Cosmopolis: Prospects for World Government

218 Pages·1997·17.236 MB·English

by  Danilo Zolo

COSMOPOLIS

COSMOPOLIS
Prospects for World Government
DANILO ZOLO
Translated from the Italian by David McKie
Polity Press
Copyright © Danilo Zolo 1997
The right of Danilo Zolo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 1997 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
24681097531
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xvii
1 The Cosmopolitan Model of the Holy Alliance 1
2 The Gulf War: The First Cosmopolitan War 19
3 The Blind Alleys of International Ethics 53
4 Civitas Maxima and Cosmopolitan Law 94
5 Towards a ‘Weak Pacifism’ 128
Conclusion 164
Postscript to the English Edition 171
Select Bibliography 183
Index 191

The Newtonian image of the state as a planetary system and
the power of the sovereign as a counterpart of the central
force of the sun, fleshed out and added details to Hobbes’
basic picture. The stability of society required not just cen
tralized force, but also a system of fixed orbits: a modern
Cosmopolis.
In both science and philosophy the intellectual agenda
today obliges us to pay less attention to stability and system,
more attention to function and adaptability. This shift of
attention has its counterpart in the social and political realms.
The task is not to build new, larger, and yet more powerful
powers, let alone a ‘world state’ having worldwide
sovereignty.
S. Toulmin, Cosmopolis
A forced conformity of cultures would cut back man’s
evolutionary prospects. Herein lies the greatest danger to any
evolution planned and guided by us. As soon as we direct it
to a definite goal, we run the risk of narrowing the spectrum
of possibilities and thus setting in train a process of involu
tion. Differentiation, many-sidedness, and openness to the
world are human properties that must be retained.
I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, The Biology of Peace and War
The opposite of war is not peace, the opposite of love is not
hate, the opposite of collaboration is not harassment. Each
of these dichotomous pairs is at the same end of the scale of
mutual involvement and relatedness. At the opposite end of
the scale lie separation, indifference, exclusion, and rejection.
H. L. Nieburg, Political Violence