United Nations History/Global Government

What is it?

World government is the concept of a political body that would make, interpret and enforce international law. Inherent to the concept of a world government is the idea that nations would be required to pool or surrender (depending on point of view) sovereignty over some areas. In effect, a world government would add another level of administration above the existing national governments or provide coordination over areas national governments are not capable of adequately addressing as independent polities. The authority granted this level and how it relates to national governments and/or citizens is debated by both adherents and opponents to world government.

According to Some

Some people see international institutions (such as the International Criminal Court, United Nations and International Monetary Fund) and various supranational and continental unions (such as European Union, South American Union and Asian Union) as the beginning elements of a world government system. An organization comprised of legislators from various nations known as Parliamentarians for Global Action have promoted ideas of democratic global governance, though such promotion has varied in its scope and intensity during the organization's history.

The Book

One World is a travelogue written by Wendell Willkie and originally published in 1943. It is a document of his world travels and meetings with many of the then-Allies heads of state as well as ordinary citizens and soldiers in locales such as El Alamein, Russia, and Iran. Willkie also discusses the need for some sort of World government.

Especially emphasized is the position of China in the world after the war; involved in a civil war between Nationalists and Communists, Willkie prophesies that whichever power achieves victory will make China a force to be reckoned with. It is the duty of the United Nations (the Allies, not the organization) to make sure that power is not only friendly to American and other Allied interests, but also that it is powerful enough to help the Chinese, the world's most populated nation.

One World was highly popular in its time and sold millions of copies. It spent four months weeks atop the New York Times bestseller list beginning in May 1943. The United States of Africa is a name sometimes given to one version of the possible future unification of Africa as a national and sovereign federation of states similar in formation to the United States of America, mirroring the idea of the United States of Europe. The idea has recently been advanced by Libyan leader, and newly elected chairman of the African Union, Muammar al-Gaddafi, at a 2000 summit in Lomé, Togo (and again in June 2007 and February 2009), and by Alpha Oumar Konare, chairperson of the African Commission, on the occasion of the commemoration of the Africa Day, on May 25, 2006.

United States of Africa

The phrase "United States of Africa", was mentioned first by Marcus Garvey in his poem 'Hail, United States of Africa' in 1924. Garvey's ideas deeply influenced the birth of the Pan-Africanist movement which culminated in 1945 with the Fifth Pan African Congress in Manchester, United Kingdom, attended by W.E.B. Du Bois, Patrice Lumumba, George Padmore, Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. Later, Nkrumah and Haile Selassie (among many others) took the idea forward to form the Organisation of African Unity, the forerunner of today's African Union.