Martin William Smith wrote:

>NATO is not a world government.  Yugoslavia was not part of NATO, so
>there were at least two sovereigns, NATO and Yugoslavia.  Obviously,
>that is not a single world government.

Nevertheless, Yugoslavia is obviously subject to the rules imposed by NATO,
so NATO meets the usual criteria of a "government". That is, NATO is
"governing" the behaviour of Yugoslavia.

Not a democratic government obviously, but that isn't an essential element
of government and never has been.

Unless you can think of any other body which has the will and the power to
enforce its will on subject governments throughtout the world, I think NATO
is very close to your ideal of the one world government.

The US alone is the only other contender, I think NATO is prefereable. And
probably more able to do the job, except obviously the US would be loathe
to surrender its role as a regional government, ruling over the countries
of Nth. and Sth. America and the Pacific region.


Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas