NATO could become a world government and create world peace

A speculative future in which we end all war.

NATO is a pact between countries that if one is attacked, all will defend. 

As a stipulation for being part of it, NATO countries are expected to contribute 2% of their GDP to building out their own militaries. The idea is that by combining forces, we can protect each other and the world from threats if needed. 

Made up of North America and most of Europe, NATO was founded at the tail end of World War II when 12 countries agreed to support one another against future threats. Now there are 30 member countries and growing—North Macedonia, Finland, and Sweden have all joined since 2020. 

It’s not easy to get in, countries have to be willing to uphold democratic values and a market economy and must be voted in unanimously by participating countries. But once countries are in they have access to the collective defense of participating countries. When Russia began escalating as a threat that’s when Finland and Sweden decided to join. Ukraine, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are now trying to join for similar reasons. 

What’s interesting is that the more countries join NATO, the more beneficial it is to join NATO. If you are a tiny country without the ability to defend yourself from external threats, as long as you become enough of a democracy with a strong enough economy to get in, you could suddenly be granted protection by all of North America and Europe and be safe. And the more countries that join, the more safe everyone becomes.

Perhaps that’s why NATO is expanding into Asia. If countries face external threats in South America and Africa, might they want to join too? 

Is there a future where eventually the whole world is part of NATO?

If so, then all countries would be joined in a pact of not harming each other and defending one another. If one country decided to break the pact and attack another country they’d have the military might of the entire world against them. 

In this case, NATO would become a “world government” that protects world peace.

The more we see threats of war, the more beneficial it becomes for countries to economically develop, become a democracy, and join NATO. And the larger NATO becomes, the less military force we’ll need. After all, our combined global military presence only needs to be large enough to stave off its largest threat. If the entire world has joined apart from China and Russia, we’d only need to be large enough to fend them off. Countries could dismantle much of their militaries apart from the bare minimum needed to guard against any one threat.

The result is a world government that holds the peace. 

Ideally, this world government would remain one federal layer focused on defense with the rest of governing power remaining with smaller individual countries. But we could increase its power to include other things that might affect the whole globe. For instance, NATO has already branched into worldwide disaster relief, which is something military equipment is good for helping with and that all countries need.

Most of our governance can and should remain as local to us as possible. But if NATO became a world government that ensures the peace and wellbeing of the world, well that could end war worldwide and maybe even create world peace.

But I’d love to know your thoughts. Join us in the literary salon for further discussion about the concept of “world governments” and what could get us to world peace. 👇🏻

Thanks for reading!

Elle Griffin