A Bit of World Governing

Because there are no borders in the sky, national policies must fall by the wayside when it comes to environmental issues. As it becomes increasingly clear that each nation’s decisions affect the rest of the world, the question arises as to whether a world government is in fact necessary, a government that has the power to decide for everyone.

SPIEGEL ONLINE has a special report on an embryonic attempts to create ‘ A World Government ‘ by Angela Merkel who was the head of this impromptu world government, if only for a moment in the recently concluded Heiligendamm G-8 summit.

The ‘Utopian’ dream of ‘ A World Government’ looks like being recognized, humanity have started thinking in terms of global terms, a world without borders, either we all exist together or we all shall perish. This realization have come through after new surge of ideological based hatred in this last decade had seemingly drawn the world dagger drawn two camps, one who believed in negotiated appeasement based settlement and the other who wanted to eradicate the tentacles of terror. Most likely as threat to global peace is fully appreciated and education nd coalescing of minds have become the primary concern, the secular leadership of the world have now began to realize that ‘pockets of prosperity’ surrounded by mass chaos will fail, in this global village a comprehensive intellect of direction is needed. It will definitely need to evolve around the inviolability of our planet.

In 1811, a German philosopher Karl Krause, suggested, in an essay titled “The Archetype of Humanity”, the formation of five regional federations, Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia, aggregated under a world republic. After the end of the Soviet bloc, the United States was for many years a hegemonic power with the freedom to do more or less as it pleased, especially when it came to questions of war and peace. The world had become a one-sided place, with the United States leading and everyone else either following or sulking.

Heiligendamm changed some of that, at least to a small extent. The president of the United States agreed to a compromise on an important issue. The United States no longer looks quite as dominant on the world stage. The G-8 does play a role, after all, as does Europe. Asking ourselves what is the best way to govern the world has once again become a reasonable question. Indeed, there was also a bit of world governing going on in Heiligendamm, as it turned out.

When French President Nicolas Sarkozy was asked for his assessment of the agreement on climate protection at a press conference on Thursday, he revealed just how self-confident the Europeans are on the issue. Sarkozy made no effort whatsoever to allow the United States to save face. “Until yesterday we had an American president who claimed: There is no problem,” he said, and went to cite Bush’s contention that climate change, if it exists, has nothing to do with human activity. Sarkozy paused, and then he combined six words to shape a bare, malicious sentence: “Something else became apparent last night.”

Sarkozy’s comments reflected everything but old-school diplomacy. What made them all the more surprising is the fact that only this spring the French, under then President Jacques Chirac, were reluctant to agree to mandatory climate goals. But the unifying force of the resolution became evident in Heiligendamm. Sarkozy, Blair, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Merkel and EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso fought untiringly to make Europe’s climate goals the global standard.

THIS YEAR’S G-8 DECISIONS

Climate Politics

After a long tug-of-war, the G-8 came to a unanimous agreement on fighting climate change — and this under UN criteria, which the US has not accepted until now. The UN climate report, which states that the increase in greenhouse gas emissions must be stopped and reduced, were explicitly acknowledged. There is no binding commitment which aims for reducing CO2 yet, but the EU, Canada and Japan are said to be seriously considering an agreement to reduce worldwide emissions by half by 2050. Their most pressing task will be convincing other nations to sign on.

Dialogue with Developing Nations

Until now, the discussion with economically strong and politically influential emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa , has depended on the will of the G-8 members. Beginning this summer, though, talks with these countries will take place regularly. The new cooperation will be called the “Heiligendamm Process.” The G-8 hope to concentrate on important issues, including: technology for climate protection, collective commitments for aid in Africa, and protection of innovations and investment freedoms. Leaders of the emerging countries were at the summit on Friday to take part in talks.

Intellectual Property Protection

The G-8 says they urgently need to forge a collective strategy against copyright piracy with developing nations. They want to create better cooperation between customs and penalties, and build a worldwide electronic information system for customs authorities.

No Restrictions on Hedge Funds

Chancellor Angela Merkel had to accept defeat on the controversial issue of hedge funds — but she expected this. The US and the UK refused to agree on a voluntary code of conduct. The G-8 spoke of greater transparency and urged better risk management through banks, investors, and regulatory agencies — but came to no firm agreements. There are more than 9,000 hedge funds worldwide, with an estimated value of $16 billion. Berlin fears that the collapse of these funds could have worldwide effects in the financial sector. The German government remains tough on this issue and the finance minister plans to address the issue again in October.

Robust World Economy

The worldwide economic boom was judged positively, with G-8 leaders saying the global economy is in “good condition.”

Worldwide Investment Freedom

The G-8 has asked that developing and newly industrialized nations review their investment politics. They oppose unnecessary restrictions and say investment freedom is critical for growth, prosperity, and employment.

North Korea and Iran

Though the G-8 has expressed concern over the North Korean and Iranian atomic programs, they have not provided any detailed decisions on the topic.

The two opposing camps within G-8 now under newly elected leadership of Europe rationally joined and were able to extract a lot of compromises from USA. As there are no borders in the sky, national policies must fall by the wayside when it comes to environmental issues. As it becomes increasingly clear that each nation’s decisions affect the rest of the world, the question arises as to whether a world government is in fact necessary, a government that has the power to decide for everyone.

Now that the issue of the environment is back on the table, the next question is how the earth can be governed. The need for a global government to preserve the peace between nations was discussed in ancient Greek and Roman times, and, in modern times the idea has been recognized since the early 14th century (Dante, for example, discusses it in his book Monarchia, 1329). In 1625, the great Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius wrote De Jure Belli ac Pacis (The Laws of War and Peace), which is commonly taken as the starting-point of modern international law. Between 1852 and 1892 Bahل’u’llلh founded the Bahل’ي Faith, and identified the establishment of a global commonwealth of nations as a key principle of his new religion. He envisioned a set of new social structures based on participation and consultation among the world’s peoples, including a world legislature, an international court, and an international executive empowered to carry out the decisions of these legislative and judicial bodies. Connected principles of the Bahل’ي religion include universal systems of weights and measures, currency unification, and the adoption of a global auxiliary language.

The idea of a federation gained much momentum during the late 18th century, a period in which the first modern democratic federation, the USA, was established (1788), and in which Immanuel Kant wrote the essay “Perpetual Peace: a philosophical sketch” (1795). In his essay, Kant describes three basic requirements for organizing human affairs to permanently abolish the threat of a future war:

The civil constitution of each state shall be republican
The law of nations shall be founded on a federation of free states.
The rights of people, as citizens of the world, shall be limited to the conditions of universal hospitality (i.e., people would be allowed to visit other countries, but not to stay unless invited).

Threatened by climate catastrophe, the countries of the world have made a step in the direction of more solidarity. It looks like Climate policy is now the lever with which the European Union will shape global policy. Heiligendamm may have marked the beginning of a new multilateralism, one in which Europe and the United States are on equal footing. Was Heiligendamm the starting point of such a world government? It was, if one considers its outcome, because the G-8 adopted a resolution that puts pressure on all nations.

In 1842, the English poet Lord Alfred Tennyson, published the often-quoted lines (“Locksley Hall”):

For I dip into the future, far as human eye could see
Saw a Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be …
Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe And the kindly earth shall slumber leapt in universal law.

Heiligendamm may have been just that one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind … Hopefully in our life time we will see these words come factual and put into practice. Amen

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