Global solutions for global problems

This would be disturbingly similar to what happened in the mid-war years to The League of Nations when the American isolationists kept the rising power, the US, out of it. Whatever the League's faults, when it failed the last chance of avoiding World War Two went with it. Then, once the World War Two ended, for forty years, in the context of Cold War, the chances of global cooperation were nil and the world teetered on the edge of nuclear destruction.

The creation of a genuinely powerful global body has always been the bete noir of the hard right, harking back to the great social revolutions of the eighteenth century. It has to be said that their concerns are not without foundation. And so how such an organisation would be created (or in the case of the UN, reformed) and how it would operate are critical matters? For instance, should it be a forum for nationally elected representatives, or should it be elected or appointed on a different basis?

The rise of the global Internet has stimulated some interesting ideas on how to run a genuinely global civilisation along new lines. However, the time constraint is now so serious we probably don't have time for such developments, and in any case sooner or later we have to return to the currently existing legal arrangements centred on nation states. We must at least start out by utilising the global fora currently in place and perhaps reform them as we go.

At the very least, organisations like the UN can provide fora for the open discussion of reports on global problems by qualified researchers. The complete failure of the mass media to do this is one of the main causes of the current crisis. For anything like democracy to work, reliable information and open debate is a necessity.

The difficulties facing any potential global authority are huge. For starters dealing with global warming will require a comprehensive and robust agreement and the resources to implement and maintain it. Reform of the global financial system and securing a fair system of international trade will require a similar effort. Getting rid of weapons of mass destruction, including nukes, would again present a huge challenge (although the UN has recently begun this process). Maintaining and improving disease control should be easier, but controlling the current head-long rush into robotic and AI systems will be an incredibly hard task.

To do these things organisations of appropriate scale and with appropriate resources will be necessary. But once the challenges are met, we can use the experience to move forward, doing things that we actually want to do to thrive, and not those necessary to just survive. Hopefully, understanding the challenge, the best minds will move into these organisations and make them work efficiently and with minimal corruption. In this way new generations of children around the world will have a life goal in the way kids used to want to grow up to be astronauts (or cosmonauts).

The global scale problems facing us are real, we have to move to address them, and we can do this but we need to move soon. Political arrangements around the world are in flux but generally not heading in the direction needed. At least they show people are ready for change, and even after a false start, we can and must work out new ways that enable us to act together as one species.