World Statehood

Heikki Patomäki is a Professor of World Politics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Previously, he was a Full Professor at the Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom (1998-2003); at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia (2007-10); and a Visiting Professor at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan (2012). Additionally, he is a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters (2018-) and a Life Member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is also a founding member of the Helsinki Centre for Global Political Economy (Helsinki-GPE) which was established in April 2020 and Vice Chair of the EuroMemo network for 2021-23.

• Chapter 1. Introduction: the Future of World Politics.- Part 1: Cosmo-political Processes.- Chapter 2. Cosmological Sources of Critical Cosmopolitanism.- Chapter 3. A Creation Myth and Origin Story Suitable to Our Globalised World? A Friendly Critique of the Big History Storyline About Our Place in Cosmos.- Chapter 4. Overcoming Eurocentrism: a Universal History of the Industrial Revolution and the Peace Problematic.- Chapter 5. Problems of Democratising Global Power Relations in the 21st Century: Time, Space and the Emancipatory Process.- Part 2: Reflexive Futures and Agency.- Chapter 6. How Will the Cold War End? Non-fixed Pasts, Reflexive Futures and the Transformation of the Temporality of Human Existence.- Chapter 7. Resolving Problems and Overcoming Contradictions Through Global Law and Institutions: a Post-Deutschian Perspective.- Chapter 8. On the Dialectics of Global Governance in the 21st Century: a Polanyian Double Movement?.- Chapter 9. Transformative Agency: Towards a World Political Party.- Part 3: World Statehood and Beyond.- Chapter 10. Emergence of World Statehood: a Processual and Open-ended Account.- Chapter 11. The Transformative Potential of Climate Change: Towards a Dynamic Global Tax.- Chapter 12. Rethinking World Parliament: Beyond the Indeterminacy of International Law.- Chapter 13. After World Statehood? Legitimation and Potential Conflicts in a World Political Community.

“This is a scholarly evaluation of trends toward the development of a world state … . The book is nonetheless valuable for its strong critiques of Eurocentrism and of the misguided belief in inevitable laws and tendencies and, in this context, its strong emphasis on developing rational reflection and collective learning as a key to the contingent development of a world state. In this sense it is a valuable contribution to international relations.” (Bob Jessop, E-International Relations, e-ir.info, February 20, 2025) “... Wer dieses Buch zur Hand nimmt, lernt etwas über die globale Kritik an der kopernikanischen Perspektive, über eine Universalgeschichte der industriellen Revolution, über grundlegende Paradoxien und Blockaden im Völkerrecht, über Legitimitätsfragen einer globalen politischen Partei – und vieles mehr ...” (Mathias Albert, in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift PVS, 22. November 2023)