George Monbiot admits that as of 2003 he and the Global Justice Movement to which he belongs and to whom this book is addressed have misdiagnosed the cause of the current global sickness and consequently have offered the wrong prescriptions (p. 2). The problem which needs to be confronted, he says, is not economic globalization but the lack of democratic political globalization.

When Art was drafted in early 1943 it was the beginning of four years of service to his country. He first served in a camp for conscientious objectors for seven months, and then was briefly at home, followed by assignment to a Medical Replacement Center in Texas. After three weeks in Pennsylvania preparing for overseas shipment, he was returned to Texas and assigned as company clerk in a unit preparing for overseas duty. Art was then transferred to MAC OCS preparing for his two years of service as an officer. Excerpts from the letters exchanged between Art and wife, Dods, tell the story. It is a powerful story of a unique wartime experience; not as someone remembered it years later, but as the letters were written, in the heat of the moment, as decisions of conscience and character were required.

World Federalists who would like to know more about their roots have a new treasure here. The first sentence of this new two-volume work by a professional historian (who knows the movement from within as well as through intensive study) succinctly describes the whole: "This book is a history of the practical, political efforts to establish a constitutionally limited, democratically representative, federal world government in order to effectively abolish war."

America the Almighty, a devastating critique of American foreign policy, examines both healthy and dangerous trends in international relations. It shows how, all too frequently, the Bush administration has become the cause of the latter.

Damours identifies two primary currents in human society: universalism, which seeks the welfare of all humanity, and tribalism, which advances the local and parochial at the expense of the whole. Following a great build-up of international institutions (the United Nations, the Breton Woods financial bodies, et al.) after World War II, U.S. foreign policy has shifted decisively in the tribalistic direction, especially in the Bush administration. This has made us an arrogant bully in our conduct of foreign affairs, "a spoiled child with too much power."

Didier Jacobs, Special Advisor to the President of Oxfam America, puts forth the view that the democratic ideal--the view that all members of a community should have equal say in determining the policies of that community--is already at work producing effects in the global community. Jacobs believes that this democratic ideal which moved Britain toward greater political equality in the 19th century, is now being applied at the global level.  Global democracy is "an idea whose time has come" (p. 3).  Consequently, the task now confronting humanity is not the development of completely new global political institutions, not the creation of a totally new democratic world federation, but rather merely democratizing the many intergovernmental institutions which already exist to deal with the problems of the world community.

This book is a must-read book for everyone interested in the idea of world government.  Professor Yunker is very supportive of the idea that the global community needs a world government and very critical of what he calls "the dysfunctional myth" (p. 201) that "global governance" or "global civil society" can adequately deal with global problems.

Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institute, provides us an excellent overview of human political history enriched by personal experiences and comments, all organized to show how humanity is slowly but surely creating ever larger political units to the point where now the next step is a creation of a global nation, a politically unified community that encompasses the whole Earth. Talbott gave us his general viewpoint in his 1992 article in TIME when he said, "I'll bet that within the next hundred years . . . nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority" (pp. 126-27)  He now adds,"I have qualified my forecast somewhat, but not in essence" (p.

This new book is a straightforward let's-look-at-the-arguments appeal to progressive thinkers to accept nothing less than a radically changed international system focused on enforceable global law as the only way to abolish war and militarism as well as really addressing other global problems such as limiting population growth, preventing and halting the spread of global epidemics, preserving the environment, dealing with the problem of poverty, and limiing the activities of global corporations.

Democracy is needed at the global level, not just within nations. That is the thesis of this book directed mainly to Western thinkers, especially in the United States. The governance of the world community should be in the hands of all its inhabitants, not just the small proportion found in earlier industrialized, earlier democratized richer countries.

Citizens for Global Solutions is proud to announce the release of Faithful Against Torture, a collection of essays by people of faith considering torture in the light of the principles, precepts and traditions of their religions.

Citizens for Global Solutions supports the establishment and enforcement of universal standards prohibiting torture.  We believe that the United States will be more secure in a world in which international treaties and norms prohibit torture and that U.S. service personnel and citizens will be safest when such standards are universally respected.