Pathways to Democratic Global Governance

1. Pathways to Democratic Global Governance Chris Hamer World Citizens Association (Australia) Institute for Global Peace and Sustainable Governance Outline: • Motivation • Occasion • Pathways • Lessons • World Community of Democratic Nations • Conclusions

2. Motivation CPACS motto: “Peace with Justice” WCA : “Peace is Maintained by Justice, which is a Fruit of Government” (William Penn, 1692) Global problems require global solutions; e.g. current problems which remain unsolved by or current UN system • Nuclear weapons • Climate change • Poverty, disease and war in the Third World We need a global parliament to deal with them But ‘realists’ maintain this is naïve, Utopian, impossible .. IS DEMOCRATIC GLOBAL GOVERNANCE POSSIBLE?

3. Occasion (Keith Suter) (Ven Minh Tam) WFA IBO WFA: World Federalist Association of Australia WCA: World Citizens Association of Australia IBO: International Buddhist Organization for Culture Education and Social Development IGPSG: Institute for Global Peace and Sustainable Governance CGGIP: Centre for Global Governance and International Peace WCA IGPSG CGGIP Community outreach Advocacy Academic research

4. Paths to Democratic Global Governance WorldFederation AU UNASUR UNPA? UN Charter EU R2P ? ICC EEC UN NATO, OECD ECSC UEF Jean Monnet WFM WCPA AUD Clarence Streit League of Nations Regional Route Democratic route Constitutional route UN Reform route

5. Lessons Press forward on all fronts – but We cannot achieve the objective in one giant leap! Jean Monnet’s strategy – an evolutionary approach • Start small, with limited objectives • Stay flexible • Evolve in stages, through successive Treaties How to duplicate this in the global context? One suggestion: the democratic route Democracy is a fundamental principle of modern government

6. A World Community of Democratic Nations • Include NATO and the OECD as two arms of the new organisation • Refocus NATO as the global security arm of its members • Open membership to stable democracies worldwide • Adopt a qualified majority voting system for decision-making • Introduce a Court to settle disputes between members • Outside interventions strictly under UN authorization • Channel development funds to less-developed members through the OECD • Look to grow membership over time towards universality

7. Advantages • Natural extension of current trends: Bosnia, Afghanistan, Libya • Gives NATO & the OECD an important new purpose • Cures dysfunctional decision-making within NATO “Sooner or later, NATO will have to address whether you want 350 committees all acting on the rule of consensus. What‘s the logic of one or two countries being able to block action by the remaining 24 members? Why not have a system where they can just opt out?” - General James Jones, former SACEUR • Provides a ‘strong right arm’ for the UN • An embryonic parliament already exists: the NATO Parliamentary Assembly • A Court would provide the nucleus of an eventual system of binding international law

8. Provides a foundation which could grow freely towards an eventual world federation, following the strategy of Jean Monnet • Related proposals have come from both sides of politics in the US: John McCain & Ivo Daalder, and Europeans such as Jose Maria Aznar, Eduard Balladur

9. Conclusions • Democratic global governance is unlikely to be achieved in one giant step • The best strategy would be stage-by-stage evolution, following Jean Monnet • The exact route is not yet clear • Proposals on the table at present include • UNPA: a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly • UNEPS: a United Nations Emergency Peace Service • We have argued for a World Community of Democratic Nations as a logical next step