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uring 1994—95, the world’s preoccupation with the prosD pects and challenges of emerging globalization further deepened. In one of a number of notable documents released during the year, the ambivalence felt by many people about globalizing trends and the polarizing effects these trends are producing throughout the world is expressed:
The implications of globalization have...been contradictoryon the one hand, disturbing signs of national and social disintegration, and on the other, new forms of international cooperation. Since the processes of globalization are likely to intensify in the years ahead—making people’s life chances even more interdependent—the world Will have to choose Which trends should predominate. The question is not whether there Will be a global community, but what kind of global community it should be.1
1. States ofDisarray: The Social Eflects of Globalization, A United Nations Research Institute for Social Development repoxt for the World Summit for Social Development (1995), pp. 167—168.
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Wrestling with this question of “what kind of global community it should be” has occupied world leaders in various arenas over the past few years. The grouping of nations through cultural links or economic and trade ties is now commonplace, and horizons continue to expand. But attitudes must also change in order to accommodate a new global order, and that is a challenging prospect for many.
To address both attitudes and practical concerns, the United Nations has focused on the kind of global community that is desirable by holding a number of large international gatherings. Beginning with the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de J aneiro in 1992, and continuing through the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, the World Summit for Social Development in early 1995, and the F ourth World Conference on Women scheduled for September 1995, the United Nations has sought to bring both world leaders and grassroots organizations of civil society together to discuss the world’s most urgent problemsand to begin to devise solutions for them.
Whatever shortcomings may be apparent in these conferences, including the lack of binding agreements, the public wrangling, and the perception by some that they are forums where there is much talk and little real action, the mere fact that such global gatherings have occurred is in itself momentous. Attracting an unprecedented number of world leaders and demonstrating the emerging influence of non-governmental organizations, they have afforded people opportunities to exchange ideas and have moved topics such as the environment, human rights, population control, poverty and unemployment, and women’s concerns to the center of the world stage.
The meetings seem to have generated a new spirit among both participants and the general population. It would be very shortsighted to denigrate them because the world’s problems have not been resolved as a result. The problems are complex, and difficult decisions about “what kind of global community it should be” require a great deal more serious, intense discussion. Future gatherings such as the UN 50 Observances scheduled for New
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York in October 1995, an international conference on human settlements to take place in 1996, and the possible summit on global governance at some point before the end of the century will continue the dialogue commenced with such Vigor in Rio in 1992.
As the discourse continues, however, the discussions will need to move to more profound levels or momentum will be lost. The Commission 011 Global Governance, in the opening pages of its report, clearly depicts not only the climate in which we live during the closing years of the twentieth century but outlines several distinct challenges in humanity’s path:
A time of change when future patterns cannot be clearly discerned is inevitably a time of uncertainty. There is need for balance and caution—and also for Vision. Our common future will depend on the extent to which people and leaders around the world develop the Vision of a better world and the strategies, the institutions, and the will to achieve it.
It is significant that the Commission points to the development of a Vision, of strategies, of institutions, and will as necessary factors in forging a new world. But the Vision of a united world is not new. It was articulated by Baha’u’llah during the last century; it was expounded by His son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, particularly during the addresses He made to the public and the press during His trip to the West in 1911—1913; and it was developed even further by the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi, especially in his “World Order Letters” written between 1929 and 1936 as humanity hovered 0n the brink of the Second World War.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Views on the subject are succinctly stated in a letter written by Him in prison in Acre, Palestine, in 1906:
...all the members of the human family, whether peoples 0r governments, cities or Villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self—sufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and
2. Our Global Neighborhood: The Report of the Commission on Global Governance (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 12.
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nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. . .. Verily this is none other but one of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this past ages have been deprived, for this century—the century of light—hath been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination. Hence the miraculous unfolding of a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn in the assemblage of man.3
The interdependence that was so clearly seen by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1906 is even more abundantly manifest in the closing decade of the century, though humanity admittedly has some distance to travel before it achieves the unity of which He wrote and the “glory, power and illumination” that is accessible to it. However, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá did not stop with general statements. He quickly went on to outline the different elements necessary for the establishment of unity in the world:
Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world’s darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the cornerstone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendor. The fifth candle is the unity of nations—a unity Which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is unity of language, i.e., the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples Will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realization.3
At first blush, it may appear that the elements of unity out
3. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l—Bahd (Haifa:
Bahá’í World Centre, 1978), pp. 31—32.
