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Proposal Papers

A series of proposal papers should be evaluated in terms of the viability of the recommended proposal and be expected to lead to new proposals. They should also provide methods and building blocks for their implementation, based on identified social, political, military, and cultural alliances that will lead to the responsible, plural, and united governance so necessary for our planet.

We have therefore decided to encourage the development and distribution of new ideas in several languages and in a large number of countries by publishing a collection of Proposal Papers. These papers will comprise the proposals most relevant for bringing about the radical changes and mutations necessary for building a new, fairer, and more sustainable world governance.

Offering a combination of ideas and actions, these proposals should serve as a catalyst for collective debate at the international level. They will also offer a way of promoting and reinforcing actions already initiated by groups and individuals seeking to introduce new ideas and innovative practices, thus helping us to take on the challenges of the new millennium.

Proposal Papers play a twofold role: they are useful in themselves, but they also contribute to building an overall proposal for new world governance. For this purpose, a “common approach” will emerge gradually in the form of a search for general principles to underpin a new form of world governance. Later proposals and the debates they generate will further enhance this joint approach. Authors will also each be invited to take into account a “relational atlas” that, by linking concepts and themes, lays the foundations for this joint approach. The principles of governance should not be seen as an established or final framework, but as the starting point for a collective approach to the development of future opportunities.

Proposal Papers will be published simultaneously in several languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, etc.) and in as many countries as possible, depending on the financial resources and publishing partnerships negotiated in each continent.

They will be published as a coherent group within a common structure made up of five broad categories of world governance:

- Governance of the environment and management of the planet
- Governance of the economy and of globalization
- Governance of politics, state structures, and institutions
- Governance of peace, security, and armed conflicts
- Governance of knowledge, science, education, and the information and communication society

The goal is to provide a structured and innovative vision through the use of conceptual maps. Mapping will also contribute to making the complexity of world governance easier to grasp.

Proposal Papers will obviously be published as widely as possible, as soon as they are available, via the Forum for a New World Governance Web site.

Thematic Proposal Papers will be accompanied by reports on seminars and meetings to be held in a number of countries and regions and by contributions to the activities organized by a wide range of socioprofessional groups.

Socioprofessional Proposal Papers, unlike thematic Proposal Papers, will highlight activities initiated by individuals and groups in a specific field. Fishworkers or soldiers, scientists or entrepreneurs, teachers or journalists, farmers or philosophers, trade unionists or politicians: people from all walks of life will have the opportunity to share their views on their role and the way they see it in the context of a new world governance. They will thus have the opportunity to suggest new forms of action and their implementation.

The author, or authors, of each Proposal Paper will be invited to present their proposals to the public, either through a formal presentation or at an informal “café-debate.” Whichever the form, emphasis will be on making sure that the author(s) can discuss the paper with the public.

Meetings and Regional Proposal Papers

In addition to thematic and socioeconomic Proposal Papers, the FnWG will organize a series of meetings to facilitate sharing of ideas and group discussions on specific themes: three or four meetings will be held each year. By organizing these meetings in various regions around the world, participants will be able to take into account geographic and regional specificities. Thus, as the concept of world governance develops, it will not only transcend, but also respect and incorporate these specificities. In 2008, several two-day meetings will be planned in Brazil, Lebanon, Kirghistan, and Chile on themes related to the host region—for example, “What Brazil Does the World Need?” A working paper covering the main theme and suggesting topics for debate will be produced for each meeting, offering a focus for the small group of participants mainly from the region itself (10 to 15 persons). The debate will be summarized in a meeting report, which will also contain a list of proposals along similar lines as those of the thematic Proposal Papers.

Discussion Papers

Each year the Forum team or other guest participants will produce one or two discussion papers on a general theme related to world governance. This document will then be circulated to partners and Forum participants for their comments and criticism. These will then be summarized by the authors in an "afterword" to the paper and published, together with all the other contributions, on the FnWG Web site. The first discussion paper (2007) focused on the theme, “Rethinking Global Governance.” The papers will serve as a way to launch new opportunities for research and to test and develop new themes for the Proposal Papers.

Web site: www.world-governance.org

The Forum for a new World Governance Web site will be the project “control tower” and a place for sharing ideas. Initially, the Web site is intended to offer a place for dialog and debate, but it will also serve as a resource and documentation center on world governance. The site offers Internet visitors access to all publications and studies produced by the Forum, beginning with the Proposal Papers. The discussion papers, together with their comments and criticisms, will also be stored there, along with all documents related to the meetings, both the pre-workshop working papers and the post-workshop reports. Every month, the FnWG will invite a key person to write an article or give an interview on world governance for the Front Page of the Web site. Naturally, the Web site will provide practical information on the current activities of the FnWG as well as reactions to the hot topics in the debate on world governance.

Contacts

The Coordinators for the Forum for a new World Governance are Arnaud Blin and Gustavo Marin. Hibox is its Webmaster and Germà Pelayo is in charge of its documentary database. Marina Urquidi is in charge of its linguistic consistency and of helping to disseminate information on the forum. Chen Lichuan is responsible for its Chinese version. The Forum is supported by the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind (FPH), 38 rue Saint-Sabin, 75011 Paris, France.

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Proposal Papers