1. THE END OF THE WORLD POWER OR OF THE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?
Fernando Alcoforado *
In his new book, The end of power, published by Leya Brazil, Venezuelan writer
Moisés Naim does not identify the end state, the end of large companies or churches, for
example stating that, each in its own way will remain standing even with the highest
concentration of wealth as in the United States. But their ability to exercise such power
is in check. Naim says in his book that no one has the power to solve many world
problems such as global warming, the crisis in the euro zone and the massacres in Syria.
Naim underscores the fact that these three problems involve serious dangers and
suffering of millions of people. The efforts of several countries and especially by the
great powers have not resulted in anything and, every day, we are told that each of these
crises goes on in runaway race to the cliff.
Naim says that Russia and China cannot solve the crisis in Syria. But can veto attempts
by other countries to stop the killings. The leaders of Italy, Spain and Greece need help
from other countries and organizations such as the European Central Bank or the IMF to
tackle its crisis. However, although neither Angela Merkel nor international bodies have
the power to resolve the crisis, they can block the game. With global warming is the
same thing. The overwhelming scientific evidence confirms that human activity is
warming the planet, which generates traumatic climatic variations. If emissions of
certain gases are unabated, the consequences will be disastrous for humanity.
According to Naim, these three crises are a manifestation of a trend that goes beyond
casting and many other spheres: the end of power. This does not mean that power will
disappear or that there are no longer actors with immense capacity to impose its will on
others. Means that the power has become increasingly more difficult to be exercised and
easier to lose. And who has that power today is more limited in its application than were
their predecessors. It further states that the presidents of the United States (or China)
have less power today than those who preceded them and concludes that the end of
power is one of the key trends that will define our time.
It is indisputable that the world is undergoing a lot of changes after the end of the Cold
War when prevailing the bipolarity of power between the United States and the Soviet
Union. With the end of the Cold War, the world has become multipolar despite the
economic and military preeminence of the United States, despite being the hegemonic
power in the world, have to cope with many limitations in their global operations. The
world power, in politics or in business, is becoming increasingly fragmented. In his
book, Naim discusses the changes that the world has been going since the mid-twentieth
century and seeks to explain why the power is now so transient and difficult to maintain
and use, examining the role of new technologies and by identifying the forces behind
According to Naim, the power, ie the ability to get others to do or do not do something,
is undergoing a historic transformation. Power is increasingly dispersed, and traditional
actors (governments, armies, companies and unions) are faced with new and surprising
rivals, some much smaller in size and resources. Moisés Naim says that power is
passing from those who have more brute strength to those who have more knowledge,
from the North to South and from West to East, from corporate older giants to younger
and agile, dictators clinging to power for the people protesting in the streets and plazas
as in the Arab world. Naim adds stating that "to say that power is going from one
country to another or is being dispersed by new actors is not enough. While states,
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2. companies, political parties and social movements fight for power as they always have,
it itself loses efficiency. In other words, the power is not what it was".
Naim concludes that in the 21st century, the power is easier to be conquered, harder to
use and easier to lose. The people who held such positions in the past not only faced
fewer opponents, but also suffered fewer restrictions whether social activists, whether
the media, whether rival to use that power. As a result, the powerful today usually pay a
higher and more immediate price for their mistakes than their predecessors. The
demolition of the traditional power structure is related to changes in the global
economy, politics, demography and migration. The fall of these barriers is transforming
local politics and geopolitics, the competition between companies to get customers or
between the great religions to attract supporters, as well as the rivalry between nongovernmental organizations.
These changes have benefited innovative and novices in many areas, including
terrorists, hackers and traffickers. These new actors are very different from each other,
but have in common the fact that they do not depend over size, geography, or history of
entrenched tradition to leave their marks. Small organizations can operate
internationally and have global repercussions. Represent the rise of a kind of micropower that previously had little chance of success. The degradation of power is a trend
that has opened up spaces for new structures, new ventures and, worldwide, new voices
and more opportunities. But its consequences for stability are full of dangers. The world
has become chaotic and dangerous for humanity.
It is time for humanity to provide the urgently as possible tools needed to take control of
your destiny. To have control of your destiny humanity must build a sustainable society
in each country and globally that is one that meets the needs of the present generation
without diminishing the ability of future generations to meet them, and deploy a world
government that has the capacity to regulate the global economy and rationalize the use
of natural resources of the planet in the exhaust process and thus contribute to building
world peace. This is the only means of survival of the human species.
The world government would aim to defend the general interests of the planet. Instead
of having to deal with micro powers in a chaotic and threatening world like that seen
today, humanity should work towards building a democratic global power. In this
context, all national states should prevent the spread of global systemic risks of
economic and environmental nature through global democratic power. The new global
democratic power should avoid empire of one country and anarchy in all countries. The
social, economic, financial, ecological, and political crises and the development of
illegal and criminal activities today show the urgency of a world government. One must
understand that the world market cannot function properly without the rule of
international law that cannot be applied and respected in the absence of a world
government that is accepted by all countries. A world government will be legitimacy
and will be sustainable only if it is truly democratic.
Humanity must understand that it has everything to gain by joining around a democratic
world government above the interests of each nation, including the most powerful,
controlling the world in its entirety, in time and space. The new world order must be
built to organize not only the relations between men on Earth, but also their relationship
with nature. It is necessary, therefore, that a planetary social contract that provides for
economic and social development and the rational use of the resources of nature for the
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3. benefit of all humanity is celebrated. The building of a new world order based on these
principles is urgent. It is urgent to think about it before it's too late.
*
Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,
regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.
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