In the 2013 movie World War Z, humanity is rescued from a global zombie pandemic by … the United Nations. Personified as a WMD expert from the UN played by Brad Pitt. But now, a decade later, even graver threats than the sprinting dead loom. Climate change, in particular. And once again, only Turtle Bay can save us. So says former UN official and Australian diplomat Roland Rich, in his 2023 book, The United Nations as Leviathan.

Until We Can Swallow Up Independent Nations

Mr. Rich is not Pitt, but his views pervade Hollywood. He chants the liberal litany of apocalyptic alarm. Not just climate change as an “existential threat” and “anthropogenic disaster.” The need for globalization to trump the horrid “Westphalian … division of the world into nations.” Nationalism is bad. It causes “Hobbesianism,” constant warfare “of all against all.”

Westphalia was the ending peace treaty to the Thirty Years War, in 1648. Thomas Hobbes’ political treatise Leviathan, published three years after, is the source of Rich’s title. Until we can get rid of nation-states, we need to empower the UN as a “supra-national” institution to supervise them.

Climate Change Hysteria

That’s the only way to help the one billion “climate refugees” Rich predicts by 2050. Also, there’s the horrible response to the Covid pandemic. Especially by the world’s two leading nations, the US and China. Millions were dying around the world. And yet the “amoral conduct of the two autocrats” prevented effective global response. Yes, the author equates Trump’s earnest, if misguided, attempts to deal with Covid to Xi Jiping’s hiding the disease and denying responsibility.

So Rich says humanity is threatened. And not just by climate change and disease. By “aggressive wars of choice, growing levels of inequality, and continuing injustice.” All problems that nations won’t rise above their own narrow interests to address. The U.S., the global hegemon since 1945, has “abdicated” (hence the “post-American” title trope), thanks to Trump. The PRC is unacceptable in that role. Thus, the UN must move beyond mere talk and occasional peace-keeping to become Hobbe’s Leviathan, or strong sovereign, to save us all.

Global Taxation without Representation

Rich insists that “the UN Leviathan is not a world government.” At least not yet, because nation-states are too entrenched. But he wants the UN to “deliver some of the positives expected of a government.” To do so, it must be funded adequately. Rich proposes taxes on international financial transactions, air travel and freight, and container shipping. This would bring in $110 billion yearly, far more than the UN’s current $3 billion budget.

Give the Blue Helmets a Green Light to Kill

Leviathan would also require UN reform. The General Assembly (GA) would be split into three. The current one, with government members. Also a GA for civil society, staffed by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) like the Red Cross and Amnesty International. And another for business, where multinationals can kibbutz and even act. The three assemblies would jointly elect the UN Secretary-General.

Guess who Rich proposes as the logical first one? Barack Obama. And this SG would be as much “general” as “secretary,” controlling an initial force of 20,000 soldiers, “individually recruited” whose “allegiance would be to the UN.” This force would provide the UN “limited but effective military clout.” It would give the SG an option to intervene in “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.” How to fund globocop? Rich suggests a one percent tax on all sales by weapons manufacturers, in addition to the UN general fund taxes.

“Diversity” Enforced by Globalists

Leviathan will also oversee democracy. It “must become the certifying authority for all national elections.” Not just banana republics, either. “All means all: Côte d’Ivoire and Canada, Malaysia and Madagascar, United Republic of Tanzania and United States of America.”

Ditto for development. Forget roads and dams and similar infrastructure built by Western aid. Those benefit governments. The benign UN behemoth will ensure that development helps people at the grass-roots level. How? By “naming and shaming” ineffective projects.

And the UN will take over the role of “governing globalization,” the entire alphabet soup of UN development agencies. Most of these “are creations of the global North” which “do not primarily represent the global South.” So Leviathan will be oriented to do just that. Envision enforcing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on a global scale.

Imprison Climate Change Skeptics

But remember, climate change is the true existential threat. To save us, a global guilt … er, carbon tax needs be imposed, above and beyond the others Rich advances. Naming and shaming should be shamelessly deployed here, too, against governments who don’t get on the green train. (And of course the US is allegedly “stone cold last” in efforts to “combat climate change.”)

