Click to view larger image

The reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States (1776)

Look around and you see a world in increasing distress. Conventional modes of politics and the nation state are showing unmistakable signs of strain. It seems civilisation is facing an internecine struggle against confronting new realities. Many communities are being afflicted by various crises as the world transitions through tumultuous channels of change.

It is this struggle between the old and new world order that was captured in remarks by United States President Barack Obama at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in 2014:

• But whether people see what’s happening in Ukraine, and Russia’s aggression towards its neighbors in the manner in which it’s financing and arming separatists; to what’s happened in Syria — the devastation that Assad has wrought on his own people; to the failure in Iraq for Sunni and Shia and Kurd to compromise — although we’re trying to see if we can put together a government that actually can function; to ongoing terrorist threats; to what’s happening in Israel and Gaza — part of people’s concern is just the sense that around the world the old order isn’t holding and we’re not quite yet to where we need to be in terms of a new order that’s based on a different set of principles, that’s based on a sense of common humanity, that’s based on economies that work for all people. ^[1]

A chorus of calls to reform the world’s governance and economic systems have risen sharply in recent years, particularly since the onset of the Global Financial Crisis. From almost every corner of the globe there is a leader, activist or academic prescribing afresh what they think the world needs in terms of a new world order and overhaul of existing institutions and systems.

While the quest for a new world order outfitted with a world government is not new ^[2], the realisation of a unified and coherent federal world government is anywhere near to be achieved. In fact recent developments would indicate that the move toward globalisation may be stalling, and the world fragmenting into a multi-polar system of great powers rivalry.

This is hardly the political development conducive toward establishing a world government.

Yet despite this, there remains a persistent and palpable intensifying energy to usher in a new world order and world government - and a new generation of advocates have taken up the baton with the passion and determination to bring about this change.

Canvassing opinions for an article in Aeon magazine on suggested pathways to forming world government, Cabrera notes:

• Mine is just one of many voices in what has become a remarkable resurgence of academic thought on the world government ideal… Not since the world government ‘heyday’ of 1945-50 have we seen so many political scientists, economists, and philosophers giving serious attention to a global government. ^[3]

^[1] ‘Remarks by the President at a DNC event – Seattle WA’, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 22 July 2014 at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/22/remarks-president-dnc-event-seattle-wa

^[2] ‘World Government’, Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_government

^[3] Cabrera, L., ‘World government is back, in geopolitics and in the academy, but what does the future hold for it?’, Aeon magazine, 21 April 2014, at http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/will-a-world-government-work/

No longer is this world government vision seen to be driven exclusively by the wizardry of the world’s elites as it is commonly understood. We often read about a small and powerful group of elites manipulating global banking systems and events to consolidate their power into a totalitarian world government. But there is another underlying agent of activity and effort in the move toward world government that is seldom if ever acknowledged, much less examined in detail.

In the last decade or two, the push for world government has grown as much, if not more so, out of a bottom-up activism driven primarily by dissenting organisations and communities who have just become fed-up with the conventional political apparatus and lack of transparent global leadership. Accordingly, a new era is emerging in the quest for a world government and it is one being energised by increasing civil involvement while also nurtured by an even more popular aspirational agenda to unite the world across cultural and religious divides.

Richard N. Gardner, former deputy assistant Secretary of State for International Organisations under Kennedy and Johnson, and a member of the Trilateral Commission, wrote in the April, 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs:

• In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.

Beyond any human engineering a world government are the very real and incidental events driving the agenda forward that cannot be downplayed or overlooked in the overall analysis. The symbiosis between significant global crises and human reaction to such events toward the evolution of world government is clearly observable, as will be outlined later. As such, it may well be an intensifying or climax of such crises in the future that provide the catalyst for establishing a world government as a fundamental component of the new world order architecture.

