar claims on the part of other great states.  Such conflicts at present can only be decided by war or diplomacy, and diplomacy is in essence nothing but the threat of war.  There is no more justification for the claim to absolute sovereignty on the part of a state than there would be for a similar claim on the part of an individual.  The claim to absolute sovereignty is, in effect, a claim that all external affairs are to be regulated purely by force, and that when two nations or groups of nations are interested in a question, the decision shall depend solely upon which of them is, or is believed to be, the stronger.  This is nothing but primitive anarchy, “the war of all against all,” which Hobbes asserted to be the original state of mankind.

There cannot be secure peace in the world, or any decision of international questions according to international law, until states are willing to part with their absolute sovereignty as regards their external relations, and to leave the decision in such matters to some international instrument of government.[5] An international government will have to be legislative as well as judicial.  It is not enough that there should be a Hague tribunal,