Advancing global citizenship and cosmopolitanism in an age of Globoskepticism: insights from the World Order Models Project

Abstract

This article explores insights to be taken from the World Order Models Project (WOMP) for theorists seeking to advance the uptake of global citizenship and cosmopolitan principles. WOMP, lasting from 1968 to the 1990s, aimed to generate more inclusive academic dialogue on world order reforms and develop a programme of global education to build support for them. Insights from the project include ones for structuring a dialogue on global normative concerns that is diverse but not too diffuse. It also offers a model for promoting globally normative counter-narratives in ‘globoskeptical’ times–the Cold War then and the current era of right-wing populism. And, it directs attention to the possible importance of focusing on global-scale institutional reform alongside individual motivation to assume moral duties across national borders. Finally, it offers negative lessons on setting feasible aims and timelines, and on a need to move beyond academic work in promoting change.