ndividuals of the group inhabiting a given territory that common social problems must be resolved through peaceful change. And, finally, "peaceful change" is considered to be the resolving of social problems, usually through formal institutions, without resort to unauthorized physical force. It should be pointed out that the concept of peaceful change is not violated by the use of authorized force. Placed altogether in practice, these concepts produce a security-community ruled by law rather than by war (Van Wagenen, 1952, pp. 10-11).
Consequently, a security-community is one in which there is credible assurance that the members of that community will not have to use physical violence to resolve disputes. Within a single nation, that would mean no civil wars. Within the globe, that would mean the end of war.
Social integration is the key to the emergence of a security-community. An empirical observation of nation-states, however, has shown that there are at least two types of social integration: amalgamation and pluralism (Deutsch et al., 1966, p. 2).
"Amalgamation" is considered to be the complete merger of the community under one formal socio-political institution that governs society. This may be in the form of the merger of different social groups or states under one national government or the merger of nation-states into a single nation-state governed by a central authority. It must be noted that amalgamation may occur with or without integration and vice versa, although there is a presumption that integration more often than not involves some degree of amalgamation of at least some governmental institutions (Van Wagenen, 1952, p. 11).
"Pluralism," on the other hand, is the formation of a society that retains the legal independence of separate governments. While the United States, for example, can be seen as more of an amalgamation under the dominant authority of the federal government, the combined territory of t...