Question: Do we know when the Lesser Peace will come about? Why did we think it would be by the year 2000?

Answer by ‘Ali Nakhjavani: When Shoghi Effendi was asked when exactly the Lesser Peace would be established, he wrote back saying that we did not know the exact time. The speculation about the year 2000 stems from the fifth candle of unity, which is “unity of nations”, and, as you recall, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states in that Tablet that it is “a unity which in this century will be securely established”. Since this Tablet was revealed in 1906, it is obvious that “this century” means the twentieth century, especially since the recipient was one of the friends in the British Isles. The point that was missed was that the stage of the “unity of nations” is clearly defined by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself in the same Tablet. It is when “the peoples of the world [will] regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland”. This is a reference to an awareness in the peoples of the world that the world is really one world and the planet the home of the human race. This consciousness is, of course, an important step towards the Lesser Peace but not the Lesser Peace itself. (Ali Nakhjavani, ‘Towards World Order’, Acuto, Italy, 2004, a week-long course on the study of various aspects of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh)