All people … should have access to life-long learning opportunities that help them acquire the knowledge and skills needed to exploit opportunities and to participate fully in society … The spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies.Footnote 1
Reforming legal texts, institutions and procedures, however well-conceived the reforms may be, will be inadequate to achieve significantly strengthened, effective international governance if attention is not also paid to engage the support and the participation of all those inhabitants of the planet, whom the institutions of governance, are meant to serve. The foundation for a renewed United Nations must be the shared values of all those who support it, as well as solid “civics” understanding of the nature and functions of key global institutions. Public education to understand our common humanity and the global good for all, both formal and informal, and extensive engagement with the mass media, will be an essential support to the success of proposals such as those contained in this book. Populations around the world will need to be grounded better in key principles of the international order – such as peaceful settlement of disputes and universal respect for human rights – in order to uphold these values and the relevant institutions, no matter where they are located throughout the world.
Crucially, relevant education is also needed for all those who will be called upon to serve in the institutions of global governance, and who will provide leadership or participate in governance processes. Many will need new skills, new ways of thinking and particular qualities of evolved leadership relevant to their roles in strengthened international institutions. This chapter sketches the multiple forms of education and the related sharing of knowledge that should accompany the proposed processes of reform, to ensure the correct general cultural and practical circumstances needed for functional global governance, requiring new levels of complexity and investment of resources (financial and otherwise). Chapter 20 on values and principles shares more detail on a range of the values, already inherent or agreed within the current international system, to be incorporated in new educational efforts.
Building Public Support
A government of “we the peoples” needs to have the full understanding and general support of the populations governed. Any system of governance that becomes too remote from those benefitting from the governance will fail to gain support and ultimately become ineffective. At the global level, it is particularly challenging to ensure that the entirety of the world’s population is educated in the imperative necessity of global governance in particular areas of international responsibility, and to the relevance of proposals such as those presented in this book. This should be the subject of public debate with wide participation. Early attempts to assemble popular support for efforts at substantial UN reform failed because they lacked the “immense works of preparing world public opinion for new political leadership.”Footnote 2
Fortunately, with information technologies, this is no longer an unrealistic goal. One prerequisite may be the initial support of a range of governments, as their cooperation will be important in reaching their populations through, among others, the formal school system and national media. Engagement of at least some governments would add significant weight to an influential international campaign for strengthened global governance, which could be planned and implemented with the support of the relevant educational institutions, mass media, information platforms and organizations of civil society. In particular, any model including a legislative mechanism based ultimately on universal suffrage must be supported by international civics education, and a generally well-educated and informed global public.
Even before the point of government adoption, civil society organizations, citizen and youth groups, and groups active in social media can increase and coordinate their actions to sensitize the public to the issues at hand and to encourage government action. Efforts are needed to create collective consensus and multiple global fora for vital dialogue and exchange, based on wide partnerships in favor of effective global governance (see Chapter 21). This may in turn catalyze a wide range of governments to act through more formal channels.
Even if some governments are not fully engaged or committed to international cooperation, their citizens will often still have access to the Internet and to radio and television broadcasts from outside their borders, bringing positive messages to their populations. It will be important to reveal and refute disinformation spread by those who may be opposed to certain institutional reforms for reasons of self-interest.
Central Messages
At the heart of public education for global governance lies the concept of the interdependence and unity in diversity of the global human community, as discussed in Chapter 20. Shared human identity is a biological fact, and greater international solidarity among peoples has become technologically possible in a world physically reduced to a neighborhood.Footnote 3 The advantages of thinking in a more unified manner at the global level and the many merits of establishing a workable “peace system” through international institutions (see Chapter 10) will need to be explained clearly. People should be reassured that their national autonomy, cultural diversity and personal freedom and initiative will be safeguarded through secure institutional checks and balances, and that no one will be left behind. There should be a collective expectation that, around the world, leaders and civil servants will be held to the highest standards of integrity and accountability (see, e.g., Chapter 18).
Public education also needs to take account of the emotional and psychological dimensions of reform processes, whether these are in the form of opposition that comes from the fear of change, or the positive desire to contribute to a better world. Conspiracy theories in some countries about the threat of a “New World Order” or global government revoking their freedom, disarming and enslaving them, need to be addressed. The frustrations of those who have not benefited from globalization or who have lost their dignity and place in society, leaving them open to populist messages, should be resolved. Fundamental global economic, social, cultural and humanitarian goals, already embedded in the UN Charter, must be emphasized and also meaningfully realized in new approaches and institutions, to correct the deficit in current economic globalization that has given “globalism” a bad name (see Chapter 14).
Today’s nationalism, nativism and xenophobia are rooted in fear of the “other,” which can be prevented and countered through education. Fear generally comes from ignorance. Usually the “other” is a fantasized caricature of the unknown, as once people get to know each other personally, prejudices and misconceptions are usually dispelled. As E.B. White satirically wrote in 1946 (criticizing what he viewed as a too-weak UN):
A world made one, by the political union of its parts, would not only require of its citizen a shift of allegiance, but it would deprive him of the enormous personal satisfaction of distrusting what he doesn’t know and despising what he has never seen. This would be a severe deprivation, perhaps an intolerable one. The awful truth is, a world government would lack an enemy, and that is a deficiency not to be lightly dismissed.Footnote 4
Opportunities should be created for nations, races, classes and creeds to mix, work and socialize with one another, with, for example, their children growing up together, as is already happening in many parts of the world. The inevitably increasing migrations driven by climate change and sea level rise, among other driving forces, might be viewed as a constructive mixing of peoples if supported by education that presents human diversity in a positive light. Relatively successful national policy approaches to build cultures of diversity proactively, such as those employed in Canada or Singapore, should be meaningfully explored as models and improved upon at the international level.
Education lies at the very heart of community building, at whatever scale, whether it concerns how we welcome new neighbors from foreign countries, or how we consider the consequences of our own actions and those of our own cities or countries on citizens of other nations. Learning about our shared human identity and basic human rights, values and responsibilities is central to creating a sense of community, including a community of nations (see Chapter 20).Footnote 5 Such education needs to start at a very early age, and will be necessary in the context of the global implementation of shared human rights norms, among the range of other reforms suggested.
While global governance may seem very distant from local communities throughout the world, communities are in fact the ultimate foundation for all levels of governance. The expression “think globally, act locally” captures this idea well. Our proposals for a reformed General Assembly, a World Parliamentary Assembly and a Chamber of Civil Society would help to provide better linkages and public accountability. The steadily increasing involvement of civil society organizations in UN processes already represents a remarkable level of public and grassroots engagement helping to drive UN policy change. The healthier local communities are, the stronger the foundation will be. When principles of participation in local governance, and collective reflection, consultation and common action, are implemented in neighborhoods, villages and communities, they provide a bottom-up complement to, and understanding of, government at higher levels. The values of unity in diversity, solidarity, moderation and service to others are as important at the local as at the global level and should be reflected in educational activities for all age groups in communities. Local action can be linked to global awareness by emphasizing the idea that each person is playing a small part in the global enterprise of constructing a positive, sustainable peace in the world.
Formal Education
UN member states have pledged to promote education for human rights and global understanding, and a detailed plan of action was approved in 1993 that can equally be applied today to education for global governance.Footnote 6 It identifies all the levels of education that should be included, the variety of non-formal settings where such education should be carried out, the specific contexts and difficult situations where relevant education should be targeted to people whose rights are in danger and the specific vulnerable groups to be included.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires governments to “strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms” (see Preamble and Art. 26).Footnote 7 Article 29 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that states parties – which include virtually every nation of the world – provide children with education directed to:
– The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;
– The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own;
– The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin.Footnote 8
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and many other international agencies seek to nurture our common humanity and to help learners become active global citizens.Footnote 9 However, the implementation of these promises, which is currently left to the national level without sufficient monitoring or support, falls short, and people in most of the world receive no education or information about human rights, global issues or the role of global institutions.
