The best critical consideration of the inherent weakness of a federation of states in which the law of the federation has to be enforced on the states who are its members is contained in the Federalist Papers.

In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production.

It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace.

No system of balance functions automatically.

War most often promotes the internal unity of each state involved. The state plagued by internal strife may then, instead of waiting for the accidental attack, seek the war that will bring internal peace.

Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.

Each state pursues its own interest's, however defined, in ways it judges best. Force is a means of achieving the external ends of states because there exists no consistent, reliable process of reconciling the conflicts of interest that inevitably arise among similar units in a condition of anarchy.