The planetary climate crisis as an opportunity to establish a legitimate world state by 2050

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, Free University of Berlin (Institut Futur), language: English, abstract: An international institution that successfully curbs the life-threatening effects of climate change does not yet exist. To make this possible, the international community must be persuaded to undertake comprehensive reforms of the United Nations. The aim of this research is to find out, from the perspective of futurology, under which conditions it is possible to reposition the UN as a representative of global society and sovereign states. Civil society and its organizations play an essential role in this, but the understanding of cultures among themselves is also a factor in the formation of a comprehensive identity that should not be neglected. To this end, the following research question is posed: Does the UN need to be changed in its current constitution and do individual states need to give up parts of their power in order to form an effective and assertive UN so that it becomes possible to establish a legitimate world state by 2050? To answer the research question, a literature review was conducted and the scenario technique was applied. On this basis, it is advisable to expand multilateralism and a global identity in addition to global efforts to prevent harmful climate impacts, and to seek an open-ended discussion on whether the UN is capable of reform and what changes can be implemented in the coming years.