The essential foundation for an active citizenry, of course, is universal basic education, so that the entire world population becomes literate in line with the Quality Education Goal 4 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A literate and educated public is essential for the effective functioning of democratic processes and public participation at any level. While progress has been made in many countries, there were still 745 million illiterate people in 2015.Footnote 10 As required in SDG4, every child should be taught about her or his common humanity, global issues and governance. UNESCO has focused on global citizenship education for over a decade,Footnote 11 and has also prepared objectives and competences for a universal core curriculum for the SDGs in general and sustainable development in particular.Footnote 12 The challenge is universal implementation by governments in their school systems. Schools across the world can now be linked online to share experiences of global issues so that students come to understand their shared humanity and the planet they all inhabit. Universal quality education must be a priority for all governments. Where governments are unable to provide this, it should become a responsibility of the international community and the UN system to supply the necessary means. A small fraction of the amount presently spent on arms would be sufficient.
States have already obligated themselves to work on education to address specific global risks. For example, in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 6 states that parties “shall promote and facilitate … the development and implementation of educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects.”Footnote 13 If parties had taken this obligation seriously, the Paris Agreement would have a more solid foundation, as the publics and policy-makers at various levels in all countries, which need to identify their own ambition levels, would have been much better informed about what is at stake.Footnote 14
A second, later step will be to define a more systematized universal core curriculum for the different levels of formal education that would include essential ethical principles, human rights, civic responsibilities, grounding in the roles and functions of international institutions (and the ideals on which they are founded) and the SDGs as long as they are in effect. This would be integrated into the formal educational systems of all countries, both as a separate subject and integrated into other disciplines, while leaving ample space for cultural, national, and regional specificities to maintain the richness of human diversity.
Even once content appropriate to living in a globalized world has been developed, there will be practical and institutional challenges in its translation into all the necessary global languages and its integration into the curriculum of schools at the national level. Education ministries are notably conservative about change, requiring special efforts to help them to understand their important role. This should be one essential component of the commitments governments make to support steps to strengthen global governance. There would also be the need to train millions of teachers in the use of the materials through focused in-service training. Several years would then be required for students to have passed through a sufficient part of the curriculum to have grasped its essential messages. Given the inevitable time required for educational reform to have an impact, such changes should begin as soon as possible so that their effects will influence and reinforce the processes needed to transform global governance systems.
In tertiary education, there will be significant educational and research opportunities across the range of areas requiring global governance. International institutions will need well-trained civil servants, and national governments will also need to strengthen their structures that interface with global institutions. This may challenge academic institutions structured along disciplinary lines, as many governance issues are transdisciplinary and require integration across many fields. Certain core skills such as systems thinking and the ethical principles upon which governance is founded need to be widely taught as part of general education. Student exchange programs between universities at the international level (which are already occurring with unprecedented frequency) can be further systematized, also reinforcing a sense of global citizenship, as the European Union has employed the Erasmus inter-European student exchange program, building a new generation of European citizens.
The time may well come in the future when governments will see the need for an official international auxiliary language (e.g., a shared, common global language, spoken by all, in addition to local language(s)) that could be chosen or created to provide everyone with a means for inter-communication within an evolving global system, while still protecting national and subnational language diversity. Research could already be undertaken on what would be the most desirable characteristics for such a language, how it might be developed or selected, and how it could be introduced gradually to support better communication and understanding.
Informal Education
One important group to reach and educate about global governance is the members of the world’s parliaments and political assemblies, political leaders and influential personalities. Despite their responsibilities, they may often be behind even the majority of the citizens they should be serving in their understanding of global issues and priorities. Since such leaders and influencers are often isolated within their groups of advisors or entourage and access to them is limited, special events to reach such circles will need to be organized, where objective information, relevant ethical principles, and the issues and challenges can be discussed frankly.
