Part I on Systemic Global Change explored systemic risk and systemic change, the ‘seminal moments’ of the 20th century when the contemporary international system was established and refined, and the efforts undertaken during the UN era for effecting change. This
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In A New Global Institution? (11 April), Klaus Bosselmann identified ‘systemic risk’ and ‘systemic change’ as inter-related concepts for embracing a post-pandemic worldview: “A systemic risk is the possibility that a singular event may trigger instability or collapse of an
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In a study I recently undertook of the G20 (2019), I showed that during the past decade, the main joint, collective action of that body had been to issue communiqués and other types of statements. As a group, G20 Leaders
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Ours are proving to be interesting times – going quite beyond lockdowns and bubbles. Covid-19 reminds us that Nature is in charge of human destiny, not governments. Countries the world over are trying to meet unprecedented challenges that are all
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In March, the International Criminal Court decided to authorise a formal investigation by the chief prosecutor, of war crimes in Afghanistan alleged to have been committed by Afghan, Taliban, and US forces since May 2003. The US Secretary of State attacked the
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The current global health pandemic is shaking the foundations of the international community of states, possibly to its core. Those foundations still reflect mid-20th c. political-legal thought, institutional structures, and procedural behaviour. Over the past quarter-century or so, we have
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On 26 March, as COVID-19 was pushing countries into defensive lockdown, former Swedish Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, called for a ‘much stronger global mechanism’ than the World Health Organisation to deal with future pandemics. Writing for the Australian Strategic Policy
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I recently took office as Secretary General of the largest global interfaith organization: Religions for Peace. Its six inter-religious councils (IRCs) are composed of the most senior leaders representing their religious institutions in 90 countries. This was one week before
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The upheaval that Covid-19 is causing in people’s lives around the world is wreaking even greater havoc in the global economy. The impact will be far larger than the damage caused by the Global Financial Crisis. The remedies will have
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The pattern ahead of the annual UN climate conference in November 2019 (COP-25, Madrid) was spectacularly familiar: over 25,000 participants; worrying reports from climate scientists; more public anxiety about climate change; mobilisation of civil society, with youth to the fore;
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