ABSTRACT
Kaldor asks if global governance could be viewed as a new realistic utopia. Utopianism, the construction of effective global institutions, has to resonate with everyday experience. A new story would enable the imagination of new or reformed institutions to counter, rather than win, wars. Contemporary developments are likely to lead to a ‘new war’ on a global basis rather than a war of the twentieth century. A socially just model of development based on information and communications technologies is needed. Today’s institutions were designed for the era of radio and television, of mass production and consumption. Rich individuals and companies no longer pay taxes. Currently dominant narratives are polarized between global neo-liberalism and right-wing nationalist populism, directed against groups (Muslims, immigrants …) and against internationalism (the United Nations and the European Union). One consequence of Brexit is that a new generation has taken the existence of the European Union for granted. Welfare and income distribution require a reduction in the overall share of finance capital and the regulation of global financial flows so as to protect policy making at local levels. A new socially just, global, emancipatory narrative is needed, the seeds of which exist in local initiatives and movements.
