Global Challenges For Leviathan

In Global Challenges for Leviathan, Furio Cerutti illumines for the reader the precarious situation in which the world currently exists. Far beyond international terrorism and the troubles with globalization in our age, there are two threats that really are global, as they can hurt everyone on earth and can be addressed only by the combined effort of all relevant human groups. Nuclear weapons may now play a lesser role than they did during the Cold War, but they will always endanger the survival of humankind, while global warming can bring disaster to future generations. Not only our obligations to current and future generations but also the very feeling that our life has little meaning if we or our posterity are confronted with man-made annihilation requires us to deal with these two global challenges. Neither the political realism that relies on deterrence and market fundamentalism nor the utopian salvation entrusted to world government provide an adequate response to global challenges. The question that confonts us is whether politics and democracy will be able to put these challenges on their agendas. Cerutti shows how political philosophy can highlight problems and prevent illusions, and how it can teach us to live in an uncertain world.

The sovereign state created at the onset of modernity can no longer protect us nor future generations from nuclear war and the effects of global warming. Politics now has to cope with the survival of humankind, not just ensure the security of individual nations. Will it fail or succeed? Far from touting easy solutions, this book provides food for thought about the future of state and politics and the meaning of our relationship with posterity.

Furio Cerutti is professor of political philosophy at the University of Florence, and he has recently co-edited A Soul for Europe and The Search for a European Identity.