At the moment, the world is feeling very uncertain. The news is filled with plots, threats, attacks, fake news, and despair. It seems our leaders have forgotten how to inspire through hope and, in the pursuit of power, have left most of us behind to scratch out of living where we can. This isn’t just lazy leadership – it threatens all the steps that we have taken over the last century to increase our personal and collective freedoms. It’s time to shift our thinking beyond the national leaders who are frozen in a fear-based past and look to an connected, global future where each of us has a say and a stake.

If we’re going to get out of this rut we need to think big (and a little crazy). I’m no stranger to doing what others thought was totally off the wall. In fact, experiences of carrying through ideas that everyone thought would never work has taught me – in fields as varied as academics, politics and business – that after you get past those first doubts the results are often astonishing. That’s why I believe Citizen State’s vision of a future where we all have homes, a decent education and excellent healthcare is not only possible, it’s inevitable.

To further these ideals, Citizen State has put together a team to review our international system and make sure that it serves all of us. The resulting model will be submitted to the Global Challenges Foundation for their 2017 Prize, which seeks to remodel global cooperation and governance. The document will stand as a cornerstone of our Movement going forward and lay out our plan for creating a just and effective worldwide governance system.

I look forward to bringing you further updates on this project as it progresses. Regardless of whether Citizen State’s entry is successful, we’ll have a publicly available outline of steps we need to take to rebuild our world to be outward looking, forward thinking and working for everyone.

If you have any ideas of governance elements that you think are important for the international system (or for any other reason), feel free to reach out to me at adam@citizen-state.com.

Here’s to a better tomorrow!