L'illusione del governo mondiale

In this article, originally published on «Foreign Affairs» in 1949, Reinhold Niebuhr argued a tough criticism against some scholars and politicians that have suggested the possibility of World Government. Though tecnics have established a rudimentary world community, they have not integrated the international system organically, morally or politically. Niebuhr thinks that every community needs a rooted social tissue, while the anarchical interntional system lacks it. Indeed the forces – as the mutual fear of nuclear annihilation and the increasing economic interdependence – which were operating to integrate the world community, were limited. According to the protestant theologian, there is no viable constitutional solution to the problem of international order. To achieve peace and justice in the world community states can only go beyond their national interest.