“All Mankind and yet nothing but Mankind”: Arnold J. Toynbee and the World State

Abstract

This article explores Arnold J. Toynbee’s contributions to international
thought, focusing on a less examined aspect of his work: the idea of a world state. From the 1920s to the 1970s, Toynbee sought solutions to the crisis of international politics capable of ensuring global stability and peace. In the atomic age, he saw the voluntary unification of humanity as the sole safeguard against nuclear catastrophe. The article traces the evolution of his thought across three phases: a liberal vision rooted in British imperial tradition (1920s-1930s); a cosmopolitan perspective marked by revolu-tionary political imagination (1940s-1950s); and, in later years, a spiritual and utopian approach.