Wikipedia describes World Government as “the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity.” Many people commonly mistake the United Nations as being a form of World Government. In truth the U.N. is limited to a mostly advisory role. Its stated purpose is to foster co-operation between existing national governments, not to exert any kind of authority over them. As at 2014, there is no worldwide military, executive, legislature, judiciary, or constitution that has jurisdiction over the entire planet.
The concept of having an all-encompassing ‘World Government’ dates all the way back to Ancient Greek Philosophy and was picked up in practical terms with the formation of the Roman Empire (the first of many regional empires which would make a tilt for global control over the centuries, none of which ultimately succeeded).
Key developments moving us in the direction of a World Government in its more modern context include:
• The 17th Century Dutch philosopher Hugo Grotius who wrote ‘On the Law of War and Peace’ positing the modern concept of international law.
• The 18th Century German philosopher Immanuel Kant who wrote ‘Perpetual Peace’ setting out the foundations he saw as necessary to abolish war and build peace between nations.
• The 19th Century German philosopher Karl Krause who wrote ‘The Archetype of Humanity’ suggesting Europe, Asia, Africa, America & Australasia federate under a World Republic.
• The 20th Century U.S. President Harry Truman who advocated an international congress to settle disputes, stating that no problem in the world could not be settled by a World Court.
Progress: Support for the idea of embedding the concept of international law began to grow in the late 19th Century: the Institute for International Law was formed in 1873, the Institutes of the Laws of the Nations followed in 1883, then the first embryonic World Parliament (the Inter-Parliamentary Union) in 1886, which proposed in 1904 “an international congress which should meet periodically to discuss international questions”. Then World War 1 began in 1914 and everything came screeching to a halt.
After World War 1, the League of Nations formed in 1919 with the aim of preventing future wars through collective security and resolving disputes through diplomacy and negotiation – but the League lacked bite and was unable to prevent World War 2. During World War 2, the US and UK drafted the Atlantic Charter which became a springboard to the formation of the United Nations in 1945. The idea of going even further and establishing a full federal World Government (championed by Churchill, Einstein and Ghandi amongst others) was popular in the years after World War 2 – for example, the European Union formed in 1952. However, the onset of the Cold War halted any move towards federalism on a global scale.
The movement appears to have picked up pace again in the 21st Century, with the formation of institutions that work towards that aim such as the International Criminal Court, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations and more. The Organisation for Central American States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Caribbean Community have joined already-established regional bodies such as the Arab League and international organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Despite all these international organisations, as of 2014 there is no such thing as a World Government. The planet remains essentially divided into the mutually-exclusive geographic/ demographic territories and political structures we know as ‘states’. Questions about whether there should be a World Government in the 21st Century remain: Globalisation has meant that multinational companies and corporations often exceed the resource, scrutiny and influence of national governments and theoretically, in effect, either operate outside the law or bypass state-made law by creating their own legal rules. Calls for some sort of elected parliamentary assembly to at least scrutinise multinational corporate activity have in recent years grown louder.
To learn more about the African Union and what it does, jump to Chapter 26: African Union
To learn more about the European Union and what it does, jump to Chapter 27: European Union
To learn more about the concept of ‘globalisation’ and what it actually means, turn to Chapter 28: Globalisation
