Global Governance Futures: Imperfect Utopias or Bust

Dr Zak Stein is a writer, futurist, and transformative educator working to bring a greater sense of justice and sanity to education. He is also a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue. Zak was educated at Hampshire College and received his PhD from Harvard University, where he studied educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education. While at Harvard, he also co-founded Lectica, a non-profit organization dedicated to redesigning standardized testing infrastructures. His most recent book, Education in a Time Between Worlds, grapples with the dangers posed by a profound learning and capacity deficit in a time of civilization-wide transformation. From climate change to politics, agriculture to economics, Zak argues that the world we have known is rapidly disappearing and it is now an existential imperative that we transform education systems if we are to survive the planetary crises currently underway. Planetary wellbeing ultimately depends upon schools, technology and society being re-envisioned toward empowering the world’s youngest citizens to comprehend and respond appropriately to global challenges of unprecedented size and scope. Zak currently serves as the academic director for the Center for Integral Wisdom, and offers human development and learning science consultations to schools, organizations, and educational technology companies. For more information about The Consilience Project at https://consilienceproject.org/ Zak has published two books: Social Justice and Educational Measurement: http://www.zakstein.org/social-justice-and-educational-measurement-book-release-announcement/ Education in a Time Between Worlds: http://www.zakstein.org/education-in-a-time-between-worlds-book-release/ A range of other publications, including his essay ‘If education is not the answer you are asking the wrong question’, are available here: http://www.zakstein.org/publications/

Sophie Harman is Professor of International Politics at Queen May University of London with interests spanning global health, African Agency, film and visual methods, and gender politics. Sophie has pushed the boundaries of International Relations (IR) scholarship more than most, notably through her use of visual mediums to convey the lived experience of those at the receiving end of global health programmes. In 2019, she was nominated for the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer for her work on the feature film Pili which tells the story of women living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. Sophie has recently published the book Seeing Politics: Film, Visual Method and International Relation and was awarded the Joni Lovenduski Prize for outstanding professional achievement by a mid-career scholar by the Political Science Association (PSA) in 2018. In a wide-ranging conversation, we discuss why visual politics, as well as emotion, are important frontiers for the future of IR scholarship. Sophie reflects on the trials and tribulations of pursuing a film project in a profession not known for risk-taking. Beyond the razmataz of the BAFTA red carpet, we discuss how the film Pili provides a portal into questions of global health, power relations, colonial legacies, and gender inequity. Sophie highlights the importance of storytelling and giving space to those stories which are almost never heard in the corridors of power. Recalling James C. Scott’s famous work, Weapons of the Weak, we also discuss how people at the receiving end of global governance programmes make sense of politics and reclaim agency in their dealings with often remote international bureaucracies. Sophie also tackles head on the pathologies of reproducing tired gender narratives in a context of accelerating global health securitization and privatization, as well as why getting the basics right would be a good start for an international sector beset by problems of accountability. And we also find time for a few words on Covid-19. Sophie can be found here: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/politics/staff/profiles/harmansophie.html She tweets @DrSophieHarman Projects and publications we discussed include: The film PILI: Pili lives in rural Tanzania, working the fields for less than $2 a day to feed her two children and struggling to manage her HIV-positive status in secret. Watch the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/192767913 Available to view here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pili-Bello-Rashid/dp/B07MJM1LB4 ‘Making of’ film blog here: https://notanotheraidsfilm.com/ Seeing Politics: Film, Visual Method and International Relations (McGill-Queen’s University Press): https://www.mqup.ca/seeing-politics-products-9780773557314.php ‘Threat not solution: gender, global health security and COVID-19’, International Affairs: https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/97/3/601/6180992?login=true

Daniel Schmachtenberger is a social philosopher and founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue. The through line of his interests has to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal. Towards these ends, he has a particular interest in the topics of catastrophic and existential risk, civilization and institutional decay and collapse as well as progress, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science. Motivated by the belief that advancing collective intelligence and capacity is foundational to the integrity of any civilization, and necessary to address the unique risks we currently face given the intersection of globalization and exponential technology, he has spoken publicly on many of these topics, hoping to popularize and deepen important conversations and engage more people in working towards their solutions. Many of these can be found at http://civilizationemerging.com/media/ In this conversation, we explore why it is now imperative to figure out a whole new world system given the catastrophic risk landscape that we confront. Daniel argues that in the face of exponential curves proliferating across systems – human, technological and geophysical – we need to develop a novel set of solutions for how we coordinate at scale. The task ahead of us is nothing less than to foster a global social, technological and educational zeitgeist, one which can prevent existential risk in a way commensurate to our deepest values for participatory and empowered governance. For more information about The Consilience Project at https://consilienceproject.org/

