Speaker
Description
The late twentieth and twenty-first centuries have brought forth crises that transcend regional boundaries and pose existential threats to humanity. Preeminent among these are the risk of thermonuclear war that could result in the annihilation of Terra, the potential emergence of an omnipotent artificial general intelligence capable of eradicating humanity, and climate change that threatens to undermine the very foundations of human – as well as other lifeforms’ – habitats. Although these crises are products of globalisation, they cannot be resolved within the existing system of international governance. Even so, de-globalisation would neither resolve these challenges nor is it a viable option, as the world has become irreversibly interconnected in social, economic, and political terms. Accordingly, the principal aim of this study is to advance a solution that has been largely overlooked or dismissed: the unification of Terra under a planetary administration. To this end, the study develops a theory of international relations, drawing upon classical and contemporary political philosophy and theory (including mainstream theories of international relations), with particular reference to the works of Kant, Wendt, Wallerstein, and Kurz. The first section examines the aforementioned crises of the twenty-first century, emphasising their qualitative distinction from previous crises. The second section analyses arguments concerning world unification, with special attention to those that reject the idea as impossible or infeasible. The third section contends that the crises of the twenty-first century can be addressed not through international cooperation but through supranational administration. Consequently, the study argues that Terran unification is not merely feasible but essential for resolving both current and emerging global challenges.
| Keywords | existential risk, planetary governance, global catastrophes, cosmopolitanism, Terran unification |
|---|---|
| cbasarbahar@gmail.com |