Q. Doesn't the UN already fulfill this role?
A. No, the United Nations, while well-meaning and quite effective in some areas, is severely hampered in its primary mission - "to maintain peace and security among nations." Conventional wars continuously break out with the threat of nuclear escalation ever-present. And new, existential threats - like the climate crisis - have emerged since then that the UN has no power to regulate.
It is time to establish a democratic World Federation.
Q. Is this a George Soros conspiracy to rule the world?
A. No.
Q. How will the World Federation function?
A. The World Federation will function as a democracy, much like democratic governments in other parts of the world. There will be a parliament representing the world's citizens, and there will be another body representing the nation-states. There will be an executive branch and a judicial branch. And there will be a law enforcement agency.
Q. What powers will the world government have?
A. The World Federation will have powers limited to global issues - issues that affect all of us. So, for example, war (and nuclear war) will be declared illegal. The climate crisis will be addressed by legislation requiring countries to reduce their emissions in one way or another. The development of AI, for example, will impact everyone on the planet - so it would also need to be regulated. These laws and regulations will be enforceable under the World Federation.
Q. This seems impossible. How is this going to happen? There’s no way that China, Russia, or the US, for that matter, will go for it.
A. That may be a correct assessment under current conditions. However, history suggests that whenever a non-violent movement attracts at least 3.5% of the population, they have always been successful. International polls show that well over 50% of the world's population agrees with our mission to end war, halt climate change, and reduce the threat of AI.
Yes, there will be a lot of resistance from some of the larger, more powerful countries. But ultimately, if a large percentage of the world's citizens (>3.5%) are united in this demand, it will happen. We expect that most countries will join by 2030. We will start by forming a coalition of those - with a mechanism to allow the remainder to join over time. As more countries join, the pressure (and the incentives) on the laggards will grow.
Q. Do we really want more government in our lives?
A. Most of us would agree that we want the amount of government that is necessary - and no more. A World Federation that can make and enforce global laws is absolutely necessary. The status quo; international laws that are routinely flouted whenever it is inconvenient or in a particular country's interests, has led to war, nuclear proliferation, an environmentally-stressed planet that may well become uninhabitable, and dangerously unregulated AI technology. We absolutely need a World Federation, and we need it now.
Q. Will this cost me more money as a taxpayer?
A. No, it will cost less. Most countries spend vast amounts on military preparedness. The World Federation will be funded by taxation at the country level, but those costs will be more than offset by decreased - or no military spending. Military spending globally has grown steadily in the past years and reached 2.24 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022. That same year, the UN budget was $3.22 billion U.S. dollars or 0.144% of the global military spend. The required budget of the World Federation has yet to be determined, but it will certainly be many times higher than that of the UN - and many times lower than that currently spent globally by individual nation-states.
Q. What is the point of a World Federation?
A. We are facing larger and more difficult issues today than ever before. Wars, the climate crisis, and unregulated AI are literally existential threats. These can only be stopped by a legal system that enforces laws and regulations across the globe as necessary. For too many years, individual countries have tried to make treaties and pacts and promises that just never actually work.
Q. If the people of the planet are represented in the parliamentary assembly of the World Federation, does that mean that between India & China, the citizens of those countries effectively rule the world?
A. No. Although India and China have over 2 billion citizens, the parliamentary assembly will be made up of citizens from all the nations of the world based on the principle of degressive proportionality. To strike a balance between the number of representatives from large and small states, larger states get fewer seats than proportional to their population, and smaller states get more seats than proportional to their population. Nation-states themselves will also have representation in another chamber.