Whither World Peace?
Thursday April 16, 2026
By Maximillian Afnan
Maximillian Afnan is a political theorist and Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research examines the normative principles that underpin the operation of international institutions and the structure of the global order.
“A central tenet of the Bahá’í perspective on history is that humanity has reached the point at which a lasting global peace is “not only possible but inevitable.”1Yetif peace is indeed inevitable, the path towards it has been neither straightforward nor uninterrupted. The twentieth century witnessed the establishment of unprecedented institutions of international cooperation, accompanied, at certain moments, by shifts in political culture and public consciousness that seemed to signify a new era in international relations. However, from a vantage point a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, it is clear that the project of building a united and effective global order is far from complete, and indeed in some respects appears to be in reverse. As the Universal House of Justice observes:
For many decades following the second great war of the twentieth century, humanity moved, with fits and starts, toward the promise of a united world. The failure to complete the project of the unification of nations, however, left gaps in relations in which supranational problems could fester and threaten the security and well-being of peoples and states, leading to a recrudescence of prejudice, of divers expressions of factionalism, and of virulent nationalism that are the very negation of Bahá’u’lláh’s message of peace and oneness.”
“The Bahá’í World website features a collection of essays that examine the most vital issues of our time and seek to contribute new insights from the Bahá’í teachings and from the experience of the worldwide Bahá’í community.“