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lined by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—unity in the political realm, of thought in world undertakings, in freedom, in religion, of nations, of races, and of language—have little to do with events that occurred during 1994—95, but a survey of the major concerns and developments show that the connection is, in fact, very strong indeed.
Governance was a central topic of concern for many social commentators during the year. People became increasingly cynical of their politicians, and major democracies suffered crises in confidence or toyed with secessionism. While some people wanted less government and espoused the doctrine of libertarianism, others saw problems with liberal individualism and promoted alternatives such as communitarianism. Ruthless dictators retained their stranglehold on power in some countries, while other nations drifted into various states of disorder, and militias wreaked havoc. People in many countries of the world expressed disillusionment with their political leaders, a sentiment inspired, in part, by increasingly widespread government corruption. Still others complained that we are governed by people who are artful in the ten-seeond sound-bite rather than those who understand how the world works, or that the world is governed increasingly by “happenstance” or by economic factors rather than by leaders setting policies and taking action on them. Leaders were seen as lacking in long-range Vision. All of this demonstrated a basic discontent with current systems of government and with leaders—but no consensus on what should replace them.
In this context, in a speech given on 4 July 1994 as he was being presented with the Philadelphia Liberty Medal at Independence Hall, Czech President Vaclav Havel frankly declared that the values that have shaped America and other modern democracies—in his words “respect for the unique human being and his or her liberties and inalienable rights, and the principle that all power derives from the people”—are not sufficient for the creation of a new order in this postmodern age. Pointing out that “our civilization has essentially globalized only the surface of our lives,” he stated that a planetary civilization must be established firmly on generally held values and claimed, “The central political task of the final years of this century...is the creation of a new
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model of co—existence among the various cultures, peoples, races and religious spheres within a single interconnected civilization.” T0 forge this new civilization and to find generally held values, he spoke of “self—transcendence” as the key, saying: “Only someone who submits to the authority of the universal order and of creation, who values the right to be a part of it and a participant in it, can genuinely value himself and his neighbors and thus honor their rights as well.”
Havel went on to suggest two possible ways for humanity to anchor itself in these new values, both coming from what he termed “post-modern science”: the first is “the anthropic cosmological principle,” which states that “we are mysteriously connected to the universe, we are mirrored in it, just as the entire evolution of the universe is mirrored in us”; the second is the “Gaia hypothesis,” which posits that the earth is a living thing, a “mega—organism” that will rid itself of human life in favor of life itself, if we do not tend it carefully.
These are worthy concepts, but as the Bahá’í International Community pointed out in its statement The Prosperity ofHumankind, released in January 1995:
The earnest hope that [the] moral crisis [facing humanity] can somehow be met by deifying nature itself is an evidence of the spiritual and intellectual desperation that the crisis has engendered. Recognition that creation is an organic whole and that humanity has the responsibility to care for this whole, welcome as it is, does not represent an influence which can by itself establish in the consciousness of people a new system of values. Only a breakthrough in understanding that is scientific and spiritual in the fullest sense of the terms will empower the human race to assume the trusteeship toward which history impels it.4
American social thinkers, commenting on Havel’s speech, found it lacking in “an emphasis on institutions that can ground his Vision.” Communitarianism’s leader Amitai Etzioni complained that Havel’s Vision is “too spiritual,” continuing on to say that “Values (10 not fly about on wings. They need to be em
4. See p. 290 of this volume.
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bodied.”5 To be fair, however, it is difficult to deal with both theoretical and philosophical concepts and practical implementations in a single brief speech like Havel’s. But such complaints (10 indicate the degree to which the world is now searching for adequate social institutions to address the needs of humanity. Such institutions were foretold by Baha’u’llah more than 100 years ago, and their development was elaborated upon by His
appointed successors, as seen in the following passage written by Shoghi Effendi in 193 l :
Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an international executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a world parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose elections shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a supreme tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized; in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism Will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Baha’u’llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.
5. Newsweek, 18 July 1994. 6. Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahd’u'lláh: Selected Letters, 2nd rev. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974), pp. 40—41.
