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I will be 78 years old in October. In my senior year at Meriden High School (Meriden, CT) I was president of a school club called the Washington Historical Society. In late 1949 or early 1950 I invited speakers to our club from the World Federalists and also the Atlantic Union. WWII was only recently over and a lot of ideas were being floated about how to avoid another world war, especially since it would now be nuclear war.
In 2010, the World Federalists are still around in the US with a new name (Citizens For Global Solutions). The international World Federalist Movement is still in existence. A world federal government seems farther from reality than it was in 1949. There is still a faction of U S politicians that believe the U S should withdraw from the UN! It seems to me that the approach of trying to improve on the UN (hoping it morphs into a democratic world federal government) is hopeless. The US government is maybe the biggest obstacle, but not the only one. I am a strong believer in a world federal government and I am confident that in 500 years planet earth will have a central government of some kind, maybe democratic, maybe not. The question is how soon can it be and how good can it be. Some things needed are:
- A new organization created from scratch of democratic national governments (democratic countries) willing to give up some sovereignty to be part of a World Federal Government (WFG). This organization would have no relationship to the UN. Membership in the WFG must be entirely voluntary for qualifying countries.
- Admission to this new organization needs to be limited to democratic countries and some criteria need to be established as to what national laws, constitution, etc are necessary for a government to qualify as democratic.
- If a country is not a functioning democracy (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, etc), you do not want it to be part of the WFG. Does that seem obvious to you? I think that is one of the biggest problems with the UN.
- The US is in a steady decline, though there will be a lot of ups and downs. The decline could be reversed but there is little question in my mind that in 2110 the US will be much less powerful and both India and China will be much more powerful. For this reason I would not worry too much about getting the US to join a new WFG; eventually it will join. The big target is China. If China could see that it would be the biggest player in such a world government, the leaders there might be willing to accept democracy to qualify as a member.
- This newly created organization (even if only 3 countries are members) needs to start functioning for its member countries as a world federal government should function. If it benefits its member countries, other countries will be persuaded to join. India should be the first big country to join. The WFG should have a lot more clout than the government of any of its member countries once it has been functioning for a few decades.
- Eventually, the WFG should have a strong enough military to protect each of its member federal states (countries) from warlike activity by any other state, whether a member of the WFG or not. Eventually, each federal state should have no military, only a police force to keep order within the state. Can you imagine a new civil war breaking out among the 50 United States? I can't and in a few hundred years or less the same relationship could exist between the nations of Planet Earth as now exists between the 50 United States. A common language will be a necessity, though other languages will continue to exist for people to speak for fun.
Is this a pipe dream? None of us will be around to see it, but I hope it will come to pass.