Dr Patrick Ophuls (who writes under the pen name William Ophuls) is an American political scientist, ecologist, independent scholar and author. He is known for his pioneering role in the modern environmental movement. A prominent voice in the environmental movement since the 1970s, Patrick received his PhD in political science from Yale University in 1973. His 1977 book Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity was awarded the Sprout Prize from the International Studies Association. Subsequent work has sought to bring to public attention some of the ecological, social, and political implications of modern industrial civilization. In his 2011 book, Plato’s Revenge: Politics in the Age of Ecology, Patrick argues that political struggle must now urgently focus on making ecology the master science and Gaia the key metaphor of our age. In this conversation, we discuss why we need to stop thinking of ourselves as somehow above or outside the natural systems that support us. We also explore how humanity’s efforts to embrace the politics of ecology could well prove to be the defining story of this century if we are to avoid indulging the tragedy of homo (in)sapiens. Patrick’s publication include: Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail (2012) Plato’s Revenge: Politics in the Age of Ecology (2011) Requiem for modern politics: the tragedy of the enlightenment and the challenge of the new millennium (1997) Ecology and the politics of scarcity (1977) Episode image by Raul Lieberwirth: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lanier67/6825685137/

Professor Richard Falk taught at Princeton University Politics department for over 40 years and has published more than 50 books and many articles on global politics and international law. A self-described, “citizen pilgrim”, he decided early on that his career would combine academic work with an ethical obligation to speak out on questions of global and local justice. A prominent voice in the nuclear deproliferation movement, Professor Falk was chair of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Board of Directors until 2012. And in his most prominent role in recent years, in 2008 Professor Falk was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights by the UN Human Rights Council where he served until 2014. Perhaps less well known, Professor Falk was a key figure in scholarly political debates on world order and systems change through the 1960s and 70s, alongside scholars including Ken Waltz, Hedley Bull, Harold Lasswell and Immanuel Wallerstein. Professor Falk was also one of the first global political scholars to take seriously the ecological, demographic and biosocial aspects of the future of world order, as explored in his 1971 book ‘The Endangered Planet’. We discuss this rich intellectual heritage, what lessons we might excavate from these earlier debates for today, and how the shadow of history looms large over our current challenges, which, while formidable, also present opportunities for revitalising understandings of citizenship in our uniquely globalised civilisation. * We unfortunately experienced some technical problems with the sound in this episode. We hope that you will nevertheless enjoy this conversation. Richard can be found on his website Global Justice in the 21st Century. We discussed the following publications: Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim (2021) Twilight of the Nation-State (at a Time of Resurgent Nationalism) (2020) This Endangered Planet: Prospects and Proposals for Human Survival (1971)

Jonathan Rowson is co-founder and Director of Perspectiva. He was previously Director of the Social Brain Centre at the RSA. Jonathan is an applied philosopher with degrees from Oxford, Harvard and Bristol Universities. In a former life he was a chess Grandmaster and British Champion (2004–6) and views the game as a continuing source of insight and inspiration. Towards the end of 2017, Jonathan was awarded an Open Society Foundation (OSF) Fellowship to inquire into the putative crisis in human rights. The essay which resulted – formulated as a letter to the Human Rights Movement – provides a deep and broad reflection into the crisis of human rights as symptomatic of a deeper and broader “meta-crisis:” a crisis in our perception and understanding of the world’s challenges. It was brilliant to welcome Jonathan to our first Podclass with students from our MA in Human Rights programme. The conversation gives a flavour of a provocative and insightful essay which provides valuable coordinates for exploring the status of human rights in these perilous times and their enduring relevance to a world defined by global systemic challenges. Jonathan can be found on twitter at: @Jonathan_Rowson The essay ‘Dear Human Rights Movement’ is available here. Other recent writings include: Tasting the Pickle: Ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation, February 2021. The Moves That Matter: A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life (2019). Bloomsbury Publishing. Bildung in the 21st Century – Why sustainable prosperity depends upon reimagining education, June 2019.