Moreover, there are many other channels for education beyond the formal school system. Many civil society organizations have great capacities to reach their own target groups. They can find their particular messages within the global governance framework and add their support to the educational process. Religious organizations, in particular, have both formal educational institutions and Sunday schools, madrasas, children’s classes or other community educational activities. The moral and ethical values behind a more peaceful, just and sustainable world, including good governance, social justice, respect for others, moderation and other spiritual values, can easily find their place in these educational programs.Footnote 15
Generations that are beyond formal schooling will need to be reached with public education campaigns. Their fears and doubts should be addressed and reassurance provided that a strengthened layer of governance at the planetary level will not be threatening, but will contribute fundamentally to ensuring peace and prosperity for all. Their justifiable skepticism based on poor experiences with discredited national governments will have to be overcome. This is a formidable challenge but an important support to the necessary transformation.
Special attention should be given to all those whose livelihoods are linked to those parts of the economy that will be negatively impacted by the transition to a true collective security system with the peaceful settlement of disputes at the international level, as discussed in Chapter 9 on disarmament. They will need guarantees of retraining for new, more constructive forms of employment.
Information Technologies and Social Media
The potential of the Internet to reach the vast majority of humanity has expanded so rapidly that we are far from understanding the best ways to employ this potential for the common good. The UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation has recommended a strengthening of international governance of this new potential in order to foster global digital cooperation, build an inclusive digital economy and society, develop human and institutional capacity, protect human rights and human agency, and promote digital trust, security and stability.Footnote 16At present it is excessively dominated by too few companies in a near-monopoly position motivated primarily by profit, without due regard for public service. At the same time, there is enormous capacity to use social media and Internet platforms, together with the wide spread of mobile phone technologies extending their reach even in least developed countries, to provide most of the world’s population with access to information at a scale never before imagined. As mentioned previously, it is the new information and communications technologies that bring universal education into the realm of practical possibility. This potential should be developed in positive service to the shared ideals that will emerge as global governance is strengthened and becomes more effective. The popularity of social media should be harnessed to spread the main messages about the cultivation of global solidarity, the ethical principles being applied and the practical steps being taken to make enhanced and functional global governance a reality for everyone – delivering on the various promises enshrined in the Charter with respect to social and economic development, human rights, peace and security, and so on. Public institutions and civil society organizations should be increasingly proactive in using modern media for public education, countering forces driven exclusively by the profit motive, movements manipulating public opinion and the excesses of youth or immaturity. A well-informed public is in a better position to hold governments to account for the commitments they have made.Footnote 17 There are already many small-scale efforts in this direction that could be scaled up.
Resources on UN reform and global governance should be freely available on the Internet and the range of social media platforms in forms and languages accessible to many audiences, with coverage and explanations of the main events as reform is discussed and implemented. Transparency is an essential part of building public confidence that the global transformations are in the collective best interests.
The capacity of online education, whether in courses offered by formal educational institutions, massive open online courses (MOOCs) that can reach many thousands, or less formal opportunities for continuing education, all have great potential to build human capacity with a minimum of resources. Reform processes should be accompanied by a wide range of online educational opportunities, both to build public understanding and to prepare people for the many emerging opportunities for service and employment.
The Mass Media
As public opinion in most countries is formed by the mass media, it is clear that the media should have an important role in covering and explaining the various steps taken to reform and strengthen the United Nations system. Better education of journalists on these issues would be one important measure, along with the provision of access to reliable sources of information for journalistic communities. The media could also be encouraged not only to report the negative news regarding all the problems of the world, but also to tie them to some discussion of workable solutions. Widespread debate will be essential to inform the decisions to be taken by the governments of the world as they move forward to transform governance at the international level. Transparency is important to build public trust. The media themselves will need to rise above traditional roles that may include the defense of national interests and insular views. Journalists should be kept well informed of each step in the process through newswires and accessible reports, both from official sources and from civil society.
