A Government for the World

Donald Trump’s latest rollout of his hyper nationalist “America First” policy underscores the world’s long-term slide toward catastrophe.

Within nations, when conflicts inevitably erupt, there are laws, as well as police, courts, and governments that enforce the laws.

On the global level, however, the situation approaches international anarchy.  Although the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court sort out the issues, they are relatively read more

What Do You Think about Your Country Going Fascist?

Recently, the opinion polls indicate that Donald Trump – a convicted criminal, a pathological liar, and the latest in a long string of rightwing demagogues – is likelier than not to be elected President of the United States.

I was born and raised during World War II, a time when fascist armies seemed on the verge of conquering the world, and perhaps this accounts for my feeling of alarm at the current revival of rightwing extremism in the United States and elsewhere.  This alarm seems justified read more

From National Security to International Security

Have human institutions evolved sufficiently to cope with the modern world?  When it comes to national security, the answer appears to be:  No.

Ever since the emergence of individual nations, their governments have sought to secure what they consider their “interests” on an ungoverned planet of competing nations.  Amid this international free-for-all, nations tended to pursue national security or national advantage through military might.

Of course, the downside of this arrangement was that read more

The Law of Force or the Force of Law

Are the nations of the world doomed to go on fighting the brutal, horrifying wars that have long characterized human history?

We might well wonder about that as we watch, aghast, while Israeli armed forces slaughter thousands of Palestinian civilians, Russian military might relentlessly pounds Ukrainian towns and cities into rubble, and new, bloody wars erupt in numerous other lands.

Why does such widespread destruction and human suffering persist in the modern, ostensibly “civilized,” world?

A read more

Let’s Think About How to Build a More Peaceful World

Although the current U.S. presidential campaign has focused almost entirely on domestic issues, Americans live on a planet engulfed in horrific wars, an escalating arms race, and repeated threats of nuclear annihilation.  Amid this dangerous reality, shouldn’t we give some thought to how to build a more peaceful future?

Back in 1945, toward the end of the most devastating war in history, the world’s badly battered nations, many of them in smoldering ruins, agreed to create read more