Planet in Peril

1. Introduction; Part I. Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind: 2. Fossil fuels and climate change; 3. Nukes for war and peacetime; 4. Pandemics, natural or bioengineered; 5. Artificial intelligence: extreme reward and risk; Part II. Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What's Preventing them from Being Realized: 6. How to beat climate change; 7. Wise governance for nukes and pandemics: where to go faster and where to slow down; 8. Controlling things vs. controlling agents: the challenge of high-level AI 160; 9. The international dimension: where every solution stumbles; Prologue to Parts III, IV, and V: Does history have a direction? Hegel, Smith, Darwin; Part III. Sensible Steps for Today's World: Powerful Measures we Can Implement Right Away: 10. Do it now: five points of leverage; 11. Constructive moves on the international front for the next 25 years; 12. Breaking the political logjam; 13. Lessons from the green movement: how to build lasting change in the absence of full consensus; Part IV. The Middle-Term Goal: New International Tools for the Late 21st Century: 14. A promising track record: the dramatic growth of international institutions and networks since 1900; 15. How to escape the sovereignty trap: lessons and limitations of the EU Model; 16. Taking the UN up a notch: planet-level solutions for the year 2100; 17. The other path to 2100: ruthless competition, fingers crossed; Part V. The Long-Term Goal: Envisioning a Mature System of Global Governance for the 22nd Century: 18. Global government in a world of democracies and dictatorships: what it might look like in 2150; 19. Keeping the system accountable and fair; 20. Collective military security and economic sanctions: how to handle rogues, cheaters, and fanatics; 21. What could go wrong?; 22. Conclusion.

Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

'The term 'existential threat' may be overused by those who explore global governance; but it undoubtedly describes climate change and pandemics, two of the four mega-dangers that preoccupy Michael Bess in Planet in Peril. It is hard to believe that international cooperation remains a tough sell in 2022. Imagine: global problems require global solutions! Bess spells out concrete, and hopefully doable, steps toward overcoming polarization and fragmentation. Let's hope he's right.' Thomas G. Weiss, CUNY Graduate Center