Given the importance of the mass media and news organizations in informing the public and shaping public opinion, the UN should consider the adoption of a universal ethical code for objective and responsible reporting,Footnote 18 also assuring the independence of journalists, initially as voluntary guidelines and later after General Assembly reforms with mechanisms for its enforcement. It is important to ensure protection of the media from manipulation by special interests while encouraging transparency and the expression of a full range of viewpoints and perspectives. There are challenges today from journalists who are killed or imprisoned; authoritarian regimes that stifle debate; hidden filters in search engines that facilitate confirmation bias; the fabrication of alternative facts and false news; the intentional spread of rumors and conspiracy theories to create fear, mistrust and disunity; the covert infiltration of the media by foreign powers for political ends including the destabilization of states; and the monopoly position of a few multinational corporations profiting from information technologies. Many of these problems escape today from national legislation and control and require an international framework.
Responsibility in the UN
The United Nations should itself play a leading role in building public understanding of its purpose and actions in the common global interest. It already has UNESCO, with extensive experience in education but limited means or influence on governments. There is a problem in terms of the coordination of international educational programming within the present UN system, where efforts are fragmented. The UN produces excellent publications but they are poorly distributed. A reformed UN system will therefore need a coherent collective strategy for education for global citizenship and civic engagement. It should build networks and partnerships with all those involved in the creation, communication and transmission to future generations of knowledge relevant to global governance and planetary sustainability.
Its functions should be to:
strengthen cooperation between knowledge centers in the UN system and governments, universities, business, Internet companies and civil society, and ensure that Internet access is accessible, secure and trustworthy;
increase capacity in all countries to take part in global governance, and provide leaders, civil servants and other actors with the necessary abilities and qualities;
ensure equal access to knowledge, particularly in developing countries;
connect global knowledge platforms to every government and parliamentary website to give policy-makers, politicians and citizens direct access to global knowledge through their own governance portals;
promote information in ways that enable citizens and decision-makers to find and use knowledge effectively.
Educational outreach by the UN system should be linked to its own internal efforts at knowledge management, which recognize knowledge as a strategic asset.Footnote 19 The UN has an enormous pool of information and experience relevant to global governance that should be maintained and transmitted as reforms are instituted and the system is upgraded for its new responsibilities.
The current UN News Service should be significantly expanded in order to provide impartial and quality information on UN programs and processes to populations worldwide, so that this knowledge becomes commonplace and enhanced UN powers are understood.
Without undermining the complementary role of independent journalism, the UN News Service should explain the sometimes-arcane ways of international diplomacy in stories that the general public can understand. It should earn the confidence of people everywhere, so that questions concerning the veracity of other reports can be compared with a reliable and objective global source. The built-in bias of national perspectives is well known, particularly where there are issues of conflict between states. This could be neutralized with facts from the UN itself. A reinforced and adequately funded UN would have the means to do this.
The constructive role of the UN and its agencies around the world also needs to be told more clearly, so that people can see the benefits that they will derive from UN action as well. A global sense of solidarity needs to emerge concerning people in need, the victims of disaster and the constructive actions that have overcome past problems and built resilience and reassurance in formerly suffering communities. Positive stories are needed to counterbalance the negative news that frequently makes headlines.
Leadership
Leadership and governance are often closely associated, as most forms of national governance have featured strong individual leaders such as kings or queens, autocrats, dictators or presidents. Unfortunately, this focus on personal leadership too often brings to the top people (historically mostly men) with strong egos and a desire for power and wealth, who will often employ any means to achieve their ends and then wish to hold on to power indefinitely. Many political processes reinforce this selective pressure. The characteristic old leadership styles, whether authoritarian, paternalistic, “know-it-all,” or manipulative, all commonly seek to dominate decision-making, serve an egoistic need for power and neglect to develop the potentialities of the group being led.Footnote 20 The result is governance that is generally not in the best interest of those being governed. This bad reputation is one reason why some are opposed to the concept of a world government, since they assume that any such government could be taken over by an autocrat or an elite or corrupt class that could never be dislodged.
