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9 - Conclusion

On World Ordering’s New Vistas and a Rough Sketch of Cognitive Evolution’s Theory of Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2021

By
Emanuel Adler
Edited by
Piki Ish-Shalom ,
Markus Kornprobst  and
Vincent Pouliot
Piki Ish-Shalom
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Markus Kornprobst
Affiliation:
University of Vienna
Vincent Pouliot
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
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Summary

This conclusion is but a new beginning. I start off engaging with the contributors’ friendly arguments and criticisms, many of which I adopt for future research. Looking forward, I demonstrate the practical potential of a world ordering research program, arguing that tackling world order’s urgent global vulnerability threats, such as climate change and Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot wait for dependable global governance, let alone world government. Instead, I suggest cognitive-evolution politics. The latter involves, first, grasping that world order vulnerability results from the performance of simultaneous and synergetic local, national, and international, harmful practices. Second, cognitive evolution politics requires mutual trust and adopting global cooperation by necessity, which, in turn, calls for embedding global problems and solutions in national interests. Cognitive evolution politics may promote “embedded globalism” by (a) learning, contestation, experimentation, and negotiation within and across communities of practice; (b) power, understood as a decentralized and relational field of forces distributed across communities of practice’s multiple--state, corporate, scientific, and public opinion--stakeholders, and (c) practical democracy, consisting of democratic practices that sustain common humanity values while promoting national interests. I briefly illustrate my claims focusing on AI and communities of practice’s efforts to mitigate its harmful global consequences.

Keywords

Cognitive evolution politicsworld order vulnerabilitiesnational interestembedded globalismArtificial Intelligence.
Type
Chapter
Information
Theorizing World Orders
Cognitive Evolution and Beyond
 , pp. 228 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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