Today’s advocates already have a far more dire narrative to invoke in support of their doctrine for transformative global change. Shocking and violent images make for almost daily viewing on our television screens and mobile devices. Reports are numerous of crises raging across the world, some of which threaten global stability and potential catastrophe. There is the global financial crisis, global war on terrorism, global climate change, global warming, global food and water crises, global poverty and unemployment among other alarming global crises, all happening and emerging concurrently.

The most recent World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2014 report affirmed “31 risks that are global in nature and have the potential to cause significant negative impact across entire countries and industries if they take place.” ^[4]

^[4] ‘Global Risks 2014’ (9th Ed.), World Economic Forum et al, 2014 at http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalRisks_Report_2014.pdf

Where world government was once invoked for little more than to prevent conflict among nations and facilitate international cooperation on issues of human rights and economic development, it is now elevated to a panacea to solve a wide range of apparent global problems seen insurmountable by the current nation-state system.

The new world order and world government narrative has evolved into a distinguished modern genre over recent years, one in particular that reflects the unique diversity of contemporary global challenges and problems. Accordingly there is an urgent crusade underway to recast the global government architecture and develop a blueprint for a sustainable future of peace and prosperity.

Grassroots organisations and the communities involved are no longer waiting for governments or their leaders to effect such change, and are about creating the transformation a step at a time through their promotional and campaign activities.

However, to reiterate a crucial point, the shift in opinion toward a world government from popular opposition and indifference to unquestionable support will not likely come until an earth shaking event or events thereof, captures the world at a pivotal juncture.

Richard A. Falk penned a profound foresight on our day back in 1975 when he wrote in an article entitled "Toward a New World Order: Modest Methods and Drastic Visions," in the bookOn the Creation of a Just World Order:

• The existing order is breaking down at a very rapid rate, and the main uncertainty is whether mankind can exert a positive role in shaping a new world order or is doomed to await collapse in a passive posture. We believe a new order will be born no later than early in the next century and that the death throes of the old and the birth pangs of the new will be a testing time for the human species.

Only once that catalyst arrives will the world community be willing to take the final step into a world government. So deep and profound the changeover will be that many will be heralding that humanity has transitioned into a new era.

It was not long ago that claims of a future world government emerging were considered the conspiracy theories of fringe radical groups and utopian philosophers. Today, conversations about the new world order and world government are as much making regular appearances in mainstream media and leading central topics at local and international forums.

Australia is increasingly becoming an active promoter for a world government. One of its notable proponents is a former Senator and Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown who is driving the local agenda. Brown has long made his support for a democratic world government publicly well known.

Responding to a question from Mark Riley of the Seven Network at the National Press Club in June 2011, Brown said:

• Why should Australia not be at the centre of what is inevitably going to be a global parliamentary governance down the line? If we human beings are going to live with each other…. of course we’re going to have to make consensus decisions… ^[5]

Not only Brown, but indeed the Greens party maintains support for a reinvigorated global governance system. The party policy on ‘Global Governance’ proposes a world government that involves democratising the United Nations and multilateral institutions together with building effective accountability into the system on a global scale. ^[6]

Since retiring from politics, Brown has continued his advocacy for world government with his involvement in the Model Global Parliament (MGP) initiative. The MGP is described as “a forum for university students to discover just what it is to be a global citizen and to test the feasibility of a future global parliament.” ^[7]

This forum, periodically run throughout Australia at participating university venues, has an agenda to “address real and pressing issues of our time… “According to the website: “We are living in a time where regional and global issues continue to challenge Nation States to broaden engagement and seek collaborative solutions.”

