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The Commentary

Global problems, global solutions?

Global problems, global solutions?

Increasingly the signs seem to be that we are moving towards some kind of world government. This phenomenon (much loved by those who deal in prophetic timetables of the last days) may not happen soon, but it seems fairly clear that it must emerge sometime on the long-term political agenda.

The need for such a body is argued from many starting points. First, there is the current widespread economic recession. As he met President Obama at the beginning of March, Gordon Brown insisted that our financial difficulties stemmed from a failure of the banking system worldwide. ‘Bold global action, a global grand deal, is not now just necessary, but is vitally urgent to deal with the challenges of the world economy’, he said. In April, a meeting of leaders is scheduled in London, hoping to take decisions to secure the world’s economic future. Wouldn’t an authoritative body to oversee the planet’s economics make sense?

Secondly, there are other problems which, in some people’s minds, appear to call not just for co-operation between nations but for some kind of government for the whole planet. There is the problem of climate change (perceived or otherwise) with which the United Nations is already involved. The issue of terrorism leapt once again into the headlines in March with the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan, which left several players injured and five policemen dead. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but attention inevitably focused on Islamic militants. If extreme Islam has a global agenda, as many believe, then the free world needs a global counter-strategy — and perhaps that would be best co-ordinated by a world government. And, of course, the wonderful technology of the internet has brought the whole project of global surveillance and global control within reach.

What kind of government?

The question would be, if such a world government emerged, what kind of government would it be? Sadly, it seems unlikely that it would be democratic.

There are all kinds of reasons for this, but Britain’s involvement with the wider EU has already exposed one. In responding to the credit crisis, EU leaders have declared themselves against protectionism. After the protests at the Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire earlier in the year, it has become clear that, despite his good intentions, the Prime Minister cannot deliver on his promise of ‘British jobs for British workers’. But, if he cannot provide British jobs for British workers, why should British people vote for him? The democratic nation state seems to have become obsolete, and is hardly likely to survive if government goes global.

The global project is laudable in many ways. We long to see the nations at peace and prosperous, working together and making their unique contributions to the good of all. But, in human hands, it nevertheless looks increasingly like a recipe for instability and disaster. Everyone commented last autumn how quickly the economic collapse took place. The words of Scripture concerning the fall of the final Babylon sprang to mind: ‘The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn…. In one hour she has been brought to ruin’ (Revelation 18.11,19, etc.). An interdependent world is a world where the fall of one domino quickly brings the fall of all.

But, praise God, there is a true world government that is drawing nearer every day. God has promised his Son: ‘Ask of me. And I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession’ (Psalm 2.8). Jesus shall reign!

John Benton