END OF THE NATION STATE: A Historical Perspective

If we are to continue to progress as a species and continue our evolutionary trajectory through the application of science and technology, we will have to give up our national identity and political structure; and accept the commonality of who we are and the world we share. We cannot hope to solve the world's problems by continuining with our current nationalistic geopolitical structures. We are hard pressed to drop what has allowed us to survive and progress in what we perceive as a dangerous world, but drop it we must if we are to survive as a species.
We are all aware of global warming, depleting resources, pollution, overpopulation, and wage disparity between the haves and have-nots and trust that these items are being discussed by our politicians in international arenas such as the United Nations, the WTO, the G8, the IMF and other international forums. Although we believe in dialogue, we understand that the best way of assuring our future and obtaining solutions that best meet our needs are through a strong economy and a powerful military. As we cannot trust the motivations of competing nations, and are reluctant to accept the words of nations whose governments and traditions are not as enlightened as our own; we will negotiate from a position of strength by maintaining large armies with technologically advanced weapons and by being part of strong alliances whose military power complements our own and whose foreign policy initiatives are congruent or subservient to our own. We are fully aware that the world is still a dangerous place and we must be careful to ensure that we are always negotiating from a position of strength. History has thought us that national aspirations are best achieved through the exercise of power and the gun, and not through ideas and dialogue.
We have reached a fork in the road, we know that we must change, technologically the wolrd has changed; the Internet, air travel, satellites, ICBMs, space travel all point to the new reality, we are a global village and anything that happens in any part of the world is not only known instantaneously but affects us in numerous ways. A nuclear war between China and India would not leave America and Europe unscathed. China and India's rising pollution levels affect all of us not just China and India. Military biological and chemical weapons handling is not an issue for the Sovereign State, it is something that concerns us all. Competitive economic policies and devaluation of currencies and tax policies do not only affect the national economy, but affect all nations, and produce unintended consequences in terms of unemployment, income distribution, taxation and debt levels, and overall economic well being.
Technology has changed the world, we have never been as aware of our common interests and problems; yet we persist in assigning all power to our National Governments and while participating in International Organizations, we reserve the right to do as we please.
We recognize that the state can order us to war for the benefit of the Nation, however we are unwilling to give International Organizations the power to force certain minimum rules on the Nation States whose sovereignty both territorialy and over there people is sacrosanct.
Unless we change, history will repeat itself, we have not eliminated World Wars, we have merely postponed them.
The next major conflict will not be limited to conventional weapons; nuclear, chemical,biological, and robotic weapons will be used.
We have a window of opportunity, we should not squander it.
We need to restructure our political organizations, such that the rule of law applies in all that we do, and is not limited to the rules as defined by individual nation states.
What has served us well to this point, the cometitive spirit, the identity with the tribe or nation, must be dropped and a new order established where the rule of law is global and not national.