Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics

How can the new world order of the twenty-first century avoid the horrors of the twentieth? Will nations form a real community or continue to aggressively pursue their own interests? Will the Machiavellian approaches of the past prevail over idealism and a more humanitarian politics? What role can religion play in a world increasingly dominated by transnational corporations? Kung tackles these and many other questions with the insight and moral authority that comes from a life-time's devotion to the search for justice and human dignity. Arguing against both an amoral realpolitik and an immoral resurgence of laissez-faire economics, Kung defines a comprehensive ethic - founded on the bedrock of mutual respect and humane treatment of all beings - that would encompass the ecological, legal, technological, and social patterns that are reshaping civilization. If we are going to have a global economy, a global technology, a global media, Kung argues, we must also have a global ethic to which all nations, and peoples of the most varied backgrounds and beliefs, can commit themselves. "The world, " he says, "is not going to be held together by the Internet."