Hi Jim, I haven't read the book... yet. (I have about 1500 books on my hard drive to go through). By "Breakdown" the author means planned re-organization, not destruction. From the book jacket synopsis we read:
" In The Breakdown of Nations Leopold Kohr shows that, throughout history, people living in small states are happier, more peaceful, more creative and more prosperous. Virtually all our political and social problems would be greatly diminished if the world’s major countries were to dissolve back into the small states from which they sprang. Rather than making ever-larger political unions, in the belief that this will bring peace and security, we should minimize the aggregation of power by returning to a patchwork of small, relatively powerless states, where leaders are accessible to and responsive to the people. "