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Forms seem to be gradually taking shape for the institutions envisaged by Shoghi Effendi some 60 years ago: while not composed of elected members, the United Nations is a kind of world parliament; the World Court, based in The Hague, arbitrates international disputes, although its rulings are not binding; United Nations peacekeepers have been seen as a prototypical collective security force; and countries are banding together into free trade zones throughout different regions of the world in an attempt to remove economic barriers. What is often missing, however, is the change in mindset necessary for the world to become a truly global community. Nationalism, racism, religious intolerance, and warmongering resulting from these causes, plague the world to a degree at least equal to the influences working to unify humanity.
Some issues have brought home the urgency of the need to move beyond national, racial, or religious boundaries—and beyond the superficial globalism of which Havel spoke in Philadelphia. International crises such as the AIDS epidemic, the volatility of economies and markets around the world (Witness the effects of the collapse of the Mexican peso), war atrocities, the proliferation of nuclear arms, and other such factors have served such a role.
The struggle towards global consciousness can clearly be seen in the United Nations’ efforts to stem the destructive forces of nationalism in the Balkans and in its emergency work following the genocide filelled by tribal hatreds in Rwanda—and in reactions by some to those efforts. While some reviled the United Nations and NATO for the failure of the Bosnian peace mission, others recognized that the difficulties arose, in no small part, from lack of unity among Security Council members and their reluctance to take the risk of suffering some casualties to prevent mass slaughter of the civilian populations. Dialogue has, as a result, begun on the need for new forms, rules, and methods, including a training system, to strengthen UN peacekeeping; the need for a multinational force with authorization to intervene to prevent large—seale civilian suffering; the necessity of better communications between national capitals Where plans are made and the peacekeepers Who are trying to fillfil the international community’s mandate; and
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the need for the world to move beyond the point where the participation of the US, the world’s sole remaining superpower, is required to maintain order. In spite of the horrific Violence in eVidence during the year, these factors seem to lend some weight to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s assertion that “There are signs that the system of collective security established in San Francisco nearly 50 years ago is finally beginning to work as conceived and that it is proving able to respond flexibly to new challenges. We are on the way to achieving a workable international system.”7
A number of other important steps were taken towards the establishment of peace in various parts of the world. Israel signed a treaty with Jordan and, in spite of suicide bus bombings and other acts of Violence, continued negotiations with the Palestinian Liberation Organization—an effort for which Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize. In Mozambique, the United Nations peacekeepers were successful in helping to end a fifteen—year civil war, with the holding of the first free and fair election in the country’s history.
Women’s rights and human rights in general continued to be a major issue on the world stage, where basic rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have come under increasing attack. Studies indicate that human rights Violations are on the rise, often fuelled by nationalism, tribalism, or religious intolerance, with current patterns of abuse involving more mass killings, summary executions, and “disappearances” than ever before, according to Amnesty International. War is particularly hard on women, who are often raped, tortured, or made the obj ects of reprisal killings. In tandem with human rights abuses, the international refugee problem continues to grow; the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is swamped, as statistics now indicate that one in every 115 people on earth is in exile or somehow displaced, and refugee camps have become havens for thugs who control aid distribution and have forced humanitarian agencies to pull out—often under threat.
7. International Herald T ribune, 2 November 1994.
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What has the world learned from these tragedies? The mass killings in Rwanda and the “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia have demonstrated an urgent need for international monitors and an international force potent enough to step in and enforce international humanitarian law. In the wake of these atrocities the United Nations has set up a war crimes tribunal to punish perpetrators—perhaps the prelude to the establishment of a world criminal court. On a wider level, recent events have sparked discussion on and reevaluation of human rights. While some have argued that they are subordinate to cultural concerns, others such as the Burmese Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Sun Kyi have asserted that human rights are universal. As she wrote in an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune 0n 7 December 1994, “It is precisely because of the cultural diversity of the world that it is necessary for different nations and peoples to agree on those basic human values which will act as a unifying force.” Such a View closely echoes that voiced by Shoghi Effendi in his 1931 discussion of the new world order towards which Bahá’ís are working:
It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity. . . .
In addition to peace—keeping and peace—making initiatives and dialogues on governance and human rights, the world is moving towards globalization on other fronts. The foundations of a code of international law, arms agreements, and delineations of new economic zones are steadily being laid with each passing year. United Nations conventions such as those on the Law of the Sea and on Desertification (the latter ratified by 100 countries in
8. Shoghi Effendi, World Order, pp. 41—42.
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October 1994) provide a basis for settling international disputes and address serious environmental concerns. Outside the United Nations, talks continued on extending the Nuclear Non—Proliferation Treaty, and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) was signed by 118 countries, while signatories to another international agreement sought to make the fight against AIDS a top priority in their countries. Border crossings came down in the countries of the European Union, and various regions of the world look towards hemispheric free—trade accords.
