Today, the Warrant for War Research Project has oficially launched The NATO Challenge – a unique attempt to develop a grass-roots, global civil society solution to perhaps the most important problem we face in the Twenty-First Century: How can we help protect human beings across the globe whose rights and lives are arbitrarily threatened by humanitarian and environmental disasters?

If, after reading the outline of The NATO Challenge below you are interested to participate, please CLICK HERE to access the Warrant for War Wicki, register and participate in this innovative and important global civil society experiment.

The Quest: How can we help protect human beings across the globe whose rights and lives are arbitrarily threatened by humanitarian and environmental disasters?

The Problem: The United Nations, originally designed to protect the sovereignty of its member states, usually cannot act in a timely and effective manner in situations of crisis; and states or organizations willing and able to so act usually do not receive UN approval. Thus we are caught in a double bind: legitimate UN impotence or illegitimate state / coalition intervention. This vicious circle must be broken.

The Challenge: Draft the Charter of a new level of supranational governance entrusted with the protection of human security in all its forms.

The Means: The Charter will be drafted under a Creative Commons license by means of a bottom-up approach allowing any and all contributions and suggestions from any individual regardless of race, religion, residence, nationality, creed or profession.

The Rationale: The ongoing global media and communications revolutions is increasingly empowering an emerging global civil society – us! – to organize ourselves and take charge of our own lives not only in our own neighborhoods, regions and countries, but also globally. Only by actively participating in this Challenge can we create the required pressure to develop and implement this new level of governance and endow it with the necessary legitimacy to ensure its adoption and implementation. Human security is too important for all our futures to be left solely in the hands of professional politicians and expert academics. We must get involved and make a difference!

The Rules:

1. The Charter must be democratic (it must allow for some form of direct citizen participation).
2. The Charter must be reflexive (not only democratic, but arrived at and implemented democratically).
3. The Charter must be effective (decisions must be made and implemented in practice).
4. The Charter must be inclusive (it cannot exclude anyone who wishes to participate).
5. The Charter must be tolerant (it must respect diversity in all its forms).
6. The Charter must be accountable (as long as some members are themselves not democratically governed, they may participate in debates, but will have no votes in the decision-making process).
7. The Charter must be achievable (it must propose an actually existing point of departure and define a realistic transition process from this point to the optimum environment defined therein).

The Solution: the proposed point of departure is the only truly multinational military institution with proven capabilities to effectively intervene on a global scale to protect human security: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). NATO would be re-founded by its current members into a legitimate supranational level of governance (Novum Aedificium Terrae Orbis – New Structure of the Global Earth) entrusted to preserve, protect and promote human security in all its forms across the globe, in accordance with the Rules outlined above.

The Tools: The Charter and the debates, discussions and proposals leading up to it will take place on this wiki, allow the use of any other appropriate tools of social networking and communication, and facilitate the creation of a global on-line community of participants who will all be entitled to contribute to this Challenge – although not all proposals may be able to be integrated into a coherent, final Charter draft.

The Product: The final draft of The Charter and its Commentary (including both supporting and dissenting opinions) will be subjected to a democratic ratification process arrived at democratically by all NATO Challenge participants.

The Start: Initial pages will be set up with key questions allowing the debates, discussions and drafting process to start. The rest is up to you!

The Timeline: Up to two years for a Charter first draft and supporting Commentary; up to one further year for revisions and final ratification.

The Follow-up: The new draft Charter and Commentary will be published and promoted as a Global Civil Society Initiative leading to its final ratification, adoption and implementation.

Key Questions: The Charter and its supporting Commentary will need to address, at a minimum, twelve key questions, in a manner consistent with The Rules above:

1. What are the basic principles on which The Charter is founded?

2. What are the legitimating foundations of The Charter?

3. Who are the member organizations of The Charter?

4. What is The Charter’s implementation procedure?

5. How does The Charter and its membership change over time?

6. What specific emergencies does The Charter cover?

7. What are the aims of intervention?

8. Who decides when intervention is necessary?

9. Who, specifically, intervenes, and under whose direct authority?

10. What are the rules of engagement in the intervention?

11. What happens after the intervention?

12. What are the checks and balances of The Charter system?

Please join the Warrant for War Wicki, take part in The NATO Challenge -and don’t forget to let your friends know about it so they may also join and help out!