We’ve traveled some distance in time from the boundary between the two millennia to be able to take a better look at the century passed. In relevance to the current war in Ukraine and the threat of its becoming a global conflagration, three dominant themes from the 20th century appear to be of particular pertinence to the 21st century in its initial phase: dissolution, birth, death, and reconstitution of global empires; civil wars as impetus to and consequence of geopolitical shifts; and the post-WWII world order that, in retrospect can be referred to as Pax Sovetica. This paper will review these themes through the lens of dialectic social work in order to draw lessons for the current state of global affairs, especially with respect to wars. These lessons will help dialecticallyoriented social workers in framing their thinking about complexities of war, revisiting the notion of pacifism, and establishing an epistemological platform for a possible professional response.