Nor is the world and its citizenry protected from politicians, seemingly mentally healthy when they first come to high office, who may become thoroughly corrupted by the exercise of power and increasingly detached from reality, trying to hold on to office as they come to believe that they are indispensable to their respective nations’ stability and prosperity.Footnote 21 Narcissistic personality traits may push people to seek leadership but are not conducive to effective leadership.Footnote 22 As citizens we are not entrusted with the responsibility of driving a car without providing evidence to the relevant authorities that we are familiar with traffic rules and the workings of an automobile. We think nothing, however, of entrusting vast responsibility and, in some cases, the possibility of wreaking havoc on the world through the misuse of that power, without any evidence of suitability (mental, moral, psychological) for the job. An improved system of global governance should consider implementing proper checks on potential leaders, to be embedded in various institutional processes (e.g., through expert psychological review panels, which are now being employed in the private sector and for many leadership roles). It does not require much imagination to think about the calamities that could have been averted if such safeguards had been in place during our blood-soaked twentieth century.
To avoid these risks, any system of global governance needs safeguards to prevent any tendency to autocracy, both by ensuring that the roles of individuals with power and authority are minimized and properly limited, and by a strong program of selection and ongoing education to ensure that all those within the system reflect attributes of altruism, service and dedication to the common good.
This means that the qualities of good leadership in institutions of global governance may be quite different from leadership as currently understood or commonly tolerated in some governments or businesses. In studies about leadership competencies, the most important were to have high ethical and moral standards and humility, and to be focused on the truth.Footnote 23 This would be particularly important in global governance, where giving priority to the global collective good will be of great importance.
There has been considerable work on values-based leadership, or “moral leadership,” which can suggest some of the qualities to be sought in selecting and educating leaders for global governance.Footnote 24 In summary, these explore three aspects of leadership: the objective or mission of leadership, the style of leadership, and the individual morality and motivational drive needed for a leadership role in societal change. Motivation concerns the personal values of the leader, and whether they are driven primarily by self-interest or altruism.
Education at all ages can cultivate in people the ability to move away from the all-too-common “cultures of contest,” where egos strive for themselves or their own group, to a culture of cooperation for the benefit of themselves and all others.Footnote 25 It is possible to nurture a culture of global solidarity through education or processes of cooperative interaction.Footnote 26 A moral leadership framework can have considerable potential to clarify or change people’s motivation to serve their communities.Footnote 27 The need to consider the implications of actions with consequences for many generations brings a spiritual, ethical or philosophical dimension to leadership.Footnote 28
One “moral leadership” framework that has been developed since the late 1990s is based on interrogating and transcending traditional, unconscious mental models and developing new capabilities, such as utilizing participatory techniques as well as practicing more horizontal and less vertical power structures. It is a model of leadership dedicated to personal and collective transformation, committed to moral values and principles, based on the value of truthfulness and guided by the exercise of capabilities in service of the common good. It has a clear vision of the society it wishes to create and the strategies that will help bring it into being, and acts on the basis of this vision and these strategies. It entails a deep personal commitment to strive for individual transformation through the development and exemplification of a life based on ethical principles, characterized by qualities of integrity and empathy. It aims for collective transformation through actions that promote community cohesion and justice. In summary, it is leadership characterized by service to the common good, selfless, listening, reflective and persevering.Footnote 29 Such a framework at the core of education for leadership in global governance, combined with high levels of technical and administrative capacity of officials, could ensure the efficacy of any institution.
Complementary to the proactive training of good leaders with requisite qualities is the establishment of safeguards to hold leaders and governments to account for the most serious violations of international standards, including the proposed International Anticorruption Court (Chapter 18), the International Criminal Court (Chapter 10) and the proposed International Human Rights Tribunal (Chapter 11).