Susan K. Sell is Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (REGNET) at the Australian National University. Susan has been at the forefront of critical international political economy (IPE) scholarship for over two decades. An admirer of earlier critical IPE voices, like Susan Strange, Susan has forged a career shining a light on the dark side of global governance in a world of hyper-globalisation and acquisitive transnational private power. For Susan, it has always been about who wins and who loses within the often opaque workings of the global economy. Her research has applied this lens to powerful effect, particularly in the area of global health. Although critical IPE is experiencing a resurgence of interest, that was not always the case. In a wide-ranging conversation, Susan reflects on being an often lone critical voice during the triumphalist 1990s liberal moment, navigating a discipline which, until recently, was overwhelmingly male, as well as the potential for COVID-19 to serve as a “horrendous opportunity”, and what the future of global private power might look like. Susan can be found on the ANU website. Selection of publications: What COVID-19 Reveals About Twenty-first Century Capitalism: Adversity and Opportunity, 2020 Health under capitalism: a global political economy of structural pathogenesis, 2019 (with Owain D. Williams) Who Governs The Globe? 2010 (with Deborah Avant and Martha Finnemore) TRIPS was never enough: vertical forum shifting, FTAs, ACTA, and TPP, 2011 Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights, 2003

The multi-talented Forrest Landry joins us for this podcast episode. A philosopher, writer, researcher, scientist, systems engineer, master woods craftsman and teacher, Forrest combines decades of inquiry into metaphysics and especially the relationship between causation and choice, with deep appreciation of how design and complete system solutions can be used in service to individuals, nature and to the future of humanity. This is definitely a full stack episode! We explore: why asking the right questions is so important, what is a good basis of choice, the critical difference between judgement and discernment, reflexive problem-solving across cultures, the risks posed by geoengineering, and much, much more. Many of Forrests’ writings are available on his business website Magic Flight.Com: https://mflb.com/ Forrest and collaborators have launched Ephemeral Group Processing, using technology to facilitate and scale face-to-face conversations: http://egp.community/ Forrest tweets @ForrestLandry19

Scott Williams joins us for a deep dive into what it means to live in right relationship in times of systemic and accelerating risk. With a “rigorous sense of humility and confusion,” Scott helps us understand some of the underlying drivers which have led the human and social to become separated from the underlying reality of the stochastic vitality of living systems, and the consequences of this separation for human relationship, both human-to-human and to nature. Along the way, we explore the systemic function of money, the power of collective narrative, “ways to reallow humans to meet humans,” including in the corridors of political and institutional power, and the role of knowledge in nourishing ourselves and ensuring the widest possible circle of compassion. Scott is the coordinating lead author for Chapter 2 ‘Systemic Risks, the Sendai Framework and the 2030 Agenda’ of the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction issued by the UN. Scott has a long track record working in the area of disaster risk for the UN and other agencies, in both the public and private sector. This experience has led him to explore what it really means to be a Systems Innovator, with current projects looking at how to accelerate climate innovation to a zero-carbon economy within the EU, as well as applying the insights from the 2019 UNDRR report to COVID-19 – available in a series of articles on preventionweb. Scott tweets @Scott42195

Nafeez Ahmed guides us through the intricacies of systems thinking from within and outside the IR Academy, throwing light on the scale of the governance challenge which complex global problems such as the climate crisis pose, the inevitable demise of current systems, and what a new emerging paradigm might look like, one in which we find ways to live together in our diversity and thrive within planetary boundaries. Nafeez is an investigative journalist, founding editor and chief writer for INSURGE intelligence, and ‘System Shift’ columnist at VICE’s science magazine Motherboard. He is developing a unique form of what he calls “systems journalism” and in the conversation also explore what it means to be a journalists in an age of media hyper-partisanship. He holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Sussex and is the author of a number of books, including Failing States, Collapsing Systems: BioPhysical Triggers of Political Violence and A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization, which has also been turned into a documentary.