Humankind needs global responses to global challenges, but multilateral agreements are far too often not binding.

Eva von Redecker is a public intellectual who argues that humankind must overcome capitalism to solve our urgent problems. While it is true that we are at risk of collective suicide by destroying our planet’s environment, it is a fallacy to blame each and every problem on profit-driven economies. Demographic trends show that global capitalism is no a death cult.

Government officers normally do not write long essays assessing what the respective ministry can and cannot achieve. Their job, after all, is to draft and implement policy, not to cast doubt on government action. Nonetheless, Wolfram Stierle of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has written an excellent book exploring the limits of what his institution can achieve.

Two political scientists argue that civil disobedience is the most promising way to oppose an authoritarian regime.