Another complementary approach is to favor group leadership, in which authority is vested in a consultative body that brings diverse perspectives together in a common search for the global interest. This can draw on the strengths of each individual present, while neutralizing their shortcomings. The ideal would be to reach a consensus, but majority voting would also be possible. Since no individual would have power or authority, many of the risks of individual leadership would be avoided. This more collaborative model has some common features with the consensual system of government in Switzerland, and with some religious systems of governance.Footnote 30
It will also be important that leadership in international organizations be gender balanced and fully reflect human cultural differences, moving further away from the political interests and power politics of some of the present United Nations appointment processes for leadership positions, to rather emphasize competence and commitment to the global common good.
Forming an International Civil Service
The staff of the UN Secretariat, its programs and specialized agencies, is recruited from all parts of the world, with certain guidelines to respect a balance of nationalities. If international governance is to respect the principles of unity in diversity and leaving no one behind, then the people within the system need to reflect the spectrum of human diversity and to bring their unique perspectives to the administration of the global community.
One of the enabling mechanisms to ensure coherence and efficiency in the international civil service will be education on the principles of the UN Charter and other founding documents, the core values and ethical principles that every civil servant should respect and the basic procedures of administration. Since such education will not necessarily be available to every recruit, and setting standards too high may exclude more disadvantaged groups from such opportunities for service, the UN system itself should provide enhanced more educational opportunities on recruitment and through regular in-service training. The UN Staff College should also give existing staff new skills as they move up to higher responsibilities.
Special training would also be needed for the personnel of an International Peace Force and its reserves (see Chapter 8), so that volunteers receive not only the necessary military skills but also a clear understanding of the high purpose of their missions and the ethical principles that should guide all their actions in the common interest, in the performance of such a sensitive function. Accepting that the use of force may sometimes be necessary to bring or restore peace will always involve careful operations to achieve enforcement without a motive of retribution or harming the innocent.
An International Judicial Training Institute (see Chapter 10) is likewise imperative to ensure that members of the international judiciary have the requisite levels of independence, knowledge base and technical skill required for the enhanced new international legal institutions that are crucial for effective, balanced and fair global governance.
The UN has always aimed to recruit the most able staff available. The Noblemaire principle, first formulated in the early days of the League of Nations, states that:
for the international civil service, only a global salary system could ensure both equity and the necessary mobility of staff. In line with the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, no distinction could be admitted in the remuneration of internationally recruited staff on the grounds of their nationality or of salary levels in their own countries. Since the organisations must be able to recruit and retain staff from all Member States, the level of remuneration must be sufficient to attract those from the countries where salary levels are highest.Footnote 31
By extension, every effort should be made to recruit the most able staff from everywhere in the world, compensating through education where necessary the deficiencies in training available in more disadvantaged countries.
Service in international governance should be seen as a highly attractive vocation if it is to attract the most able candidates. The combination of general education on governance and civic responsibility and on the high ideals of the UN system throughout the world will enhance its attractiveness for the most able and highly motivated people to join the international civil service, increasing its effectiveness even further.Footnote 32
Information as an Intervention
A global government needs means of enforcement if it is to resolve key global problems. The ultimate means is the use of force, which could be justified in extreme situations, for example, against a government that has itself resorted to force in a serious breach of international law or to aggress its neighbors. Obviously, any other means of intervention short of force should be used whenever possible. Information and education should be considered among those options.
One specific challenge in the implementation of UN actions for peace and security, and other relevant global issues, is the need to counteract disinformation, propaganda and hate speech, which can too easily incite violence. The case of Rwanda, where extremist radio stations incited the population to genocide with great effect,Footnote 33 shows the importance of a UN capacity to neutralize or counter such messages, providing alternative sources of information in which the population can have confidence. This can be one form of intervention among others in crisis situations.
There may be many other situations where governments malfunction, or extremist movements try to hold sway over a population, where objective information from a neutral UN source could defuse a dangerous situation and restore order. Educational countermeasures could be employed for preventive action within vulnerable groups, for example, to counter terrorist organizations which use information channels to attract recruits.