^[5] wakeup2thelies,  ‘Bob Brown wants a Global Parliament’, 28 June 2011 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_MpLocFQus

^[6] ‘Global Governance’, The Greens at http://greens.org.au/policies/global-governance

^[7] ‘Model Global Parliament 2014’ at http://www.modelglobalparliament.org/ and http://www.modelglobalparliament.org/about.html

A closely affiliated initiative with the MGP is an organised global campaign initiative known as the Global Week of Action for a World Parliament. ^[8] This initiative is overseen by the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly who describes their movement as “a global network of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations advocating for citizens’ representation at the United Nations.” ^[9]

Unlike the previous mentioned campaigns and conferences, the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA) is an organisation that actually includes a worldwide membership of world citizens. Citizen members recognise the leadership of the WCPA and the supremacy of theConstitution for the Federation of Earth. Prospective members join the WCPA via a ‘pledge’ thereby committing to live under what the organisation considers the rule of universal democratic constitutional law. ^[10]

The WCPA is an association of citizens and organisations who work toward establishing a democratic world government and federation of nations under its Earth Constitution. ^[11] The WCPA was founded in 1958 by Philip Isely and a number of visionaries who hold that the world could not survive unless it one day unite under a single world constitution.

Additionally the WCPA believe the United Nations and the Charter needs to be replaced rather than reformed and amended as most other campaigns and conferences propose.

The WCPA organise the Provisional World Parliament which also pursues an agenda for establishing a world government. The Provisional World Parliament legislate Provisional World Law, therefore functioning in a provisional capacity while the ratification process for the Earth Constitution continues. According to details on the WCPA website, the Provisional World Parliament is anticipated to ‘be supplanted by a fully functional’ elected World Parliament once the Earth Constitution has been ratified by 25 countries. ^[12] The 14th session of Provisional World Parliament is scheduled to run in December 2015.

The architects of the WCPA are eager to point out that the Provisional World Parliament sessions are not for mere display and showmanship, but very real representations of a ‘politically legitimate world order’. The laws passed through the Provisional Parliament are considered ‘real world law’ and are envisioned to provide ‘a tremendous asset and impetus to that parliament, giving it guidelines that will influence the entire spirit of the emerging world government.’ ^[13]

This is apparently world government in action now, albeit provisional, with the organisation’s authority limited to only those who have pledged themselves to its Constitution.

A similar organisation with a strong world unity agenda is the World Government for World Citizens (WGWC) which was founded in 1953 by Garry Davis. The WGWC hail the individual and humanity as the fundamental sovereign of which the organisation represents politically.

WGWC also invite individuals to register and become a ‘world citizen’ where following registration, are offered a World Citizen Card which is a form of ‘global political identification’, and a World Passport, among several other privileged membership documents. The registration process also requires citizens to make an affirmation of informed commitment, responsibility and loyalty to the world government. ^[14]

Both WCPA and WGWC provide curious examples of the efforts underway to achieve a world government. Much like their counterpart campaigners and advocates, the world government system typically envisioned for the future here is one based on the principles of representative democracy and a world governing body with full authority to legislate at the global level and enforce international laws.

^[8] “Global Week of Action for a World Parliament’ at http://www.worldparliamentnow.org/

^[9] Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly website at http://en.unpacampaign.org/index.php

^[10] Martin, (Dr) G.T., ’The Political Legitimacy of the Constitution for the Federation of the Earth’, Martin, (Dr) G.T. and President of WCPA at http://worldparliament-gov.org/blogs/sample-blog/blog-entry-03/

^[11] ‘About the World Constitution and Parliamentary Association’ at http://worldparliament-gov.org/about-the-wcpa/ and http://worldparliament-gov.org/wcpa/wcpa-general-perspective/, and ‘The Constitution for the Federation of Earth’ at http://worldparliament-gov.org/constitution

^[12] ‘WCPA General Perspective’ at http://worldparliament-gov.org/wcpa/wcpa-general-perspective/

^[13] Ibid, Martin, (Dr) G.T. and President of WCPA at http://worldparliament-gov.org/blogs/sample-blog/blog-entry-03/

^[14] See ‘World Service Authority FAQ’ at http://www.worldgovernment.org/wcwfaq.html?s=1 and ‘How to Register as a World Citizen’ at http://www.worldgovernment.org/reg.html?s=1

