25 engaging video lectures that show how many contemporary problems, such as climate change, pandemics, or inequality, are ultimately caused not so much by local factors, but by the shape of the world order. Politically divided into separate sovereign states, we cannot come together to solve the increasing number of truly global problems.
The videos explain why we need a radical re-organisation of the world system, to shift from international competition, to global cooperation, and from a system of global oligarchy to one of global democracy.
Module I: Developing A Global Framework
1. Learn how popular struggles in the 19th century led to national level democracies with more equality and justice. Imagine what a similar struggle on the global level could do in the 21st century.
2. Can national democracy solve global problems? Of course not! Can the United Nations or current ‘global governance’ do better? No! Learn why we need a planetary level democratic system.
3. What is the difference between federation and confederation? What is multi-level governance? And subsidiarity? Learn about world federation and how it could improve global governance and world politics.
4. The Anti-Globalisation Movement and the World Social Forum believed ‘another world is possible’ and wanted ‘globalization from below’. Right-wing populists want de-globalisation. Learn why democratic globalism is the best option.
5. John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ argues that ‘all you need is love’ to bring about a world of peace and unity. Learn why love is not enough and why you also need a democratic government and justice system.
6. Who governs the world, and how? Learn about international organisations like the United Nations, World Bank, G20. Find out about multi-stakeholder networks and how badly they dealt with COVID through COVAX. Grasp the problems of ISDS. See how undemocratic our world is!
Module II: Problems of the Current ‘International’ System
7. In the current international system nation states are like global bantustans. Learn how the current world order is similar to the apartheid that used to exist in South Africa. Hint: economic integration and political segregation, plus racism.
8. Why can’t the Universal Declaration, the international treaties, the UN agencies and even the ICC provide us with real human rights? And what kind of democratic mechanism is needed to make them real?
9. Why have we not stopped global warming? Because climate agreements like the Kyoto Protocol do not work! Learn how a federal global democratic government could bring about a reduction in fossil fuels, develop green alternatives and make real climate justice.
10. Why have poverty and inequality soared since the 1980s? In the international system it is impossible to close tax havens, stop transfer mis-pricing, and tax corporations. International development and the SDGs don’t reduce poverty. Learn how a democratic global government could bring more justice and equality.
11. What are the causes of the huge numbers of migrants and refugees today? Why did the USA build a wall and why is there ‘fortress Europe’? Wouldn’t it be better to have a world without borders? For that we need a democratic federal world government.
Module III: Key World Federalist Thinkers
12. Hear how a leading women’s rights campaigner and peace activist came to realise that a democratic world government with a world parliament and world constitution are needed to really ensure the rights of all women, minorities and stateless people.
13. Learn about Einstein’s views on international politics and his call for a world federation. Shocked by the use of atomic bomb in Hiroshima, he thought that a democratic world government was needed to oversee nuclear weapons and keep the peace.
14. Hear how India’s first Prime Minister sought to unite the post-colonial world into a democratic, socialist world federation, or ‘One World’, to bring about peace, equality and justice.
15. Learn how this Brazilian activist struggled to turn the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) into a global body that would end world hunger. And how, like his colleague John Boyd Orr, he realised that only a supra-national world government could achieve that.
16. Hear how the first President of Ghana sought to unite Africa in a Pan-African Federation, while his colleague Komla Agbeli Gbedemah worked for world federation through the World Movement for Federal World Government and the nascent United Nations.
17. Learn about this leading Japanese scientist’s work through the Pugwash Conferences and the World Federalist Movement to persuade countries to renounce war, as Japan had done in its Article 9 of the Constitution.
18. From the Montreux Congress to the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and beyond, learn about the ideas and campaigns of WFM, the leading international organisation working towards peace, justice and world unity.
Module IV: Ways Forward
19. Think world federation is impossible? dangerous? utopian? Think again! This video answers all your doubts, while also discussing solidarity and diversity and explaining how Putin and Russian gas undermine national democracies.
20. Can planetary problems be solved with small-scale solutions? Can eco-communities lead to global justice? No! Hear why democratic federal world government is needed to stop climate change, reduce inequality and ensure human rights.
21. What is the ‘domestic analogy’ in world politics? Learn how this idea could radically change the world order, moving from ‘international’ injustice, diplomacy and war to ‘global’ justice, democracy and peace.
22. What does it mean to be a global citizen? Imagine a world without borders, in which everyone has real human rights and a world passport, and there are democratic global elections and perhaps even a global welfare state.
23. When European empires fell the colonies seemed to get independence, but they actually became tied into a system of post-colonial domination. Real liberation will only come with global democracy.
24. A parliament of humanity should be at the core of democratic global governance, the place where representatives of the world’s people can decide on global issues. Learn about the Campaign for a United Nations Parliament Assembly (UNPA), Citizens Assemblies, and global democracy.
25. Join the ‘great convergence’ of NGOs and social movements coming together to call for global democracy! Learn about existing campaigns, and
how to get involved and take action!