Access to Knowledge
Behind every educational effort lies the basic principle of access to knowledge for everyone. Education both conveys knowledge and teaches how to access it. Global governance must ensure that every person on the planet can acquire the knowledge needed to be a constructive and informed member of society. Every community should be invited to collect, preserve and transmit the knowledge of its history, culture, arts, agriculture and industries, and every nation has its own rich heritage. The advancement of science depends on the free exchange of knowledge, in which everyone, everywhere should participate. An evolving global civilization will increasingly reflect the knowledge required to live peacefully and sustainably on this planet.
One challenge that will require some innovative global legislation and regulation in the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will likely be to modify the present regimes for intellectual property to ensure and facilitate a universal global right of access to knowledge. The present regimes are too slanted to favor private interests profiting from knowledge and artistic creations sold for the highest price the market can bear. The patent system for inventions and chemical or medical innovations also places too much emphasis on the profits of the holders of the patents above widespread sharing for the general good. The limited time of a patent’s validity is intended to allow the inventor a reasonable return for the effort of discovery and development to market, but under current systems this often excludes the poor majority of humanity from any benefit until the patent has expired. In the case of life-saving medicines at least, this is ethically questionable.
Before the development of the Internet, knowledge was distributed on material supports that had a cost, such as books, journals, records, films or compact discs, or performed in theaters or shown in galleries or museums. With new information technologies, knowledge and creative works have dematerialized, and can be made available at little or no cost to everyone around the world with the necessary technology to access them. Information should not be a scarce resource to be rationed through the market. On the contrary, it gains in value to society the more it is shared.
A helpful distinction may be made between two types of knowledge and creative works. Universal access should generally be facilitated or guaranteed to those that serve to inform, educate, enlighten and uplift the individual through the arts and culture, or that advance scientific knowledge and understanding, furnish citizens with news and necessary information, improve health and well-being, provide a basis for policy-making, and facilitate technological innovation and thus contribute to the general good. On the other hand, it is appropriate for the entertainment industry to charge for its productions. The knowledge necessary to be good global citizens and to develop each individual’s capacity to be of service to society should always be accessible, regardless of ability to pay.
Today the intention of intellectual property rights to reward the creators has in many quarters been captured by corporate actors focused too narrowly on profit. One salient example is scientific knowledge. If scientists want to publish their findings in reputable journals or books, they must sign away their intellectual property rights to the publisher while receiving no remuneration, only the recognition that comes from having their work read by others. In some cases, they must pay high page charges for open access. Peer reviewers also contribute their knowledge and judgment without any personal benefit as part of the open culture of science. Currently the major scientific publishers have bought up the journals of scientific societies and consolidated into a few large multinationals. Expensive books and journal subscriptions go only to the best-endowed university libraries. Individual scientists outside such institutions, or in economically disadvantaged countries that cannot afford to buy the literature, can access the scientific literature online, but only by paying a high fee to read each article, even those that they have authored, which is generally beyond their means. This recent privatization of the commons of scientific knowledge effectively restricts cutting-edge science to only the wealthiest countries and researchers in institutions.Footnote 34 A new kind of scientific poverty is thus spreading around the world; this trend must be actively countered and reversed at the international level to ensure the steady advancement of science, knowledge generally and innovation at the global level. There is a counter-movement toward open access, but it still covers only a fraction of the scientific literature, and not the most significant part.Footnote 35
Recommended Actions
It is clear that a reformed United Nations needs capacities in a range of domains relevant to education, including support to public education for global citizenship, a news flow on UN reform and actions around the world, a significant presence on the Internet and in social media, and close links with the national governments it serves. Internally it needs to give more profound education in UN values to new recruits and all staff, and continuing education to build staff capacities. It should create a global framework for ethical journalism, the free access to science and other knowledge necessary for the good functioning of global governance, and safeguards against any infringements on every individual’s rights to education, general knowledge and objective information. As the global system matures, the UN could become a guarantor of the quality of leadership at the national level in service to the common good, both nationally and internationally.
Open access