event

Do We Need Planetary Institutions to Solve Problems? Insights from Children of a Modest Star

Thu. June 6th, 2024

Humanity has entered into a new relationship with the living Earth, but the sovereign state system has proven incapable of addressing shared planetary challenges from climate change to pandemic disease. In a groundbreaking new book rooted in history and earth science, scholars Jonathan Blake and Nils Gilman advocate a paradigm shift toward “multiscalar” global governance that would transfers significant political authority from national governments to planetary institutions, as well as to localities.

Join the Carnegie Endowment for a fascinating discussion of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises. We’ll consider the cosmological significance and practical dilemmas posed by our planetary age and the desirability, and feasibility, of building new institutions to help sustain life on Earth. Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of Carnegie’s Global Order and Institutions program, will moderate a discussion with authors Jonathan Blake, associate director at the Berggruen Institute, and Nils Gilman, chief operating officer, vice president for programs, and editor of the magazine Noema at the Berggruen Institute, as well as Olivia Lazard, a fellow at Carnegie Europe.

event speakers

Stewart Patrick

Senior Fellow and Director, Global Order and Institutions Program

Stewart Patrick is a senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary areas of research focus are the shifting foundations of world order, the future of American internationalism, and the requirements for effective multilateral cooperation on transnational challenges.

Jonathan Blake

Associate Director at the Berggruen Institute

Olivia Lazard

Fellow, Carnegie Europe

Lazard is a fellow at Carnegie Europe. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of climate, the transition ushered by climate change, and the risks of conflict and fragility associated to climate change and environmental collapse.

Nils Gilman

Chief Operating Officer, Vice -President for Programs, and editor of the magazine Noema at the Berggruen Institute