Pardon me, but can you lend a little sovereignty to help prevent the coming world war and major climate disaster?

Everyone is born sovereign. Nations may be independent, but they are no more sovereign than Kings. We, the people, lend our sovereignty to various levels of government to solve our common problems. In return, we demand representation, checks, and balances to secure our unalienable rights and prevent tyranny.

Today, citizens from all nations are facing an entangling web of socioeconomic and environmental problems that we must solve together.

• NATO—alongside EU—enlargement at the expense of Russia has rekindled Cold War tensions.
• Russia and China are rapidly forming a new economic bloc to counter the Western economic order.
• Brexit threatens to erode the pacifying effects of the European Union and will likely undermine Atlantic unity.
• Attempts to create a democratic peace in the greater Middle East has spawned forever wars and caused a major humanitarian crisis that encourages unsustainable levels of migration.
• Multinational corporations (MNCs) continue to take advantage of workers at home and abroad who lack socioeconomic mobility. It’s a form of neoslavery.
• Developing nations keep their wage, labor, and environmental standards artificially low to attract foreign investment. It fuels economic inequality and climate change.

Working together, we can find solutions to the above problems using the citizens’ convention approach.

In January of 1962, an Atlantic Convention composed of representative citizens from NATO nations was held in Paris, France. Citizen delegations explored evolutionary ways to enhance and strengthen the Atlantic Community. They drafted the Declaration of Paris and encouraged their respective governments to establish a supranational Atlantic union.

On July 4, 1962, speaking at Independence Hall, President John F. Kennedy had the courage speak truth to nationalistic power:

“Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world; we cannot insure its domestic tranquility, or provide for its common defense, or promote its general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. But joined with other free nations, we can do all this and more. We can assist the developing nations to throw off the yoke of poverty. We can balance our worldwide trade and payments at the highest possible level of growth. We can mount a deterrent powerful enough to deter any aggression. And ultimately we can help to achieve a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion.” 

Truth be told, President Kennedy was inspired by the vision of Clarence K. Streit, author of Union Now (1939).

From 1949 to 1980, Members of Congress attempted to transform NATO into an Atlantic Union using the same convention approach used by our Founding Fathers in 1787 to draft the Constitution. Advanced by Streit and the Atlantic Union Committee, this proposed transatlantic union was designed to gradually evolve into a world federation. If successful, they would have created one transatlantic nation out of many with the promise of extending liberty, prosperity, and justice for all in a peaceful, yet deliberate, manner.

It is time to revisit and reshape the Atlantic Union idea of the past to meet the needs of the future.

Let’s take a giant leap of faith and hold an online Capitalist Peace Exploratory Convention modeled after the Atlantic Convention of 1962. This time, economists from around the world should meet and explore ways to replace globalization with a world federal trade system based on sustainable capitalism.

We can prevent the coming world war; avoid a major climate disaster; lift billions out of poverty; and meet growing demands for new social programs if we establish a capitalist world federation that works for all citizens in all nations.

Americans must show the world that we are ready to lend a little sovereignty and demand representation, checks, and balances on an international scale. World trade should serve individuals—not nations or MNCs.

Capitalist Peace

If you are looking for a purpose, join the Capitalist Peace Committee.  

We need volunteers from all academic disciplines to join our emerging online research and political action committee. It’s time to prepare for a post-Trump world order.

Your new adventure starts by visiting capitalistpeace.com.