Global civics and Hammarskjold.

• Author: Altinay, Hakan
• Position: Dan Hammarskjold - Essay

The broad manifestations of our epic global interdependence are increasingly better appreciated. Financial engineering in the United States can determine economic growth in every part of the world; carbon dioxide emissions from China can affect crop yields and livelihoods in the Maldives, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, and beyond; an epidemic in Viet Nam or Mexico can constrain public life in the United States; and a nuclear leak in Japan can have a bearing on public health all around the world. The inherent difficulties of devising and implementing solutions to global problems through nation-states have become increasingly apparent. Traditionally, two broad models have been used to deal with this predicament. The first relies on a wide range of creative ad hoc alliances and solutions, and has admittedly produced much to celebrate. (1) The second model is based on a more systematic reliance on rule of international law, and also on what is known as the global public goods paradigm. Proponents of this latter concept point first and foremost to the existence of certain vital global public goods, with climate being the most obvious example. The global public goods paradigm also implies some commensurability in the way that people respond to various global collective action challenges. Some tend to feel suffocated by this expectation of commensurability among various global governance tracks, while others find it reassuring and liberating.

Both of these models are premised on the belief that global governance is essentially a technocratic puzzle for which smart institutional design will provide the necessary answers. Yet, the web of interactions and interdependencies has become too thick to treat each issue as a distinct transaction. What the world is negotiating is, in effect, a global social contract, not a technocratic fix. The key question that needs to be answered is, What responsibilities do we all have toward people who are not our compatriots? The question is so simple that one is often struck by the strange absence of ready answers to this fundamental question. Generating meaningful responses to it will entail starting to imagine a global civics. (2)

There is no reason to assume that interdependence will not continue or even decelerate in the near future. Many around the world perceive that their ability to exercise meaningful control over their lives is eroding. This leads to anomie, anxiety, and a diffuse backlash. The choice is not between...