What is the most important issue in World Politics?

It is difficult to answer a question as broad as “what is the most important issue in world politics?” While it is difficult enough to pick out just one of the numerous pressing global issues that we struggle with today, it seems even more difficult to justify why one issue is more important than another. On this planet, we do not have any neutral territory to which we can retreat and analyze the rest of the world without being biased towards whatever affects our country the most, or matches most closely our particular culture’s sense of what is important, or resonates most strongly with our country’s own historical failures and successes. Determining the correct answer to such a question would require an international debate of the highest calibre. Therefore, I believe that I, being far too biased, narrow-minded, and unexperienced, am unqualified to answer this question.

However, it occurs to me that this dilemma may in fact be the answer to what the most important global political issue is today. If we are so biased and uninformed about other countries that we cannot filter out the varied histories, cultures, and current issues of different countries, there is no hope that the human race can conduct an informed, intelligent and ration conversation about world politics without resorting to prejudiced, closed-minded assertions. In such an environment, attempting to discuss what political issue is worthy of the label “most important” would not result in a gradual stripping away of confusing and illogical assumptions to reveal the truth, as a true, enlightened debate should be. Instead, the country with the strongest leaders, the cleverest diplomats, the best writers, and the widest net of influence would impose its priorities on the rest of the world. Before we can try to identify any other issues, we must first be able to see the issues in question from perspectives other than our own.

I believe, therefore, that the most important issue in world politics today is the fostering of communication and understanding among the different nations of the world. Until we can stand in the shoes of those in situations those ours, those with different cultures and histories and world views, we cannot hope to understand the world. And if we cannot understand the world, we cannot possibly identify the most important issues facing it.

Of course, by this reasoning, there’s the possibility that this opinion of mine is just as biased by being an American as any other opinion about important issues in world politics. However, I believe that it’s a start.