Establishing global governmental responsibility

The UN Commission on Global Governance aims to explore the opportunities of building a more effective system of global security and cooperation in the post cold war environment; assess the adequacy of global institutional arrangements and suggest how they should be reformed or strengthened; and mobilize political will for multilateral action. Among the group's earliest conclusions was that in order to reform the way in which humanity manages its international affairs, it is necessary to foster a vision of the world as a "global neighbourhood".

Global governance is not global government. No misunderstanding should arise from the similarity of the terms. A movement towards world government would be towards an even less democratic world -- one more accommodating to power, more hospitable to hegemonic ambition, and more reinforcing of the roles of states and governments rather than the rights of people. That is not to say that the goal should be a world without systems or rules. Far from it. A chaotic world would pose equal or even greater danger. The challenge is to strike the balance in such a way that the management of global affairs is responsive to the interests of all people in a sustainable future, that it is guided by basic human values, and that it makes global organization conform to the reality of global diversity.