But probably the most audacious of all calls for a world government comes not from some radical fringe group as might be expected, but rather the City Montessori School (CMS) in Lucknow, India - the world’s largest school in terms of pupils according to the Guinness World Records. ^[15] Each year in December, the school convenes the International Conference of Chief Justices of the World. The conferences, which have been running for 14 years, invite hundreds of participants from all over the world to attend. The most recent conference in 2013 included one attendee from the Model Global Parliament in Australia. ^[16]

At the closing session of each conference, a resolution is passed by the participating Chief Justices and Judges who agree to a number of key decisions and actions. The intentions and goals behind this world unity advocacy forum couldn’t be less clear:

• ‘…enactment of world law enforceable on all nation states and people of the world’ (2011)
• Formation of ‘a World Parliament …on democratic lines paving the way for formation of a World Government’ (2011)
• ‘… a democratic global governance structure…’ (2012
• ‘…a World Government to enforce such laws and effective global governance, and also a World Court to resolve disputes and dispense justice.’ (2013) ^[17]

In addition to the resolutions of each conference is a generous supply of documentation and correspondence posted on the site, each with tailored letters to the likes of the UN Secretary-General and Heads of State, urging all to immediate action with hastening establishment of a ‘World Government’ and ‘New World Order’.

^[15] ‘Largest school by pupils’, Guinness World Records, 2013 at http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/1/largest-school-by-pupils

^[16] ‘Participant list of the 14th  International Conference of Chief Justices of the World’, CMS Education at http://www.cmseducation.org/article51/participants_list_2014.html

^[17] ‘Resolution of the last five conferences’, 2010 to 2014, CMS Education at http://www.cmseducation.org/article51/resolutions/index.htm

It was what top economists agreed was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. ^[18] It would later be termed the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) that wiped out trillions of dollars worth of economic output and financial wealth. The horrors of the situation had only begun to surface at an emergency meeting where those attending at the Capitol on 18th September 2008 recount some chilling details:

• It was obviously a big meeting. I had no idea I was going to hear what I heard. We turned it right over to Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson.
•      Sitting in that room with Hank Paulson saying to us in very measured tones, no hyperbole, no excessive adjectives, that, ‘Unless you act, the financial system of this country and the world will melt down in a matter of days.
•      Bernanke said, ‘If we don’t do this tomorrow, we won’t have an economy on Monday.
• There was literally a pause in that room where the oxygen left. ^[19]

The massive $700 billion (USD) emergency stimulus package agreed at the meeting would save the world economy from a catastrophic meltdown but the impacts of the crisis would reverberate globally for years. This disastrous event would also spur numerous calls for reform of the global governance and financial systems and elicit a number of notable figures and leaders to call afresh a new world order.

Former National Security Adviser and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger referred to the GFC as a unique turning point in the world order, one of which was opportunity and the other a retreat to chaos and disastrous fragmentation. Kissinger opined that the world could seize this opportunity to come away from the GFC with a vision to build a “new international order” together with a “new Bretton Woods kind of global agreement.” ^[20]

Former Prime Minister of Britain, an outspoken and strong proponent for the new world order, ^[21] proposed in a speech on the economy in 2010 “we need nothing short of a world constitution for the global financial system.” Brown would encourage his audience that ”with globalisation,  we have a unique chance to recognise our global interdependence as citizens and work towards a truly global society…  a world free from climate change catastrophe” and “free from terrorism…” ^[22]

In the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste, Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech at the Export Import Bank Conference in Washington in April 2013: “The affirmative task before us is to actually create a new world order because the global order is changing…. and we have to update the global rules of the world…” ^[23]

Climate change and epidemics prompted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to call for a world government during an interview with German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung:

• Take the UN, it has been created especially for the security in the world. We are ready for war, because we have taken every precaution. We have NATO, we have divisions, jeeps, trained people,” Gates said. “But what is with epidemics? How many doctors do we have as much planes, tents, what scientists? If there were such a thing as a world government, we would be better prepared. ^[24]

It was the GFC that urged the Vatican to publish a six-thousand word text entitled: “Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority”. The detailed document includes an entire chapter devoted to establishing a world political authority with universal jurisdiction and a ‘central world bank’. ^[25] The authors opine:

• In a world on its way to rapid globalization, orientation towards a world Authority becomes the only horizon compatible with the new realities of our time and the needs of humankind. However, it should not be forgotten that this development, given wounded human nature, will not come about without anguish and suffering.

