A world federation

peaceable citizen against such government... What is the cure for this greatevil? Nothing, but to enable the... laws to operate on individuals, in thesame manner as those of states do."

George Mason, one of the drafters of the Federal Constitution, believedthat "such a government was necessary as could directly operate on individuals, and would punish those only whose guilt required it", while anotherdrafter, James Madison, wrote that the more he reflected on the use of force,the more he doubted "the practicality, the justice and the efficacy of it whenapplied to people collectively, and not individually."

At present, the United Nations attempts to coerce states through sanctions; but sanctions are a form of collective punishment, and collective punishment is expressly forbidden by the Geneva Conventions. The worst effectsof sanctions are usually felt by the weakest and least guilty of the citizens,while the guilty leaders are usually unaffected. Besides being a violation ofthe Geneva Conventions, sanctions are ineffective, their only effect being tounite the people of a country behind its guilty leaders.

The success of federations

A federation is a union of organizations to which specific powers are granted,all other powers being retained by the subunits. Historically, federations haveproved to be highly successful and durable.

Besides political federations, many other kinds exist, examples being Universal Postal Union, established by the Treaty of Bern in 1874, and the International Tennis Federation (ITF), founded in 1913.

Examples of political federations include the European Union, the FederalRepublic of Germany, the Swiss Federation, the Russian Federation, theFederal Government of the United States, and the governments of Australia and Brazil.

Laws binding on individuals

In general, political federations have the power to make laws which are binding on individuals, thus avoiding the need to coerce their member states.An effective World Federation would need to have the power to make lawsthat act on individuals. The International Criminal Court is an importantstep towards the establishment of a system of international law that acts onindividuals rather than on states, and the ICC deserves our wholeheartedsupport.

Greatly increased financial support for the UN

A very important step towards strengthening the United Nations wouldbe to give it at least 50 times the financial support that it has today. Atpresent the entire yearly budget of the UN is only 2.7 billion US dollars, aridiculously low figure, considering the organization's duty to ensure peace, law. human rights, social justice, respect for the environment, human health,and a safe food supply for the entire world. If the financial support of theUnited Nations could be greatly increased, its agencies could perform theirvitally important duties much more effectively. This would give the UNincreased prestige and authority, and the UN would thus be better able to resolve political disputes.

Various method for increasing the money available to the UN have beenproposed. For example, James Tobin, who was Sterling Professor of Eco-nomics at Yale University, and Nobel Laureate in Economics, proposed thatinternational currency transactions be taxed at a small fraction of a percent.He believed that even this extremely small tax would make exchange rates much more stable. When asked what should be done with the proceeds ofthe tax, Tobin added, almost as an afterthought, "Give it to the UnitedNations". In fact, the volume of international currency transactions is soenormous that even the tiny tax proposed by Tobin would be sufficient tosolve all the UN's financial problems.

A standing UN Emergency Force

The United Nations is often called on to act quickly in emergency situations,an example being the call for the UN to stop the Rwandan genocide. Itwould be helpful if the UN had a standing armed force which could actquickly in such emergency situations. The force could consist of volunteers from around the world, pledged to loyalty to humanity as a whole, ratherthan loyalty to any nation.

A reformed voting system

In the present UN General Assembly, each nation is given one vote regardlessof size. This means that Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta and Andorra have asmuch voting power as China, India, the United States and Russia combined.For this reason, UN resolutions are often ignored.