Through the Westphalian treaty (1648) a legal agreement was set up, which gave to nation/states the power to define their policies and take their own decisions, at the expense of a global European power that at that stage was unable to manage policy issues across the continent. Indeed the European Union has been an attempt to reverse that balance, but as made apparent by Brexit, not without significant problems. It can be argued that the Westphalian treaty had a powerful global influence in the creation of independent nation/states throughout the world, rather than autonomous ones within the umbrella of wider cohesive force, such as the United Nations. Working out the nature of these cohesive forces, from the local to the global, is one of the purposes of this session. The Federal Government in the USA has produced well-defined institutions, but not necessarily effective ones. It has attempted to provide cohesive forces to autonomous states, however with important democratic weaknesses as made apparent by the 2020 presidential elections.
Today the challenge is considering the possibility of nation/states under the umbrella of shared values and ethical guidelines, such as those required by responses to climate change, limited natural resources, need for health services beyond power imbalances (e.g. as those triggered by the pandemic Corona Virus). The situation is one of an unequal distribution of wealth and income and limited organisational capabilities for cohesive nation/states. The need for an interconnected world is not supported by requisite organisational structures. Globalization is a fact that often requires political responses that are opposed by nationalisms and populisms.
Today we need organisational systems that offer respect and compassion and promote cohesion. It requires politicians, institutions and organisations with systemic sensibility to recognise relevant organisational systems and cohesion mechanisms. Nation/states with weak identities and lacking cohesion are responsible for weak responses to emergent crises situations.
In this session we want contributions that discuss nation/states capable of producing desirable policies and avoiding as far as possible unintended social, ecological and political consequences. It is critical for actors to understand not only the institutional creation and production of policies (purposes and values) but the alignment of global values and ethical demands for recursive organisational systems. The challenge is overcoming nationalisms and populisms at the same time of responding to the global demands of an increasingly fragile ecology, and a humanity in need to change this ecology in directions conducive to organisational stability and a good cybernetics.