Contents
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Read the entire book in PDF Format
Preface
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
--Thomas Paine, Common Sense 1776
This book is an introduction to the greatest political transformation in history--the democratic revolution to create enforceable global law.
This epochal change in human affairs will put an end, once and for all, to the war system that is the greatest scourge facing humankind.
In this revolution, ordinary people will take control of this planet from those who foment war and profit from war, and who permit environmental destruction.
This will be a movement of optimists and visionaries, those who are ready to seize the opportunity to reinvent our world, ready to leave behind the cynics whose only contribution is to maintain the status quo.
In this movement, world peace is not a vague and utopian goal--but a practical, enduring peace that is achieved through world laws that are passed by a democratic world legislature, interpreted by world courts, and enforced by a global government that represents all of humanity, high and low, north and south, black and white.
We truly can create "the parliament of the world, the government of mankind" as the English poet Tennyson prophetically envisioned in the nineteenth century. The time for this historic task is upon us, now, in the twenty-first century.
This global peace and justice movement is already well under way. Worldwide demonstrations like the historic "global day of protest" against the US invasion of Iraq on February 15, 2003 are just one sign.
Yet something more than rejectionism is needed from our progressive leaders. These times require a positive and practical vision for how to solve international conflicts; how to relieve global poverty; and how to end the physical destruction of our precious planet.
We therefore ask you to imagine a world peace movement focused on making the United Nations, or some successor, into a truly representative government for all humanity.
Imagine a global legislature or world parliament whose first order of business is the abolition of war.
Envision a world court whose routine work is to apply global law to individuals, rather than punishing entire nations for the crimes of their leaders.
Visualize a planetary bill of rights that is zealously guarded, and a constitutional balance of power that prevents excesses by any branch of the world government.
Reflect on the satisfaction of living peacefully under the rule of global law where there is less government, lower taxes, better distribution of resources, no nuclear weapons, open borders, less environmental destruction, no imperial domination, no military-industrial complex, more security, more justice for labor and minorities--and a global renaissance in the arts, science, religion, and culture.
And imagine yourself a part of this, the greatest political movement ever to occur.
We the people of planet earth are the sovereigns of our destiny; if we stand together, we can build a just and democratic government of humankind that will abolish war forever, and work together with all nations to solve the other pressing problems facing our fragile planet. It really can be that simple--and that exhilarating.
This book is directed especially at progressives and visionary leaders in all walks of life who care deeply about global justice, reduction of poverty worldwide, and the protection of the planet's environment--but especially those who are working for world peace.
In our view, today's world peace movement is too often marked by a naive utopianism that confuses human nature with angelic nature. Angels can live in peace without law and government--but humans cannot. In our all-too-human world, peace without justice is an illusion-an uneasy truce until the next war comes along, such as the intractable Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Global justice, we argue, is simply not achievable without the establishment of law by an elected legislature in combination with judicial institutions that interpret and apply the law. And courts of law are almost useless without enforcement mechanisms--the notorious impotence of the UN being a case in point. Those who aspire for world peace really have no choice but to work for the achievement of enforceable global law.
"There is no peace without justice, no justice without law, and no law without government"--according to the formula of the United World Federalists of the late 1940s. The decades since then have only affirmed the truth of this old activist slogan. A great day is coming when the world's peace movement and social justice progressives will once again embrace this crucial syllogism; and that is the day when we will become empowered to end war and ecocide. Only then will there be an end to the military dominance of America and a genuine solution to terrorism. Only then can we really tackle the daunting problems of global pollution and grinding poverty.
Let us use the twenty-first century to create the end of war--not the end of humankind. To abolish war we will need enforceable global law--the expansion of civilization to a planetary scale. This book invites you on a lifelong journey to the achievement of planetary peace and prosperity. Let's get there by working to build one world democracy.