By Richard Laming
Published in The Times, 29 September 2003
Sir, National governments are indeed losing their ability to controlevents, as Sir Peter Smithers suggests (letter, September 23), but inmy view he draws the wrong conclusions about how they should nowact.
Ceding authority to the United States is an abdication of responsibilitywhich will provoke even more of the resentment and opposition aboutwhich we are all so concerned. The alternative approach is to buildnew international institutions that can regulate the global marketplace,fight international crime and protect our common environment in amanner that is fair to all. Hegemony by one country, however benign,cannot achieve this. Multilateralism can.
The First World War gave us the League of Nations. The SecondWorld War produced the United Nations. The challenge now is tocreate a third generation of international institution without fighting thethird world war first.
Yours faithfully,
RICHARD LAMING(Director)Federal Union,PO Box 44404, London SE1 7TZ.
Read the letter as a pdf at 030929_times