Two years ago, on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, the Baha’i International Community (BIC) released A Governance Befitting, a statement inviting deep reflection on the transformation needed to construct a just global order. 

“The demands of the present moment are pushing existing structures for facilitating deliberations among nations, as well as systems of conflict resolution, beyond their capacity for effectiveness,” the statement read. “We therefore find ourselves at the threshold of a defining task: purposefully organizing our affairs in full consciousness of ourselves as one people in one shared homeland.”

Since then, an online dialogue series hosted by the BIC has invited thinkers, academics, and practitioners from around the world to share perspectives on different aspects and implications of movement toward more fair and effective systems of global governance. 

“Growing numbers today are recognizing the need to recast the global order to better reflect the aspirations and capacities of all the peoples of the world,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the BIC United Nations Office. 

“What was once viewed as an idealistic vision of international cooperation has, in light of the obvious and serious challenges facing humanity, become a pragmatic necessity,” she added.

Authors featured in the series examined a wide range of practical and conceptual elements of re-ordering the affairs of the international community. 

Siew-Huat Kong, a faculty member at the University of Macau, considered the role of other-focused generosity in his piece ‘Giving’ as a Foundation for Global Governance:

[T]he very purpose of national development is best located in the context of addressing global goals. Even the act of providing international assistance, for instance, stands as a means to develop the nation itself. When giving is translated into policy, the purpose of foreign investment is to share one’s resources or expertise, rather than to exploit recipient nations. International trade is re-structured to help reduce the disparity between rich and poor countries, rather than favoring nations with stronger economic muscle.

Temily Tavangar, a researcher with the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity, explored the need for expanded moral imagination in governance reform, in her piece The Power of Imagination: One People in a Shared Homeland:

How…do we redefine our collective values in the face of present turbulence? How do we reorient our outlook, goals, and processes so that our identity as one people in a shared homeland permeates all aspects of our lives? These questions call for the power of imagination—the ability to look beyond the challenges of our time. Imagination requires hope; hope propels action.

Ida Walker, an external affairs representative of the Australian Bahá’í community, shared experience-based insights from one grassroots effort to advance a shared social narrative, in her piece Unpacking Interconnectedness: The Experience of ‘Creating an Inclusive Narrative’:

Some 500 participants spoke on topics ranging from the deeply personal to the consciously global. Among them: the need to be ever mindful of our interconnectedness and the implications that individual choices have on the collective; diversity being not just a fact of life but an asset in the construction of a harmonious society; the important role youth play in breaking down long-held prejudices and constructing more inclusive societies; and the need for the flourishing of society to be considered in light of our relationship with the environment and the finite resources of the earth.

And Arash Fazli, a professor at Devi Ahilya University, Indore, took stock of appreciation for global interdependence following the COVID-19 pandemic, in his piece Our Collective Moment of Reckoning:

[W]hen the human world is considered as an organic, interconnected system, it becomes apparent that the principles best suited for collective thriving within such a system are those that are in sync with, and not against, its inherent interdependence. Such principles of reciprocity and mutuality can be found in the relationship between elements in any organic entity. Unlike the rest of nature, however, in the human world this process of cooperation and collaboration is not the outcome of an involuntary, self-regulating process. For human beings, it involves the element of conscious choice. It is this choice that makes the attainment of ever higher degrees of oneness and justice a uniquely moral achievement

A Governance Befitting builds on others released on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the UN. The BIC, whose engagement with the international community dates back to the League of Nations, also submitted a set of proposals for Charter revisions at the UN’s 10th anniversary. 

Ms. Dugal expressed the hope that the online dialogue series and similar conversations will contribute to “a movement of change to bring us to the centenary of the UN as a much more evolved world order” characterized by equality, unity, lasting peace, and understanding among the governments and peoples of the world.  

“The next 25 years are of critical importance for the life of humanity,” she said.