This lecture examines three kinds of governance and power on a global scale. First we will see how modern international law and global institutions work. Then we will discover various projects for global governance, both historical and contemporary, in order to understand the similarities and differences between them, and to ask whether they might offer us any opportunities to improve or stabilise international politics. Finally we will talk about the future to clarify the most desirable courses of action and the role of the Esperanto community.

I shall argue that we have reached a decisive moment and that we have an urgent need to work together to found global democratic institutions, because the threats of violent and/or financial domination of the whole planet should we not succeed in doing so are becoming ever more evident. Although many useful institutions and organisations already exist, we completely lack any shared global vision of human values. We need a plan that embraces everyone, and it is very important that we tie together ideas that derive from different places to write a constitution together, in a neutral language, to protect our freedom in the future. Only Esperantists can save us now!