Our first loyalty is and should be as citizens of the world.
That is not how nation states operate or their leaders think; loyalty to the state should come first, anything else is an also ran. Of course in some instances, multi-state or suprastate entities such as the EU supersede this primary required loyalty. But the EU itself is building itself as a supranational entity with military, great power, capacity – effectively a USE, United States of Europe.
There are some advantages to the nation state where it provides services that are needed by citizens. But it will also claim exclusive use of force within its borders, whether it can achieve that or not. The claimed prerogative to be the (sole legitimate) wielder of military power, and its exercise of that, is one which sits uneasily with those believing in nonviolence. And nation states can treat their citizens terribly and get away with it. While some of an anarchist persuasion wish to see the state withering away to be replaced by a totally cooperative society, many believers in peace may settle for a state which is gentle and caring in its dealings with its citizens and with the world outside.
The word ‘citizen’ has different connotations or meanings depending on the context – as an ordinary member of society, as a resident of a city (where the term comes from), or as a ‘member’ of a country or state. It is thus specific to a geographical area. To say we are ‘citizens of the world’ is in a way to subvert the term to apply to all of our Earth. But our globe is also a specific geographical area within our solar system and universe. There is no reason we cannot say we are indeed citizens of our particular world; by living here we have – conditional – ownership or rentalship of it and a responsibility to it and to what else it contains.
Samuel Johnson’s dictum that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel can be interpreted in different ways and was not an indictment of patriotism per se. But we have too many nation states – one would be too many – who believe in some way that that they are ‘chosen’, ‘special’ or in some way the centre of the universe. This goes with the territory of the most powerful global powers. It is also something which can be exacerbated by right wing religious beliefs as in the USA or Israel – or Britain in the past (and possibly in the present).
Of course we all have our own moral, political, religious or secular views and relationship in relation to the state. One aim to make progress is to transcend the hold of the nation state by promoting true international cooperation, not through regional power blocs like the EU or NATO but through wider associations which show we are all part of the human family.
One current major difficulty with this is that the United Nations, which should be the vehicle for such moves, is in the doldrums, partly because of the great power control of the UN Security Council. Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” – a misnomer of there ever was one – for Gaza and possibly elsewhere is a bizarre aberration, not least in that the appointed chair is ‘Donald Trump’ and not ‘The President of the USA’; it is a personal fiefdom which the United Nations has inexplicably backed. And the Irish government’s ditching of the Triple Lock on deployment of the Irish army overseas is a move to back EU and NATO militarism – troops have already been withdrawn from UN peacekeeping service to enable participation in EU battlegroups.
It may seem utopian to proclaim “We are citizens of the world first” when we see the reality of how things are at the moment. And so, in a way it is utopian but if we do not build that conception of “We are all in this together” to solve the problems of the world then we are reduced to “It is everyone for themselves” – and we know where that has got us. At a time when global heating threatens us all on this earth in serious ways, we see a nation state like the USA saying “Drill, baby, drill” when the effect is “Burn, baby, burn”. However Ireland itself, Republic or the North, have not done a quarter of what it could, and should, be doing to help save ourselves and everyone else from the effects of a burning planet.
We do have to pay our national taxes, we do have to obey national laws – except as part of nonviolent resistance where we oppose unjust laws or even just laws as part of a political campaign. We can take pride in our ethnic, national and regional identity, there is nothing wrong with that so long as we respect other people’s. In Ireland we can be ‘good Europeans’ but with a very different view of what being ‘a good European’ is. https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Europe-World.pdf The role that Irish – and other people – can play is as peacemakers, and with the at times very positive experience of Irish involvement in international peacemaking in the 20th century. Becoming part of an EU and NATO military machine, whether directly or indirectly, is not being a citizen of the world, it is becoming part of a selfish and violent empire or empire in the making.
We are all part of ‘home sapiens’ and if we forget that then we are indeed in trouble and likely to stay in trouble. We can take pride in the best of human achievements, cultural and technological, while striving to build a world where justice and peace are the supreme values. If we are unable to collectively build that consciousness then the future of the world is grim, much grimmer than it is for many today.
We are citizens of the world first and foremost. Let us say that with pride.