This book discusses the various ways in which the security and prosperity of all countries in the world are linked - by military threats, environmental pollution, and social unrest created by poverty. It is argued that a process of education is needed to make people think in global terms, so that they develop an allegiance to humanity.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, all of us consider ourselves to be citizens of something--but of what? Nation-states? Regions? Ethnic groups? Corporations? An accomplished set of meditations by one of Europe's leading Americanists, Them and Us is a rich comparative study of European and American cultural traditions and their influence on conceptions of community. In contrast with the ethnic and nationalist allegiances that historically have splintered Europe, Rob Kroes identifies a complex of cultural practices that have mitigated against ethnically rooted divisions in the United States. He argues that the American approach--articulated by a national rhetoric emphasizing openness rather than closure, diversity rather than uniformity--has much to offer a Europe where the nationalist and ethnic conflicts that spawned two world wars continue to sow terror and destruction. Kroes discusses European and American attitudes toward the welfare state, the human rights tradition in the United States, and the role of regionalism in shaping conceptions of national identity. He also considers new, transnational forms of cultural membership that are emerging to take the place of nation-based citizenship. He contends that the frame of reference Europeans now use to make sense of their collective situation draws on ingredients provided by the worldwide dissemination of American mass culture. He investigates the way this emerging world culture, under American auspices, affects the way people in their local and national settings structure their sense of the past and conceive of their citizenship. Imagining a new set of cultural relationships that could serve as the basis for global citizenship, Them and Us is an insightful consideration of the types of solidarity that might weave humankind together into a meaningful community.

First Published in 2016. In this anthology of essays for Global Studies students, the editors hope to encourage readers to live intelligent and thoughtful lives, not only as citizens of their native countries, but also as citizens of the world.

The Dimensions of Global Citizenship takes issue with the assumption that ideas about global citizenship are merely Utopian ideals. The author argues that, far from being a modern phenomenon, world citizenship has existed throughout history as a radical alternative to the inadequacies of the nation-state system. Only in the post-war era has this ideal become politically meaningful. This social transformation is illustrated by references to the activities of global social movements as well as those of individual citizens.

Between 1900 and 1950, many internationalist U.S. women referred to themselves as "citizens of the world." This book argues that the phrase was not simply a rhetorical flourish; it represented a demand to participate in shaping the global polity and an expression of women's obligation to work for peace and equality. The nine women profiled here invoked world citizenship as they promoted world government—a permanent machinery to end war, whether in the form of the League of Nations, the United Nations, or a full-fledged world federation. These women agreed neither on the best form for such a government nor on the best means to achieve it, and they had different definitions of peace and different levels of commitment to genuine equality. But they all saw themselves as part of a global effort to end war that required their participation in the international body politic. Excluded from full national citizenship, they saw in the world polity opportunities for engagement and equality as well as for peace. Claiming world citizenship empowered them on the world stage. It gave them a language with which to advocate for international cooperation. Citizens of the World not only provides a more complete understanding of the kind of world these women envisioned and the ways in which they claimed membership in the global community. It also draws attention to the ways in which they were excluded from international institution-building and to the critiques many of them leveled at those institutions. Women's arguments for world government and their practices of world citizenship represented an alternative reaction to the crises of the first half of the twentieth century, one predicated on cooperation and equality rather than competition and force.

This book focuses on the concepts of environmental justice and global citizenship from a number of different disciplinary perspectives with the intention of promoting at the very least some interdisciplinary understandings. Initially presented as papers at an interdisciplinary conference on the themes of environmental justice and global citizenship in Copenhagen in February 2002, the chapters in this volume were chosen by election by those attending the conference. They represent the emergent differences of opinion and glimmers of agreement in the conference as discussions of environmental justice and global citizenship inevitably led to considerations of sustainability and Agenda 21. Some degree of agreement did emerge around the idea of seeing sustainability as a process rather than a predetermined outcome. There was also a shared interest in the pedagogy of educating students in and about sustainability. This volume has been divided into disciplinary or thematically based sections but the purpose of the introductory chapter is to draw links and connections between different papers and different themes in the volume.