FREE ESSAY ON A DIFFICULT CENTURY - FORMING OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT

A DIFFICULT CENTURY - FORMING OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT

According to Held, Today, the mechanisms we have for enforcing international law depend
too much on whether a powerful geo-political force such as the U.S. is willing to commit
resources to the problem. In such a situation, a 'big state' will likely do what it
desires, acting in its own interests. Recent developments in Kosovo, Chechnya, Iran and
other states in some kind of a conflict have just proven the above statement. Presently
the most important developments in international law and relations between states are,
almost exclusively, dictated by the Great Powers. The General Assembly of the UN is
probably the only part of UN that represents some kind of democratic current, but it,
nevertheless, has almost no authority and certainly no binding power on its member
countries. The world needs authoritative global governance, which will enable democratic
development in all members, and this will not be an easy task to achieve. The Great
Powers would prefer forming of the world government only if they have legislative power
big enough to control, up to some extent, the actions of such a government. Today such a
control is established by the veto system in the Security Council. Although the veto was
used by one some of the permanent members of the Security Council only a couple of times
in the nineties, it is still a very powerful weapon able to stop almost any attempt that
one of the permanent members is against. Un will have to undergo some drastic changes if
it is to be the world government, and will have to find a way of controlling the Great
Powers and direct their political power and influence towards resolving and not creating
the world's conflicts. 
NATO, as the biggest regional organization, is one of the actors who should at least
help, if not carry the one of the main roles, in the changes needed to establish the
global governance. Unfortunately the policy that NATO undertook in the last couple of
years, especially in the Yugoslavia in 1999, does not contribute to the forming of the
world governance. On the contrary, one can perceive the developments in the South-eastern
Europe as the spreading of the US political and military influence and not as a start of
the global governing process. As Pearson indicates, The United States also sidesteps the
authority of the Security Council - as it did in the US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
And the sidesteps like the one in the case of the NATO campaign in the Yugoslavia are
precisely the milestones that can point out that the US are not quite supporting the
global government by their actions within NATO policy. Nevertheless, the actions of the
NATO could easily be perceived by the countries in the Southeast Europe as the attempt to
create the world government if the NATO policy was the result of the Security Council
vote. However, in the cases of campaigns in Yugoslavia, or for example the frequent
bombings of Iraq in the no-fly zone by the United States and the UK, The Security Council
was not performing the task it was established to do.
Nevertheless, the political potential for the creation of the world government exists
today more than ever. And although held indicates that Unfortunately, there are no
institutions in the world at present that can act as legitimate fore for debate on global
political issues [...] there are organizations that have great potential for achieving
this task. In the near future the UN will have to undergo some drastic changes in its
body structure, vote system, veto system and so on, and such organizational changes will
clearly indicate some kind of development in the global governance. Forming of the world
government will probably take a very long period and should be established throughout the
long line of systematic changes in the world of the international law and relations.
Along that line some new organizations will most probably be established, such as
International Human Rights Court and similar, and in order to support the world
government their jurisdiction will be apparently global. Most likely the world government
will not be created through forming the new organizations from the beginning. The UN has
a very solid base for further development of such ideas as the global governance and this
structure should be used in order to further develop the international legislation and
global policies. Yet, forming of the world government with the global jurisdiction will
require [...] redefinition of the role of all international organizations, from regional
defence alliances, such as NATO, to the traditional relief agencies, such as Red Cross.
So although the UN and its supporting organizations and agencies present a solid base for
the development of the world government, both UN and supporting agencies will have to
undergo a serious reengineering.
This reengineering will have to include restructuring of the NATO, likewise. At the
present NATO is one of the positive currents in supporting the development of the world
government, which does not mean that NATO does not need to change or at least reorganize.
