Who Governs the World?

After the municipality comes the region. After the region comes the state or province. After that comes the country. These are the levels of government. But, what comes after the country? Is there anyone who governs them? You could say the UN but they are more of a humanitarian aid group, rather than a government. The UN is a place for representatives to discuss and there is one person in charge to make sure there isn't chaos in the UN building. What about outside the UN building? If there is none then the world is essentially an anarchy. However, even in anarchies, there is usually a group that has more power than the others. Whether it's a gang or a group of revolutionaries.

There are two possibilities in my mind. World superpowers or the fear that nuclear weapons instill. Not surprisingly, most powerful countries have nuclear weapons. The US, China, and Russia. I realize that this is a very common answer for this question. But what exactly makes this answer true? Well first of all the countries with these weapons are allied with various less powerful countries. Therefore, if any country wants to attack another country that is allied with a superpower, it will also have to face the superpower. That superpower could immediately destroy the other country if it uses nuclear weapons. But a predicament arises. If the attacking country is allied with another superpower with nukes, then all the countries in that situation will be stuck. Obviously, if one uses nukes then so will the other. If there is a tyranny with nukes that doesn't care about its people being killed, like North Korea, then that country will attack. Unless nukes are aimed to target the government rather than the people. Then once again, they are stuck. Instead of using nuclear weapons they will have to use their military. Therefore, nuclear weapons are not able to govern anything in a situation like that. And we want to find something that can really govern the world. 

So that means nukes are a tool to instill fear and ensure security, but not to govern. Regardless, world superpowers alone are still on the table. Now it all depends on whose military is stronger. You see, it doesn't matter who has more nukes or who has stronger nukes. Because the superpowers have enough nuclear power to each destroy another country. The scale of destruction has reached a point where comparison does not matter. It has reached terminal velocity. And most governments will likely not want to sacrifice the lives of their people (or themselves) for the sake of a world conflict. But military power is different. It does matter who has a stronger military because it is a force versus another force. Not an unstoppable force against a helpless target. Currently, I think most people can agree the US has the strongest military. So does that make the US is the government of the world? It also tends to get involved in many conflicts it doesn't need to get involved in. It is not necessary that the US is the world government, because while it is strong, it can still be toppled with enough force. Could it be a called a revolution? No, not unless the sole intention of the countries fighting the US is to topple their government and destroy the US. If the US is defeated in a war but still has more military power than others, then it will continue to be the world government. But let's not forget the power of the other superpowers. They are all still very powerful. They can also be considered part of the world government. But the US is the president. If the US is the only ruler then it would be a dictatorship which only reigns through the power of fear. However, the world government is not democratic either. So what kind of government is it?

The countries in this government do not always come to an agreement and listen to each other. Some of them are enemies. However, the US is most powerful in this government. It is most powerful in terms of their force. I don't think there are any other possible factors which could be used to measure the power of countries for this. Since the superpowers do not reach agreements, you could say that the superpowers are divided in the form of their own parties. The less powerful countries that agree with a superpower identify with that party. The world is divided in a variety of ways that could form these parties because for different issues there are different borders. There is western and eastern society. There are the different forms of government, like capitalism and communism, and there are different sides on conflicts. For example, the US side with the people of Syria and Russia sides with Assad. So what if the parties are unable to tolerate the each other's ideology and have a 'civil war.' This is what happened in the Cold War. The US won and changed the ideology of the USSR. World War 2 was similar. However, Germany was more of a group of lone, failed revolutionaries. They wanted to be the world government and instill fascism, but they were stopped.

So once again the question arises. What type of government is the world government? Maybe it is democratic. It could also depend on who the most powerful country is. If the Nazis won World War 2 then fascism would reign. That would have been the type of government. The Nazis would not have allowed there to be any other superpowers in the world. The US is not an imperial government that wants to invade other countries and be a sole ruler. Luckily, the other superpowers don't seem to have this intention either. But it's very unsettling to think that a country could start a new world order and change all this. All it needs is nuclear weapons, a disdain for its own people, and a way to protect its government from being toppled and destroyed. This is what North Korea seems to be doing. If the North Korean government is able to hide from attacks or counter them, then what is there to stop them from taking over the world? It would be a violent revolt. Luckily, North Korea cannot hide or counter any attacks. But it needs to be stopped before it can.

After all this, I still feel like superpowers are not a true world government. It all feels like, what should be held by chains is held by threads. It all only seems to mimic a government. It feels like this view of a world government can only be seen from a certain perspective. Possibly, what seems to be missing is a formal agreement of a world government. Until then, it will always seem like an anarchy that is controlled by the most powerful group. And maybe it really is just that.