Another attempt to deal with urgent difficulties facing humanity was embodied in the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in March 1995. This event was a first step by world leaders in collectively addressing the very serious social problems, including poverty, joblessness, and inequities in the global distribution of wealth, facing large numbers of the human family in a climate where the gap between the richest and poorest 20 percent of the world’s population has doubled, from 30-fold to 60-fold, over the past 30 years; where one—fifth of the world’s people is responsible for four—fifths of the world’s consumption; where projections of global economic growth do not see a reduction in poverty; and where the growing population of the poor causes increased environmental stress and social deterioration. While some conference participants suggested that the UN should establish an “economic security council” to deal with such issues, a more proactive initiative was undertaken by the “Group of 77,” consisting of over 130 developing nations which signed a non-binding agreement following the Summit that 20 percent of aid to their countries shall be marked for basic social needs such as schools, hospitals, and women’s programs.
The previous September, the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo had pointed out that when women are empowered through education, economic and social progress results and population growth is curbed. Because studies show that births decline in societies where women receive education and are able to take more control over their lives, the Cairo Conference promoted the empowerment of women as a maj or strategy in family planning. In a world where two—thirds of the illiterate people in the world are women, where 90 million
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girls are denied primary education, Where dowry deaths in India have increased 170 percent in the past decade, and where the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses detectable through ultrasound technology has resulted in a growing “gender gap,” particularly in Asia, statistics from developing nations with falling birthrates indicate that focusing on women as agents of change, working with community-based family planning, and gaining the active support of local religious leaders are effective in curbing population growth. Such an approach recognizes that, in the words of. T he Prosperity ofHumankz'nd, “The most important role that economic efforts must play in development lies...in equipping people and institutions with the means through which they can achieve the real purpose of development: that is, laying foundations for a new social order that can cultivate the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness.”9
Such empowerment provides challenges to traditional malefemale roles, both within the family circle and in the wider circle of the community, but meeting such challenges is an essential element in the progress of humanity. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated in America in 1912, “. . .until woman and man recognize and realize equality, social and political progress here or anywhere will not be possible. For the world of humanity consists of two parts or members: one is woman; the other is man. Until these two members are equal in strength, the oneness of humanity cannot be established, and the happiness and felicity of mankind will not be a reality.”10
A cluster of other issues and developments highlighted during the year also underlined the struggle towards global consciousness. For example, the idea of “race”——that concept underlying so many of the world’s social ills—was labelled a “scientific antique” by scientists and researchers, following release of results of a long-term scientific study of DNA samples from around the world that revealed that races do not have distinct genetic types.
9. See p. 288 of this volume.
10. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His stit to the United States and Canada in 1912, 2nd. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), pp. 74—77.
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Such findings effectively undercut the scientific basis of the conclusion that race determines IQ, a View advanced by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein in their book The Bell Curve. While racial prejudice continued to fuel strife around the world, some countries such as South Africa have begun to transcend such factors to focus on rebuilding a society that will benefit all, and there is increasing recognition of the need everywhere for a pluralism that, in the words of UNESCO Secretary General Federico Mayor, “requires that a sense of cultural differences be complemented by a recognition of wider cultural affinities,” thus recognizing diversity but discovering within it a unity capable of holding the human race together.
Likewise, in the area of religion, while some adherents practiced intolerance and committed Violent acts, interreligious activities increased. Religious communities collaborated on a “global ethic” following a meeting in Chicago commemorating the centenary of the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions. Participants at a gathering of the World Conference on Religion and Peace on the theme “Healing the World: Religions for Peace” at the Vatican in November 1994, heard Pope J ohn Paul II urge that the concept of “holy wars” be denounced, saying, “Religion and peace go together: to wage war in the name of religion is a blatant contradiction.” The Pope’s statement echoes a teaching of Baha’u’llah, Who proclaimed to His followers over 100 years ago, “Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.”11
Because crime is taking on an increasingly international scope, governments and international agencies are challenged to devise new strategies to cope. Laws enabling men who engage in “sex tourism” to be prosecuted once they return home, a new international anti-corruption initiative with the goal of establishing an international convention on corruption and promotion of standard international codes of ethics for businesses, and collaborative efforts to curb migrant trafficking in Europe are some steps taken in the area.
