Should national security still be our biggest priority on a burning planet? And does it matter that a policy is feasible if it fails to produce an outcome that is necessary and desirable? Political realists responsible for formulating foreign policy would say yes, but in this book Richard Falk and Sasha Milonova favor reorienting our loyalties away from increasingly militarized and nationalist states towards a system of governance that gives priority to global ecological resilience.

They trace the deficiencies of the existing international order from the emergence of the Westphalian framework to its entrenchment in the institutions created after World War II, and again after the Cold War, and show why it has consistently failed to generate the international cooperation and political imagination required to stall, let alone reverse, biodiversity loss, war, wealth inequality, and other challenges that credibly threaten the security of the entire planet.

This book offers an original approach to international relations that adds to the management of power the distinctive issues present in the prudent management of the ‘the global commons.’ The work of several visionary thinkers is considered, as is crucial relevance of inter-cultural dialogue, a critical appreciation of the limits of rationality and modernity, and an ethos of compassion for the suffering of all others who cohabit the earth.