David Van Reybrouck
From International Institutes to Global Governance: Climate Change and the Need for New World Politics
The Pakistan floods of 2022 are a turning point in recent world history. One of the countries least responsible for global warming was dramatically affected by it, killing close to 2,000 people and leaving two million homeless. The global south is paying the price for the global north. How are we to avert this new form of colonialism? Beyond a political discussion on repairing loss and damage, what the world really needs are new institutions—ones that are no longer “inter-national” but truly global—by incorporating everyday people from across the world.
David Van Reybrouck is a Brussels-based author and democracy expert. His books on colonial history—Congo: The Epic History of a People (2014; original Dutch edition 2010), and Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World (English edition forthcoming; original Dutch edition 2020)—have become international bestsellers. A pioneering advocate for democratic innovation, David is a Senior Fellow at Bard College’s Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities. His essay Against Elections: The Case for Democracy (2016; original Dutch edition 2013) was translated into over twenty languages and received praise from Kofi Annan.