One world?

I’ve been reading with great interest the 1949 edition of The Outline of History, written mostly (except for the WWII part) by H.G. Wells.  The book provides a nice perspective of the socialist mind in the first half of the last century.  To his credit, Wells makes no pretense of objectivity, and the closer to current times he gets the more opinionated and subjective he becomes.

The book is interesting on a number of levels but one thing that particularly catches my eye is that Wells views all of history as a struggle toward a single, unified society.  Here, let him tell it:  “Sooner or later mankind must come to one universal peace, unless our race is to be destroyed by the increasing power of its own destructive inventions; and that universal peace must needs take the form of a government, that is to say, a law-sustaining organization, in the best sense of the word religious — a government ruling men through the educated co-ordination of their minds in a common conception of human history and human destiny.”  He favored what he called a “world-wide educational government.” 

The questions fairly burst out.  Is such a state possible?  Is it desirable?  Is it, in fact, the only way for mankind to survive the ever-increasing destructive power of its own invention?  If it is desirable, how do we get there from here?  If it is not desirable, how do we prevent folks like Wells from taking us there? I look forward to your ideas and opinions.