Tuesday 11 May 2021

Wolfgang Pape proposes a new form of enhanced democracy in ‘Opening to OMNILATERALISM’

New book calls for implementation of democratic governance for all, from local to global with stakeholders

BRUSSELS – To solve global problems — like pandemics and climate change — society needs global solutions, for and by all, omnibus. Wolfgang Pape, in his book “Opening to OMNILATERALISM” (published by AuthorHouse UK), presents a new narrative in governance that will enhance democratic rule from local to global level with legitimate stakeholders.

 

“My research on governance in the EU and the USA during a Fellowship at the Brookings Institution made me realize that we in the West have to open up our concept of the nation as an aberration and adapt democracy along with non-Western ideas and practices in order to solve common global issues ranging from the environment to climate change, and now notably the pandemic,” the author shares. “Reading Immanuel Kant's emphasis on ‘Weltfrieden’ to be omnilateral inspired me to reach beyond the recently much criticised hackneyed multi-lateralism and propose the new narrative of OMNILATERALISM, particularly for the UN.”

 

Omnilateralism is a concept that seeks complementarity between Western and Eastern thought. It is founded upon an enhanced democracy which allows a more direct inclusion of citizens in proximity at the local level and more expertise and civil society input at the higher and wider stages of rule-setting.

 

“This book substantiates in a constructive way the path forward for better governance and enhanced democracy at all levels from local to global referring to incremental trends already appearing in some institutions, like the EU and COP,” the author states. “The examples of non-Western ideas and best practices in the book will widen the reader’s horizon and enrich their political choice.”

 

“Opening to OMNILATERALISM”

By Wolfgang Pape

Softcover | 5 x 8in | 652 pages | ISBN 9781665582131

E-Book | 652 pages | ISBN 9781665583152

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

 

About the Author

Wolfgang Pape is currently a free writer living in Belgium after recent fellowships in Seoul and Taipei. During his service in the European Commission over 30 years, including postings as an EU diplomat in Tokyo, he was in Brussels in charge of the “Asia Strategy” and contributed to the EU's “White Paper on Governance” with the Think Tank of EC President Jacques Delors, following a fellowship at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He studied law and economics at the universities of Marburg (D) and Genève (CH), researched during two years at Osaka Gaidai (J) and Kyoto University (J) as well as subsequently at Harvard (USA) for his Doctor iuris in Freiburg (D) in 1981. Before joining the EU, he served as an advisor at the Japanese Embassy in Bonn. His publications in English, German, Japanese and French are ranging from cultural diversity to trade issues and global governance, for which he coined the term of “Omnilateralism 汎地球主義 全边主義 inspiring the title of this book.