End of Nations?

In Rabbi Wolpoe's earlier post about a more objective method of psak, the following comment was made.

The moment I saw the unbelievable The End Of Nations article on Hubpages I decided that NishmaBlog's commentators totally should be able to express their opinions on this! http://hubpages.com/hub/Global-Union-The-End-Of-Nations

The comment was totally unrelated to the post and, to be honest, I had no idea why this person made this comment and request, but my interest was lit. I decided to take a look at this.

What I found was an interesting, short presentation on the globalization of the world, even in a political sense. There have always been world federalists -- and science fiction always seems to present the Earth as one dominion -- but what is interesting is this argument that the process is already underway to effectively create an interconnected, global community. At the same time, though, I also do note, even as the author mentions, there are forces in the world promoting the greater balkanization of nations. It seems that the American issue of federal rights vs state rights is just now having a global comparison which does not necessarily mean that federalism vs country will necessarily win out. It is interesting, though, that this issue seems to now be of a global nature.

The question, though, in the context of the Nishmablog must be: is there a Torah perspective on this issue? There are obvious Messianic overtones to this question. In that time, and it should be soon iy"H, we are told that there will be no more wars. Is this because there is a world federalism under the Melech HaMashiach or will there still be independent nations who will live in peace together, under the general world leadership of klal Yisrael under the rule of this king? A corollary of this question would be whether everyone becomes Jewish or whether there will still be Jews and non-Jews, even in a federalist context? Obviously, as Rambam states, we will only know what will be when we actually experience this -- and all this is mere speculation. Yet, how we speculate on this matter indicates our understanding of what we think is the ideal -- and does impact on our present thoughts and activities as we strive for this ideal. One such reflection of this may be how we view the collective. Do we wish a strong centralized entity (in the same way that people may favour the federal government) or do we advocate for greater decentralization (in the same way that one may favour state rights)? How do we see the Torah impacting on this question?

Rabbi Ben Hecht