In order to have an effective control of the world, world government will have to have
the world's military as the law enforcement tool. One of the biggest lacks of the
international law system today is the deficiency of the enforcement techniques and
organizations. Presently, NATO is playing the role of the world's policemen, in
protection of the human rights and democracy, the values on which the world government
will be built. But this role of the NATO has to become the official role of the world's
military under the control of the world government. NATO should reorganize and prioritise
its goals and values in order to support the idea of the world government and not the
interest of the strongest NATO members. The biggest challenge that lies between NATO and
the its effective role in the world is that in the eyes of the common observer NATO is
frequently seen not as an organization, but as a tool of the NATO leading countries. The
world government will have to combine the useful political and legislative power of the
UN, the military power of the NATO as an enforcement mechanism to support the
legislation, and the law system of the organizations such as the European Union. These
three mentioned organizations should be a base for the development of the world
government, but this does not mean that their structure will remain contemporary.
It is clear that the current UN structure will not function well if the UN is to become
the world government. According to Held, reorganising the veto structure and
representational system, compulsory jurisdiction before the International Court, forming
of the International Human Rights Court and effective, accountable military force could
be the starting points of this reformation. But before all the organization such as the
UN, which strives to be the world government, must develop the sense of belonging to the
people of the world. In order to be the world government people of the world must feel
that the organization is theirs, and that the people democratically elect the
representatives in the world government, and not appointed by the government. 
One of the most obvious changes that need to be undertaken in the UN is changing the
structure of the Security Council. Such an important body must have more permanent
members, and they should be chosen in order to cover every major region of the world with
at least one representative. In recommendation of the Commission on Global Governance the
number of the permanent members should be increased to ten, and the number of the
rotating members should also be increased from ten to thirteen. The number of the
concurring votes required for the decision making process within the Security Council,
should also be increased from nine to fourteen, maintaining present proportionality.
Along with mentioned changes phasing out the veto is more a must than a need of the
Security Council. As a transitional phase veto power should not be given to the new
permanent members, and the old five permanent members should restrict their use of the
veto only to extreme cases in which their national security is in jeopardy. Or as
Commission on Global Governance states: [...] we believe strongly that the veto is an
unacceptable feature in global governance. Furthermore, the former and the later change
go together; increasing the number of the members of the Security Council and phasing out
veto must be a parallel event. To add more permanent members and give them a veto would
be regression, not reform. 
Achieving cost effective budgetary control and more effective executives structure are
crucial steps towards development of the UN as the world government. Some significant
steps have already been made, as pointed out on the Archive Site for the State
Department: [...] Un Development Program over the past two years has cut its
administration budget by 10%, reduced headquarters staff by 25%, reduced the number of
top executive positions by 15% [...] And although some may argue that these are not
crucial or radical changes, and therefore do not bring anything really new, these changes
represent the will of the UN administration to change for the better.
In the conclusion, no contemporary organization like UN or NATO is ready to establish the
world government. With the current structure these organizations are almost completely
contrary to what world government must look like. The Security Council, for example, must
be drastically reformed in order to be a presentable and indeed global body of the global
governing process. The General Assembly of the UN presently has just about no power to
enforce its decisions or to bring binding and enforceable legislation to reality. Taking
the current state of the international law and organization one of the possible scenarios
in which the world government will be established might with the fallowing steps: Radical
reorganising of the UN bodies, such as Security Council and the General Assembly, further
expansion of the NATO in order to provide world government with an enforcement mechanism,
reorganising organization structure and hierarchy in order to have truly global
representation in both NATO and UN, connecting these organizations with the EU. European
Union, being one of the most successful unions in the world, presents one of the true
steps towards the world government, of course in the long run. Having regional unions,
such as the EU, in every world region would help coordinate the economic compatibleness
and regional development from the global level. If such a union, mainly in charge of
economic cooperation and development of the worlds region, would be supported by the
reorganized UN, providing the needed legislation and international law regulations, and
worldwide NATO as an enforcing mechanism for the international law, the road to
establishing world government is already paved. The examples of Kosovo, Chechnya, Sierra
Leone and so on are indicating that world certainly needs the world government, and that
state sovereignty needs to be overcome in the light of the more important issues, such as
Human Rights. No one is even considering establishment of the world government as easy or
achievable in the near future, but more and more scholars and politicians are realising
that it is an inevitable future and the only way out of this difficult century.
Bibliography
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Issue 3, p309, 6p (Downloaded from EBSCO Host at )
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and the Reform Process Home page 
9. State Department, UN changes for the Better, Archive Site for State Department
Information prior to January 20, 2001