But that probably won’t be enough. So Rich questions whether “climate change denial” should be protected as free speech. “What if the denier holds a prominent public or corporate position and benefits from the denial? That starts to resemble something akin to fraud.” And “fraud is a crime.” Therefore, “the UN General Assemblies should designate climate change denial as a crime against humanity.” (emphasis added)

Kneel Before “the Science”

Up until that point in the book (p. 186), Rich’s arguments could be seen as flawed but defensible. But after that, diabolical Davos pushed aside decency. Opposition will be either outlawed or, if we’re lucky, simply ignored. Rich regularly refuses to grant those who present other information and views any credibility.

He starts with his major premise, that climate change is man-created, undeniable, and threatens our existence. He totally ignores the work of folks like Bjorn Lomborg and Matthew Wielicki. Both make convincing arguments that climate change is not our fault, not dangerous, and may even benefit humanity (through greater crop yields, for example). But their skeptical truths are just too inconvenient. They’d be the first to go into the International Criminal Court’s dungeons. And Rich dismisses as “demagogues and xenophobes” those who dare question whether we should let “environmental migrants” overrun our southern border.

The Infallibility of the Fauci

Then there’s the Covid propaganda. “Some Americans claim it came from a Chinese chemical [sic] weapons lab … . All nonsense, of course. The existence of the virus is simply due to the operation of random Darwinian mutation.” In fact, channeling Anthony Fauci, Rich goes on that “the bat completed its mission, humanity did the rest.” So Wuhan had nothing to do with it? On May 30, 2023, the PRC’s former CDC head, said the lab leak theory “could not be ruled out.” This after a US government agency said the same, back in February of this year.

Trump as Caligula?

Rich himself has a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Here’s a partial list of 45’s alleged atrocities:

• Destruction of the Pax Americana ”
• Making U.S. foreign policy “a personal transactional process.”
• Being “Caligula-like.”

And so on. In fact, the Trump administration negotiated several new peace treaties between Israel and Muslim nations. It sold Javelin anti-tank weapons to Ukraine before Biden. And calling out NATO countries for not spending as much as they’d promised on their militaries actually bolstered Pax Americana. It’s Biden who’s been getting paid by foreigners, not Trump. Trump-as-Caligula is just slander. Although if he wins another non-consecutive term, Trump might consider backing a horse in for the Senate. It couldn’t do any worse than John Fetterman or Diane Feinstein.

Yes, It’s a World Government

As a former UN insider, Rich comes up with a few positive ideas for that body. The World Health Organization should probably be the global leader on pandemics, instead of a national entity (like our severely-politicized CDC). And bringing both NGOs and multinationals into the UN decision-making process makes sense.
But his UN-on-steroids has at its core a false assertion: the “existential threat” of climate change. He then leverages this to endorse global authoritarianism. Yes, he claims that Leviathan would not be a world government. But per William James, “a difference which makes no difference is no difference.” An entity empowered to veto national elections, criminalize free speech and deploy its own military would be a global autocracy. It is anathema to Americans, and to many in other countries.

Leviathan … or Beast?

But that’s his point. Rich’s book represents the zealous pro-globalization side of the current political debate. He exemplifies “Davos Man,” the elite vanguard which arrogantly assumes Western, post-“Enlightenment” values should be imposed on the planet. You’d best believe as they order. That climate change is a real and present danger, nationalism is outdated, “sodomy” (Rich’s word, not mine) must be legalized and protected. The problem for Rich and his ilk is that everyone doesn’t agree with that agenda.

But they must, for their own good. And if the US is no longer willing to make them bend the knee, the UN will. Rich’s Leviathan then transmogrifies into a Beast. And Christians, not just in America but around the world, have been warned against bowing to that false god.

Timothy Furnish holds a Ph.D. in Islamic, World and African history from Ohio State University and a M.A. in Theology from Concordia Seminary. He is a former U.S. Army Arabic linguist and, later, civilian consultant to U.S. Special Operations Command. He’s the author of books on the Middle East and Middle-earth, a history professor and sometime media opiner (as, for example, on Fox News Channel’s War Stories: Fighting ISIS). He currently writes for and consults The Stream on International Security matters.