None of the great challenges facing us today – the protection of the environment, the rational use of energy sources, the health of our species and, indeed, of all living things – can now be addressed by a single country, no matter how powerful it may be. Awareness of this fact entails the need to think about something that had previously seemed an utter utopia: the prospect of a planetary government stretching well beyond the borders of nation-states, even when the latter tend to take on the form of empires. At the same time, we increasingly encounter expressions such as “international justice”, “supra-territoriality” and “transnational government”, despite the horrors of the war of aggression occurring at Europe’s doorstep. We are growing accustomed to the idea of a global civil society, something like an authentic planetary civilisation. This lucid, realistic and visionary book, written by a major historian, projects readers into an imaginable future – not only for the West, but for an entire world finally at peace with itself.

Anthony Pagden teaches History and Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

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