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Ohio State Political Science professor Alexander Wendt lectures in 2002 on why he believes a one state world is inevitable. (UPDATE: Ondra alerts us that Wendt published the piece he was preparing in this talk as “Why a World State is Inevitable: Teleology and the Logic of Anarchy” European Journal of International Relations 9(4): 491-542. Thanks Ondra!)
I wonder what happens under this theory when biotechnology advances to the point where DIY Bio enables anyone to create an epidemic, or nanotech enables similar or greater levels of destruction.
Would this increase or decrease the "attraction" toward a world state?
He did mention that this world state could take on a decentralized federalist or "subsidiary" model. Clearly such a model would be far more resilient, and in the long run I think it would be the most stable equilibrium even after the invention of radical new technologies.
At the end of the lecture, Wendt gives his opinion that Great Britain should've joined the E.U. "Better to get in on the ground floor..." At the 5:00 mark, however, he says that he is not going to take a position whether a world state will be a good thing. True, the EU is not a world state, but I think Wendt may have revealed his hand.
Also, it seems to me that Wendt very much wants to believe in teleology (2:20 mark) while at the same time not get on the bad side of scientists who reject any sort of teleology -- so what he does is create his own definition. I can't say I'm comfortable with this.
Finally, at 31:50, Wendt thinks that Israel and the Palestinians "have come quite a ways towards accepting the other side's basic rights, and that it's just a matter of time before they eventually settle on mutual recognition of sovereignty. " A realistic opinion, or pie-in-the-sky optimism?
I felt the talk had a Hegelian, Marxist, Trotskyist feel to it mixed with a Metaman (Gregory Stock) feel to it because he mentioned the word superorganism a few times, though he didn't talk about future technology and its role in all of this as Stock had. And thank you LS for a reality check.
FYI, this lecture is from 2002 and was followed by 2003 Wendt's article "Why a World State is Inevitable: Teleology and the Logic of Anarchy." European Journal of International Relations 9(4): 491-542. I got confused there for a while thinking it was recent...
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