A task for which the world is not equipped
What we will experience in the next few days comes a little closer to the vision of a world government.
The heads of state and government of the most important industrialized and emerging countries meet in Rome for a G20 summit.
This is followed by the UN climate conference in Glasgow, in which almost the whole world is represented.
That together is a good occasion to look at the state of this world.
It currently has three overarching themes: Corona, the climate, and the US rivalry with China. Corona had the world firmly under control for a year and a half, now it is foreseeable that the wealthiest countries in particular have the worst behind them. Others are just ahead of it. The pandemic has deepened the division of the world into rich / reasonably healthy and poor / susceptible to disease. Unfortunately, global solidarity is not particularly strong. Initially, there was not more than a handout left for the poor countries.
When it comes to the climate, the richer countries find it difficult to forego prosperity in order to avert the climate catastrophe. The poorer countries absolutely want to keep growing in order to achieve the prosperity of the others. Together, the two will prevent ambitious but urgently needed climate targets from being met. So there is little reason to look to Glasgow with optimism. The world is facing a task here for which it is not equipped.
Both corona and climate change are problems that do not adhere to limits. The politicians who are supposed to fight them think and act primarily in national categories. There is no authority that ensures balance, distributes the vaccines and climate burdens fairly, defines the goals and ensures that everyone does their part to meet them. There is no world government, there is no universalism.
Instead, it all boils down to a new dualism, the US versus China, the rivalry between two superpowers, a new Cold War. So far, the US has been way ahead in armaments matters, but China is catching up and at some point will be a far stronger competitor than the Soviet Union used to be. She pretended to be on par with the United States for a couple of decades, and some in Washington believed that. China will reach this eye level and will catch up with the USA economically and technologically.
Even a cold war is a father of all things. Everything else was subject to the rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union. Every major question was dealt with in the light of this conflict: Does a certain decision strengthen or weaken one's own position. This is a disaster, even if the guns are silent. The world lags behind what would actually be reasonable. The two superpowers are already making sure that their own contribution to climate protection does not result in any disadvantages in terms of economic competition.
Unlike the USA, China does not have the problem that it has to deal with moral issues, i.e. that it can use artificial intelligence or changes in the gene program of humans and animals without hesitation if it hopes to benefit from them. And the US will not allow itself to be shackled for long if it threatens to fall behind. They will likely then undermine the standards of the West. They did the same in Vietnam or Iraq, on a smaller scale.
Unfortunately, the European Union has not managed to develop into a third power in world politics.
The member states are too disparate, cohesion is too fragile for the two superpowers to have to take the European voice particularly seriously.
Unfortunately, there is no influence on the big event, above all the soothing influence.
In addition to some NGOs, only gigantic tech companies are dedicated to universalism.
Meta, the new parent company of Facebook, Instagram, What's App, has announced that it wants to build a parallel universe, a virtual living space in which one can pretty much disappear and, above all, would be subject to the world government Meta.
Above all, she wants to earn money and sees in people beings from whom money can be taken.
This second world is not going to be cozy either.
It would be better to pay close attention to the first one.
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Yours Dirk Kurbjuweit
