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Rather than seek the causes of war, it is perhaps more profitable to attempt to discover the conditions under which peace is possible. The American continent offers an opportunity for this type of study. Where organized groups coëxist without conflicting interests, or with supplementary interests, peace is possible and the adjacent groups may fuse into a single economic and political unit. The fact that personal conflicts within a group are settled by law or by norm is encouraging in suggesting the possibility of extending this type of settlement to intergroup conflicts. A democratic state requires a more socialized kind of human material than a social order based on suppression and coercion. In considering Freud's statement that wars result from man's innate destructiveness, it should be borne in mind that human aggression frequently finds sublimated outlets. There are two important conditions for peace: (1) human beings must be united in one large, well-integrated social organization; (2) there must be a technique for settling conflicting interests. A future league of nations must recognize the necessity for coercion until consensus is established. Although the democracies should lead this supernational organization, they are averse to the use of force. They must recognize their call to assume leadership.