Vision needs a seat at the negotiating table.

• Author: Becker, William S.

When American theorist Buckminster Fuller said, "[we] are called to be architects of the future, not its victims," he may not have known how difficult a challenge that would become in the years following his death.

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In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the architecture we need to solve global problems--including the barriers to a more sustainable civilization--is as daunting as the problems themselves. It requires unprecedented levels of international collaboration, new institutions and systems, and the courage to confront threats not only to everyday life but to the natural systems that support life itself. Mere transactions are not sufficient. In the words of businessman and entrepreneur Sam Walton: "Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy. We don't need continuous improvement, we want radical change."

Although he might not have imagined how great the challenge would become, Fuller's analogy remains instructive. Let's think about what architects usually do. First, they have a conversation with their clients to learn their needs and wishes. That conversation is an exchange of information: a combination of the client's requirements and the architect's knowledge of the latest and best designs in the building business. Next, the architect renders one or more design options. Once the client approves, the architect draws up the plans that will guide the engineers and contractors who do the construction.

Apply this process to world affairs with the world's people as clients, sustainable development as their requirement, the United Nations as the architectural firm, and international negotiators as the architects. It appears that two critical elements in the process need to be improved: dialogue with the clients, and rendering the designs they have seen, understand, and want.

In the context of the United Nations work on sustainable development, including the June 2012 Rio+20 Conference, there has been a great deal of consultation with stakeholders but until now, not at the level of a true global conversation. In addition, design renderings--in this case visualizations of sustainable societies--have not been a significant element in negotiations. Yet, we have extraordinary capabilities for global dialogues and a vision that we did not have when the first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Widespread public access to the Internet's information superhighway did not exist then, nor did the many social media that allow conversations to take place without boundaries in real time...