Indeed the move to a world government could well be painful, but whether that is due to nations making the difficult decisions to progress its development before something far more traumatic spooks the world into establishing one is yet to be seen.

^[18] Pendery, D., ‘Two top economists agree 2009 worst financial crisis since great depression; risks increase if right steps are not taken’, Reuters, 30 September 2009 at http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/02/27/idUS193520+27-Feb-2009+BW20090227

^[19] See ‘Inside the Meltdown’, PBS America, 17 February 2009 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/

^[20] Kissinger, H., ‘The world must forge a new order or retreat to chaos’, The Independent, 20 January 2009 at http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/henry-kissinger-the-world-must-forge-a-new-order-or-retreat-to-chaos-1451416.html

^[21] Xare, ‘Gordon Brown New World Order Speech’, 18 May 2007 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5cqh26CC0

^[22] liarpoliticians, ‘Gordon Brown praises New World Order’, 19 February 2010 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDiE1RRi7mU

^[23] nicholasballasy, ‘The affirmative task before us is to create a new world order’, 5 April 2013 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1AMYHHAXhI

^[24] Brown, P.F., ‘Bill Gates Has A Radical Way For The World To ‘Be Better Prepared’ For Epidemics’, 11 February 2015 at http://www.westernjournalism.com/bill-gates-calls-for-global-government/

^[25] ‘Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global political authority’, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2011 at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20111024_nota_en.html

It remains unlikely that leaders and their constituents will concede or submit willingly to relinquish any amount of national sovereignty to a federal world government. While journalists and authors correctly argue that nation states and their citizens would fiercely resist conceding sovereignty to a global government authority, thereby procrastinating the formation of world government for any time up to hundreds of years in the future, ^[26] they tend to overlook another passage by which it could and most likely will come about: Namely a major catastrophic event of severe global impact.

Nemat Shafik, Deputy Managing Director from the International Monetary Fund in developing the case for strengthening global governance following the GFC, points out that “historically, there has been a symbiotic relationship between crises and the evolution of governance”, with several examples noted in the transcript of her lecture ^[27]

Indeed the next instalment of world government will almost certainly come about much in the same way - following an event or series of events that literally force the hand of nation states and their leaders to capitulate.

As commentator on the Middle East and South Asian affairs, Aijaz Zaka Syed states in his call for global representation at the United Nations: “Change is never voluntary. Power is seldom readily shared. This cannot go on forever. Something has got to give. It is past time for the UN to change — to reflect and represent today’s global and democratic realities.”  ^[28]

While the spectre of an earth in peril features frequently in calls urging for a world government, it is the prospect of a future devastating world war embedded in much of the supporting literature.

As vice chancellor of the University of Punjab in Pakistan, Mujahid Kamran observed, commenting on a blueprint for dictatorship and the ultimate objective of world government: “The achievement of this goal will require a major war, a world war… All this is part of the final push towards the NWO [New World Order] through a great war.” ^[29]

^[26] Dvorsky, G., ‘When will we finally have a world government?’, io9, 19 December 2012 at http://io9.com/5969802/when-will-we-finally-have-a-world-government and ‘World government is back, in geopolitics and in the academy, but what does the future hold for it?’, Cabrera, L. Aeon magazine, 21 April 2014, at http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/will-a-world-government-work/

^[27] Shafik N., ‘Smart Governance: Solutions for Today’s Global Economy’, International Monetary Fund, 5 December 2013 at https://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2013/120513.htm

^[28] Zaka Syed, A., ‘A new United Nations for a new world order’, Arab News, 24 October 2013 at http://www.arabnews.com/news/468626

