Given the weapons-obsession of the nine nuclear powers, the current prospect for an effective ban on nuclear weapons is bleak. But, longer-term, the revival of a massive nuclear disarmament movement, combined with pressure from an empowered United Nations, could bring these holdouts into the 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and, thereby, avert nuclear catastrophe.
Although the World Bank recently reported that vast economic inequality persists throughout the world, the establishment of a global minimum wage would lift billions of people out of poverty while reducing corporate offshoring of jobs, aiding unions, and curbing mass migration.
The ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza has stirred up a considerable backlash. But, in fact, the world's major military powers have long shown disdain for the international organization, for it has the potential to investigate, prosecute, and convict their own government officials.
The time has come to transform the United Nations into a federation of nations that can effectively uphold international law -- a government for the world. With such a government, we would have a much better chance of restraining outlaw nations and averting the nuclear catastrophe that looms before us.
As I contemplate the current political struggle over the future of the United States, I wonder about the apparent views of many of my fellow Americans. Do they really favor the extremist policies of Donald Trump -- the latest in a long string of rightwing demagogues?
Have human institutions evolved sufficiently to cope with the modern world? When it comes to national security, the answer appears to be: No. Recently, however, there have been efforts to reform the Unied Nations that, combined with the work of civil society organizations and far-sighted government officials, might produce a new and more peaceful relationship among nations.
The Trump-Vance defamatory and baseless attacks on immigrants are nothing new in U.S. or world history. Immigrant-bashing is a deeply rooted political strategy of the economically and socially privileged and their parties on the Right to undermine popular pressure for greater economic and social equality. As many a demagogue or unscrupulous politician has learned, fear or hatred of the "other" can be effective in stirring up a mob or winning an election.
Why does war's widespread destruction and human suffering persist in the modern, ostensibly "civilized," world? Although many explanations have been advanced, one of the most powerful is global anarchy. With this in mind, a number of prominent individuals over the past century have sought an effective remedy in strengthened global governance: Albert Einstein called for world government, Norman Cousins proposed world federation, and Benjamin Ferencz championed the development and enforcement of world law. And there have been indications that this approach can be effective.
Project 2025 -- a Heritage Foundation blueprint for a new GOP administration authorized by Trump and prepared by at least 140 people who had worked in his first administration -- proposes to ban public employee unions, empower the states to ban unions in the private sector, and give states the right to ignore federal minimum wage and maximum hour protections. In addition, it calls for eliminating child labor rules that protect children from working in mines, meatpacking plants, and other hazardous occupations. To help implement this draconic program and its other astonishing recommendations (for example, abolishing the Department of Education), Project 2025 advocates the firing of 50,000 federal government workers and replacing them with Trump loyalists.
During the Trump administration's four years in office, it weakened the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and rolled back critical U.S. health and safety regulations. As a result, in 2019 (the year before the advent of the deadly coronavirus pandemic), U.S. deaths on the job soared to 5,333 and an additional 95,000 American workers died elsewhere from occupational diseases. Furthermore, according to the AFL-CIO, American workers suffered between 7 million and 10.5 million injuries per year.