chapter 10 Global Citizenship Kennedy Graham This essay is compiled in honour of Roger Clark: law teacher without peer, raconteur par excellence, mentor, colleague and friend—leading member of the emerging cadre of global citizens. The idea of global citizenship is as old as political thought. It rests on five mil- lennia of unrealised universalism, qualified by four centuries of dominant nationalism. The contemporary age is witness to the articulation of universal- ism in human rights within the context of national political thought. How the tension between universalism and individualism will play out through this century is the focus of enquiry here. A study of ‘global citizenship’ requires, first, definitional and conceptual clarification. This facilitates an exploration of the philosophical foundations of the concept, including the values underpinning it. As the world changes, so does the socio-psychological dimension of an individual’s modern sense of identity and loyalty. Those evolving values and the social psychology of mod- ern life lay the foundation for strengthened juridical concepts relevant to global citizenship which in turn, ultimately, will bestow it a constitutional sta- tus with institutional expression. The structure of this essay reflects the above reasoning, with conclusions derived at the end. 1 Definitional and Conceptual Meaning The distinction between ‘global’ and ‘international’ is at the core of contemporary political thought. Whereas ‘international’ involves the relations between nation- states on issues of common concern, ‘global’ involves recognition of a unified human interest in, and responsibility for, issues of universal concern. With inter- national issues there is always a ‘we / them’ dimension in analytical discourse; with global issues there is always, and only, ‘we’. There is also a difference in scale: an international issue may be sub-global; a global issue, by definition, cannot. ‘Citizenship’ has two meanings: - the state of being vested with the rights, privileges and duties of a citizen; © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004270725_011 <UN> 102 graham - the character of an individual viewed as a member of society, behaviour in terms of the duties, obligations and functions of a citizen.1 The distinction is important; a person may exhibit behavioural characteristics independent of whether s/he is of that particular state of being. This is critical because it raises the question whether a person can acquire and exhibit behav- ioural characteristics pertaining to a state of being which does not actually exist, or at least which is not fully developed. If, in the second definition, there are two components that are mutually independent, namely, character viewed as a member of society on the one hand and citizen-like behaviour on the other, then a person could indeed exhibit characteristics that are evocative of, but not formally tied to, a state of being. The issue therefore becomes empirical, rather than theoretical, whether citizenship is confined to the national level or can be seen as applying to the regional or global level—and whether it rests on a community or a society, with or without a polity. Citizenship at the Regional Level In the contemporary age, is there such a thing as ‘regional citizenship’? Clearly the Africans, Americans and Europeans reside in a specific (regional) locality. All three regional peoples have a common cultural or historical heritage. Asia is so large and heterogeneous that it may not meet any of the necessary characteristics.2 Over the past half-century, Europeans have broken from the definitional con- straint of a ‘citizen’ being confined to the nation-state. Through socio-political engineering, they have lifted citizenship to the supra-national level. Serving the European Union (‘eu’) today is a European Council (the executive branch of ministers from the member states); a European Commission (the bureau- cratic body serving the Council); and a European Parliament (the representa- tives of the peoples of each member nation-state elected on the basis of political philosophy and party affiliation rather than national identity). Other regional organizations are less developed. The African Union (‘au’), however, is strong and visionary. It has the concept of an ‘au Government’ for a ‘United States of Africa’ actively under consideration.3 And it leads the world 1 See <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/citizenship> accessed 4 August 2014. 2 See Kennedy Graham & Tania Felicio, Regional Security and Global Governance (vub Press 2006) 85–88, 178–89. 3 Since its 2007 Summit, the African Union (‘au’) has had an audit of the idea at head-of- government level, with annual reports. <UN>.