Cosmopolis: Prospects for World GovernmentISBN: 978-0-7456-1300-0
Hardcover
216 pages
February 1997, Polity
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This volume makes a challenging critique of the idea of Cosmopolis
- that is, the idea of world or 'global' government. In recent
years this idea has been put forward as a way of averting the
threat of war and international disorder, and as a way of avoiding
the destruction of the planet. Proponents of this idea call for a
radical reform of the United Nations which aims to legitimize this
institution as an international police force and as a provider of
global justice.
Zolo criticizes this new cosmopolitan philosophy and rejects the
idea of trying to eliminate international conflict through the use
of centralized and superior military force. He seeks instead to
develop a conception of international relations which takes account
of their pluralistic, dynamic and conflictual nature. This
conception moves away from the logic of hierarchical
centralization, which so dominates the UN Charter, and towards the
logic of 'weak interventionism' and 'weak pacifism' which relies on
self-organization, co-ordination and negotiation.
Timely, provocative and iconoclastic, Cosmopolis is an important contribution to current debates in politics, international relations and social and political theory.