A new world order is needed
THERE are a number of well-motivated and helpful proposals to solve current global challenges. However, solution to the world's complex and interrelated problems such as social conflicts, wars, extremes of wealth and poverty, racism, moral laxity, or environmental mismanagement will require a new level of commitment.
Not only are our current systems unable to address the deepening global crisis, but the available international legislative machinery and processes are also inadequate. Most of us would agree that our experiences and practices of the past do not provide sufficient direction and guidance for the present, let alone the future. So, how do we begin to bring about change?
There is obviously a need for a new world order, especially with the current one lacking credibility.
The world order, affirmed in the Bahá'í Writings, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth uniting all nations, races, creeds and classes. Such a commonwealth of nations must be based on principles of economic justice, equality between the races, equal rights for men and women, and universal education.
Just over a century and half ago, Bahá'u'lláh – the founder of the Bahá'í Faith – addressing world leaders, spoke of humankind as entering a period of history that would involve the radical restructuring of the life of the planet.
Challenges never before contemplated, He said, would soon overwhelm the resources of even the most advanced nations. They could be addressed only by a world federal system whose central organ would be a world parliament, empowered to create a code of universally agreed-upon and enforceable international law.
This world commonwealth, envisaged in the Bahá'í Writings, would consist of a world legislature, which would enact the laws necessary to regulate the life, satisfy the needs, and adjust the relationships of all peoples.
It would have a world executive, backed by an international force, which would carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, the world legislature. A world tribunal would adjudicate and deliver its final verdict in all disputes.
Furthermore, there will be a need to foster a culture in which the moral and ethical development of the individual is as much a concern as intellectual development.
“Long-term solutions,” according to a Bahá'í International Community statement, “will require a new and comprehensive vision of a global society, supported by a new system of values. Acceptance of the oneness of humanity is the first fundamental prerequisite for this reorganisation and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind.
“Recognition of this principle does not imply abandonment of legitimate loyalties, the suppression of cultural diversity, or the abolition of national autonomy. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a far higher aspiration than has so far animated human efforts.
“It clearly requires the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It is inconsistent not only with any attempt to impose uniformity, but with any tendency towards excessive centralisation. Its goal is well captured in the concept of ‘unity in diversity'.”
Rather than a piecemeal approach conceived in response to the needs of the nation-states, it is the Bahá'í view that there is a need to adopt an umbrella solution under which specific international codes could be adopted.
We need a new international order, directed by a world commonwealth, capable of uniting all nations, races, creeds, and classes.