^[29] Kamran, M., ‘Dictatorship at home and war abroad’, The Nation, 20 March 2012, at http://www.nation.com.pk/columns/20-Mar-2012/dictatorship-at-home-and-war-abroad

In a foreboding speech to the United Nations upon receiving the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award, on October 19, 1999, Walter Cronkite remarked:

• It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace ^[30]

The City Montessori School in Lucknow India, in their promotion for a world government and new world order, offer this ominous warning:

• Perhaps the choice before all who inhabit this earth, is whether the unification of humankind will happen after unimaginable horrors precipitated by humanity’s stubborn clinging to old patterns of behaviour, or is to be embraced now by an act of consultative will. ^[31]

Professor of philosophy and chair of the Program in Peace Studies at Radford University in Virginia, Dr. Glen T. Martin, advocating for democratic world government through the WCPA suggests a catastrophic fate awaits humanity should such governance fail to be established:

• Impending climate collapse and the very real threat of nuclear holocaust will continue to sweep humanity toward planetary apocalypse unless we establish a global social contract in the near future. Our struggle must be simultaneously at the local and global levels…. and we must simultaneously work toward establishing legitimate democratic government for the Earth.  Our fate is not discontinuous with the fate of all humanity.  All persons and societies are linked together in the 21st century, and the fate of the Earth itself hangs in the balance. ^[32]

Similarly in a discussion about when a world government might come about, citing a warning from sociologist James Hughes from Trinity College in Connecticut who connects catastrophic threats with the need for global governance says:

• That is if this century doesn't create new economic, cultural and communication forces for political globalization, and then new catastrophic threats to make the need for global governance inescapable, which it is very likely to do… ^[33]

Even the Global Week of Action for a World Parliament reference increasing global problems as a platform for rallying people around the world to participate in the campaign for a global political body:

• We have many, many global problems. From the wrecking of our life-supporting ecosystems to the failure to protect human rights, incomplete nuclear disarmament, lack of regulation of global markets and financial systems , to overcoming socio-economic inequalities – these and many others are all global problems that require global solutions.But who is accountable for dealing with these problems from a truly global perspective? ^[34]

Senior editor with Scientific American, Gary Stix urges effective world government to avoid what he refer to as a “climate catastrophe”. ^[35]

It seems traction toward establishing any world government historically has only ever come after some major disastrous global event, such as world war. It might be said that the first instalments of progressive world government were the creation of the League of Nations (1919 – 1946) following the end of World War I and the establishment of the Bretton Woods system including the United Nations (1945 – present) after World War II to replace the ineffective League of Nations. Thus while it is said that history doesn’t repeat but rhymes, it suggests that the next instalment of world government will come about in much the same manner, regardless of any lapse of time.

This is a crucial point for consideration. Without a disturbance of world shaking consequence, it is extremely unlikely that nations and their respective governments and constituents will ever willingly agree to relinquish sovereignty to a world government no matter how much campaigning and education.

^[30] Cronkite, W., ‘A speech by Walter Cronkite — United Nations, national sovereignty and the future of the world’, Renew America, 24 May 2005 at http://www.renewamerica.com/article/050525

^[31] ‘World Judiciary — Last Hope For Humanity’s Survival’, CMS Education, at http://www.cmseducation.org/article51/last_hope.html

^[32] Martin, Dr. G.T., ‘The Moral Collapse of U.S. and Global Society - and the Necessary Conditions for Rebirth’, OpEd News, 29 April 2014 at http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/The-Moral-Collapse-of-U-S-by-Dr-Glen-T-Martin-Democracy_Earth_Morality-Morals_Values-140429-270.html

^[33] Ibid Dvorsky, G., at http://io9.com/5969802/when-will-we-finally-have-a-world-government

^[34] Ibid at http://www.worldparliamentnow.org/

^[35] Stix, G., ‘Effective World Government Will Be Needed to Stave Off Climate Catastrophe’, Scientific American, 17 March 2012 at http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/03/17/effective-world-government-will-still-be-needed-to-stave-off-climate-catastrophe/

The thrust of recent world history demonstrates how a world government can actually come about. The deteriorating state of the current world with its growing instabilities and tensions across the globe amid global problems seen insurmountable by the nation state reveals why there is such a concerted push for effective world government. The future suggests a world-changing catalyst looms somewhere on the horizon that could bring it about.

