As we continue reading the newly published volume Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security: The Future of Humanity we come to the first of the section introductions.
Chapter 2 of Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security, the first section introduction, is titled “Why We Need More Effective Leadership at the Global Level.” It addresses major questions that are important when contemplating the roles and responsibilities of leadership in our ever-globalizing world. The systems of economies, cultures, supply chains, global health, and world travel are so complex that serious time and care needs to be put into the ways we define and refine methods of global governance.
It seems that this edited volume has arrived with auspicious timing. Much of the world looks at the situation in Ukraine with fear. Already the violence and destruction are great, yet we can’t help but wonder how the responses of governments around the world can help the Ukrainian people, or potentially push more countries into the conflict. Not only does this demonstrate the precious yet precarious nature of peace, but it also shows the heights of power wielded by global leadership.
As Dr. Mahmoudi and Dr. Seaman point out the recent COVID-19 pandemic has also shed light on some pervasive challenges in global governance. The reliance on the will and leadership of individual governments creates mechanisms that are slow and often ineffective in addressing the needs of a global concern.
Additionally, there is an inequitable power balance between large, rich nations, and smaller and developing nations. The social construction of authority is a major tenant of the framework for teaching information literacy with which I have become very familiar during my studies. It applies here too, as we examine how and why we give power to some nations and representatives and not others. The uneven vaccine distribution throughout the world and the resulting variants prolonging the pandemic indicate that perhaps our current methods of apportioning authority are not serving the world as well as they could.
Addressing major issues and questions like these is never easy but is always valuable. This chapter concludes that we need to examine ourselves and our individual roles and responsibilities while at the same time we hold others accountable. It asks the reader to think about the issues raised and how we can improve global governance and leadership in future, providing questions for taking the inquiry further;
- How do we identify authority within global governance?
- Who can accord legitimacy to those authorities?
- As challenges to governance become more complex, how do we create more effective global governance?
- How do we ensure that accountability is built into the system?
- What can be done to make global governance more representative?
- What responsibilities do we as individuals have in holding ourselves and our institutions accountable?
Improving global governance will take work, but is a worthwhile endeavor.
The volume is available to purchase here.
About the Author:
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She is attending the University of Maryland and pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science.