The core argument of this bold and timely book is clear: the challenges of our era demand planetary thinking – and ultimately, planetary institutions. And crucially, making that leap is not beyond our reach.
Blake and Gilman begin by revisiting history. They remind us that the idea of the nation-state as the default unit of sovereignty is actually a relatively recent invention. For most of human history, power has been distributed across empires, monarchs, trading companies, churches, monasteries, governors and kinship-based communities. What we now see as centuries dominated by states were, in fact, shaped by overlapping forms of authority that evolved with shifts in technology, trade, economy and belief systems. Nation-states are just one chapter in the longer story of how human societies organise power.
Today, the most pressing societal issues – climate change, pandemics emerging from zoonotic viruses, the collapse of biodiversity – are not simply global problems. They are planetary. And that distinction matters. While “global” refers to interactions between people, communities and nations, “planetary” acknowledges that we are part of a complex, interconnected system that includes the biosphere, atmosphere and nonhuman life. These crises cannot be tackled unless our worldview – and our governance – recognises that planetary reality, guided by science and ecological understanding.
So far, the best attempt humanity has made toward planetary cooperation is through multilateralism between sovereign states. But this model has repeatedly fallen short. Blake and Gilman argue that it’s time to imagine something different: planetary institutions – designed not to dominate but to complement existing systems of governance, and to address problems that transcend the capacity of nations or regions to solve on their own.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean dissolving nation-states or local power structures. On the contrary, power can still be distributed according to the principle of subsidiarity – solving problems at the level closest to where they occur, while planetary institutions handle issues that demand coordination across borders and species.
Children of a Modest Star is a courageous book. Not because it offers ready-made solutions – it doesn’t – but because it insists we widen our field of vision. It invites us to imagine what planetary governance could look like and how we might begin to build it. In doing so, it frees us from the mental boundaries of the nation-state era and opens the door to more expansive, ambitious thinking – fit for a time of deeply interconnected crises.