11. Baha’u’llah, Tablets ofBahd ’u ‘lláh revealed after the Kitdb—i—Aqdas (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978), p. 22.
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As people struggle to come to terms with the attitude change required to breathe life into the concept of globalism, the technology linking the different regions of the world improves ever more rapidly—with the capability of shaping behavior both positively and negatively. Satellite technology, for example, has led to the establishment of regional and global television networks that are beginning to focus more on the needs of the populations they address than on importing Western programming. In Russia, live television coverage of the war in Chechnya led Russian mothers to flock to the war zone to reclaim their soldier—sons, and in Rwanda, action by the international community was spurred on, to no small extent, by public reaction to the horrifying television images of the massacres. Recognizing the role of “hate broadcasts” in promoting massacres in Rwanda and Bosnia, some commentators suggested the media be used, instead, for “electronic peacekeeping” through radio broadcasts in wartorn areas.
The Internet represents the fastest—growing technology of mass communication—a technology heralded in the Bahá’í writings almost 60 years ago When, in a letter to the Bahá’ís Of the West in 1936, Shoghi Effendi envisioned “A mechanism of world inter—communication [that] Will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning With marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity.”12 While the Internet, With a 350,000 percent increase in traffic during 1994, has become Virtually indispensable for any global organization, serious concerns such as crime, pornography, security of personal information, and the use of the Internet technology for subversive purposes have not been effectively addressed. And while in the past the Internet has gloried in its lack of hierarchical structure, experts are beginning to ponder how it can be transformed from the current anarchic system into a global information infrastructure of Vital use to many more of the world’s people than now have access to it.
All of these factors, from technology to issues of governance, leadership, peacekeeping and other global concerns, have made the world more conscious than ever before of its increasing inter
12. World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 203.
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dependence. While some forces are resisting this evolution, many of the world’s peoples are attempting to come to grips with it and look forward to the benefits that such interdependence can bring. The United Nations, while imperfect because its member states are imperfect, plays an important role in these changes. Thomas Homer—Dixon, director of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of Toronto, perhaps best summed up the pragmatic approach to the UN in these words:
It is currently fashionable to believe that governments can’t do anything right and should therefore be reduced in size. By this logic, less government is better government. But global political and economic affairs are becoming ever more complex. Populations are growing. The gap between the poorest and the richest people on the planet is widening. Knowledge, goods, diseases, financial instruments, pollution and crime know no boundaries. Migrants and refugees are on the move in unprecedented numbers. To deal with these converging and urgent pressures, capable international government is essential. The United Nations may be unruly, cumbersome and irresolute, but it is the only international government we have. We must do what we can to reform it to better serve humanity’s needs.13
Can the world turn its back on the factors that are moving it towards greater and greater levels of international cooperationand what would be the consequences if it were to do so?
Over 100 years ago, Baha’u’llah wrote, “The well—being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”14 In 1936, Shoghi Effendi elaborated upon this same theme:
Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall—mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal
13. Thomas Homer—Dixon, “War and Peace: The Ominous Trends around the World,” Maclean 19, 9 January 1995.
14.Baha’u’llah, Gleanings flom the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, 3rd ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1976), p. 286.
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towards Which a harassed humanity is striving. Nationbuilding has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.
The worldwide Bahá’í community, with a membership spread over some 120,000 localities and including every country, stands as an example that such unification is possible. In Shoghi Effendi’s words:
The Faith of Baha’u’llah has assimilated, by virtue of its creative, its regulative and ennobling energies, the varied races, nationalities, creeds and classes that have sought its shadow, and have pledged unswerving fealty to its cause. It has changed the hearts of its adherents, burned away their prejudices, stilled their passions, exalted their conceptions, ennobled their motives, coordinated their efforts, and transformed their outlook. While preserving their patriotism and safeguarding their lesser loyalties, it has made them lovers of mankind, and the determined upholders of its best and truest interests. 16
It is impossible for the world to retreat into nationalistic or tribalistic enclaves at this stage in its history, and it will be basically unstable if it remains globalized at only a superficial level. But it Will take a powerful motivating vision, unwavering implementation of decisions reached through strenuous consultation among the world’s leaders, and strong will on the part of both leaders and the peoples of the world for ours to become a true global society. The benefits are inestimable.
15. World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 202. 16. Ibid., p. 197.
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