International federalism talks about the democratically elected global political institution, which will address the global issues, there would be the provision to solve the local issues at the provincial level, national issues at national level and global issues at global level. It is not a new idea, there are many countries, United States, Russia, Canada, Germany, India, etc, which follow the federal structure. The world has reached at a point that it must have a globally accepted democratic political system, most of the problems we are facing today are global, famine, terrorism, population explosion, poverty, inequality, trade barrier, climate change, racism, etc.
The world is slowly and steadily becoming the global village, people are more interconnected, interdependent and integrated, no country can live without impact if the discord is spreading in other countries, the discord may be financial, trade, religious, and political. International federalism could have huge potential to address the global issues under the democratic framework. Although it is not so simple to implement it in a world where the current world order is continuously being threatened by radical, far- right, nationalist and fascist, we have no other option, we got to implement it sooner or later.
UN was established to fulfill the goal of international federalism in the long run, the leadership of the world, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Garry Davis, Emery Reves, Wendell Willkie, Jawaharlal Nehru, E. B. White and Lola Maverick Lloyd, Albert Einstein, etc at that time were actively supporting the World Federalist movement. UN General Assembly is working on the principle of federalism, every member countries have its representation, it discusses the global issue and democratically passes the resolution on the basis of voting system, but it has huge shortcoming, the resolution is not bound to the member states and it can be discarded by the UN Security Council. UN is now failing to establish its credibility due to the lack of reform, UNGA has huge potential to reform, the representatives of member states must be elected directly or indirectly, the resolution passed by it should be strictly followed, and it must not be intervened by UNSC.
European Union is the only supranational organization where the footprint of federalism can be seen, although it’s a confederation, a union of sovereign states. The European Parliament is democratically elected, discusses on the European issues, and the national issues are being taken care of by the national government.
International federalism must be adopted for international security and prosperity, it would help to safeguard the rights and interests of every citizen of the world, and it could solve the global issues on the basis of democratic values, unlike undemocratic United Nations.
0 Comments