Global Governance

This is the dawning of the age of peace. Baha'u'llah proclaims not only the desirability of peace, but its inevitability. It may not appear inevitable given the present state of armed conflict in the world; however, there are signs of its emergence that can be discerned in the experiences of the past century. After World War I, the League of Nations was formed in a first attempt at global governance. After World War II, the United Nations was formed as a second attempt. Neither of these institutions has been adequate to the task of insuring a cessation to war or of providing the foundations for peaceful and productive harmonization of the world's conflicted nations. But both are proof of a general acknowledgement of the desirability for global governance over war as a mechanism for resolution of conflict. It is also a demonstration that we are taking progressively surer steps forward.

Perhaps the most hopeful signs are in evidence in the emergence of the European Union. The institutions being developed by the countries of Europe can be viewed as the first comprehensive, detailed step toward global governance. The concept of nation-state in which some aspects of national sovereignty are willingly surrendered for the benefits associated with collective security and economic cooperation are being realized. These achievements are in harmony with the admonitions articulated by Baha'u'llah in the mid to latter part of the nineteenth century with respect to their advantages.

We see you adding every year unto your expenditures and laying the burden thereof on the people whom you rule; this verily is naught but grievous injustice. Fear the sighs and tears of this Wronged One, and burden not your peoples beyond that which they can endure….Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need armaments no more save in a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. Be united, O concourse of the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you and your peoples find rest. Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice. (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, 40)

What else could these weighty words signify if they did not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world? Some form of a world Super-State must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a Word Parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized; in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law - the product of the considered judgment of the world's federated representatives - shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship - such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Baha'u'llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age. (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, 40-41)

The broad outlines that Shoghi Effendi expressed in 1938 are taking tangible shape in the current world. The principles for a peaceful world order are being slowly established in the fabric of today's world through choice and consequence. The European Union provides concrete hope for the attenuation of the disastrous effects of "a capricious and militant nationalism."

The European Union and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) though flawed are evidence of the world's movement toward open markets. And the increasing numbers of companies that provide their employees a share in the profits are evidence of progress in the realization of the interdependence of capital and labor.

The current ascendancy of fanaticism brings religion to the forefront as the spirit of unity struggles to find religious cooperation across theological and practical religious differences. The need for religious tolerance and open recognition of the underlying unity of the world's religions is being articulated by a broader percentage of the world's population as well as many of the leadership of the world's religions. The publication of World Scripture: a Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts by the International Religious Foundation is evidence of the growing accord among religionists.

World citizenship is emerging in the consciousness of larger percentages of the global population as individuals in increasing numbers interact in the global culture and economy.

"The Tabernacle of Unity," Baha'u'llah proclaims in His Message to all Mankind, "has been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers….Of one tree are all ye the fruit and of one bough the leaves….The world is but one country and mankind its citizens….Let not a man glory in that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind." (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 41)