So given the many problems facing the world today, wouldn’t such a world government with functions to legislate and enforce international laws be in the best interests of the global community and the future sustainability of the planet? Wouldn’t a global political authority be a good and beneficial development for the world going forward? It is after all a benign global democracy with democratic participation and political representation on a global level being sort. This is hardly the kind of dictatorship foreboding opponents of a world government would have us believe, and fear.

But it is precisely this possibility that gives cause for such concerns, even among supporters as Stix who proposes an effective world government contemplates:

• Unfortunately, far more is needed. To be effective, a new set of institutions would have to be imbued with heavy-handed, transnational enforcement powers… How do we create new institutions with enforcement powers way beyond the current mandate of the U.N.? Could we ensure against a malevolent dictator who might abuse the power of such organizations? ^[36]

Dvorsky similarly reminds readers of the possibilities of such global repression:

• There is, of course, a dark side to having a global government. There's the potential, for example, for a singular and all-powerful regime to take hold, one that could be brutally oppressive — and with no other nation states to counter its actions… Indeed, should a global governance arise, it would be prudent to enshrine fundamental constitutional rights and freedoms to prevent an authoritarian or totalitarian catastrophe. ^[37]

One would hope that such constitutional measures protect the new world government from being hijacked by a dictatorial regime. Even the Vatican in its detailed proposal for a global government errs on the side of caution with recommending system checks be built into the framework:

• As we read in Caritas in Veritate, ‘The governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together’. Only in this way can the danger of a central authority’s bureaucratic isolation be avoided… and easily falling prey to paternalistic, technocratic or hegemonic temptations. ^[38]

The rise of dictatorships in Europe in the 1930s came amid serious political and economic problems following World War One. Economic depression and weak leadership fuelled social opinion to seek out strong national leaders with vision. As history shows, the rise of fierce totalitarian dictators was the result - then world war followed by another step toward world government with the establishment of the United Nations and Bretton Woods system as it were.

Similar political and economic conditions are developing today, only social desperation is much less acute thanks to the welfare state. But this too is contributing to yet another beast of a problem that’s not likely to have a good ending: Namely that “almost the entire world has now been drawn into the Ponzi scheme of unsustainable debt.” ^[39]

Still, less benign conditions have recently manifest in Europe with the election outcomes revealing a marked shift in electorate support toward such extreme political parties. ^[40] The haunting re-emergence of early 20th century events in the developed world may well soon engender the rise of dictatorships in the 21st century.

If history offers any guidance, we could well shortly see a rollout of similar world-changing events. Our world seems to be almost daily descending into widespread internecine rivalries and conflict. With a convergence of security crises playing out around the globe amid a growing global power vacuum, the formation of a one world government  through a new world order maybe coming much sooner than what we think, on a scale of literal biblical proportions.

^[36] Ibid, Stix, G., at http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/03/17/effective-world-government-will-still-be-needed-to-stave-off-climate-catastrophe/

^[37] Ibid Dvosrky, G., at http://io9.com/5969802/when-will-we-finally-have-a-world-government

^[38] Ibid Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2011 at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20111024_nota_en.html

^[39] Evans-Pritchard, A., ‘China’s terrifying debt ratios poised to breeze past US levels’, The Telegraph, 22 July 2014 at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100027691/chinas-terrifying-debt-ratios-poised-to-breeze-past-us-levels/

^[40] McDonald-Gibson, C. and Lichfield, J., ‘European election results 2014: Far-right parties flourish across Europe’, The Independent, 25 May 2014 at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/european-election-results-2014-farright-parties-flourish-across-europe-in-snub-to-austerity-9434069.html