Citizens for Global Solutions

🗓️ Thinking about entering the essay contest but not sure where to start? This Friday is for you.

We are hosting a free online workshop on Friday, June 19 at 12 PM EST. We will walk through the theme, share ideas to get you unstuck on a topic, and answer your questions about submitting. It is the easiest way to go from "maybe I'll enter" to actually having a draft.

The winner heads to the island of Ventotene in Italy, all expenses paid, and gets published in our journal Mondial.

✍️ Open to US students aged 18 to 30. Spots are free, register at the link before Friday.

🔗 https://globalsolutions.org/what-we-do/programs/new-voices-4-global-solutions-essay-contest/

🌍 Here is something the headlines miss.

Across 34 countries, most people want their nations working together on the problems that cross every border. Not fewer connections. More. When cooperation is proven to work, three out of four people are on board.

The loudest voices online would have you believe everyone has turned inward. The numbers say the opposite. You are not the outlier for believing we are stronger together. You are the majority.

Share this with someone who needs the reminder.

Full article here ➡️ https://globalsolutions.org/updates/blog/around-the-world-global-solidarity-and-cooperation-are-remarkably-popular/

We are excited to announce applications are now open for the 2026 New Voices for Global Solutions Essay Contest!

Are you a current student aged 18-30 living in the United States? We want to hear your ideas for how the United Nations can evolve to meet today’s challenges.

📝 This year’s theme: “From Charter to Change: Reimagining Global Governance through Article 109”

Why Apply?
🎓 Top essays published in Mondial
✈️ Grand prize: A fully funded trip to Italy for the 2026 Ventotene International Seminar (Aug 30 - Sep 4)
🌍 Join a community of emerging leaders passionate about global affairs and international cooperation

📅 Essay submission deadline: July 12, 2026 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time)
📧 Send your essay to: [email protected]

💻 Want help crafting your essay? Join our free virtual workshop on June 19 at 12 PM EST. Details and registration information are available on our contest page.

🔗 https://globalsolutions.org/what-we-do/programs/new-voices-4-global-solutions-essay-contest/

In 1938, just before the Second World War, a Philadelphia gum manufacturer sold 100 million trading cards built around one idea: to know the horrors of war is to want peace. The final card in the set was called "The Frightful Cost of War."

Then the war it warned about arrived, and the message was forgotten.

In a new piece for CGS, historian Charles Howlett brings that lesson back. World War II cost the equivalent of $104 trillion today. The Iran war is now projected to exceed $1 trillion. Behind every figure are schools never built, treatments never funded, and families paying more for food and fuel right now.
His conclusion is direct. Saying "war is bad" over and over will not stop the next one. What will is building real alternatives: democratic institutions, grounded in justice and law.

Read the full piece: https://globalsolutions.org/updates/blog/the-frightful-cost-of-war-and-a-bubble-gum-card/

💙 We lost a friend of this movement when Daniel Ellsberg passed. He served on the CGS National Advisory Council, and his lifelong fight to pull the world back from nuclear catastrophe is part of who we are.

One year before he died, Ellsberg sat down with Oscar nominated director Judith Ehrlich for a new short film, "An Ordinary Insanity." In it he names the world's quiet acceptance of nuclear danger for what it is: an ordinary insanity, dangerous because so many of us have stopped noticing it.

🎬 Watch the free online premiere on Thursday, June 4 at 5 PM PT (8 PM ET), with a panel featuring Ehrlich, the Ellsberg family, and nuclear weapons experts, plus a Q&A.

The film is free to watch and free to host afterward for your own community, classroom, or living room.

Register at anordinaryinsanity.com. Watch with us.

Register now for the free June 4th online premiere: www.anordinaryinsanity.com

The 2026 V-Dem Democracy Report has officially reclassified the United States. We are no longer a liberal democracy.

In a single year, American democracy has fallen back to 1965 levels. That same scale of damage took Hungary's Viktor Orbán four years, and Serbia's Aleksandar Vučić eight.

In her new piece for CGS, Olivia Gauvin (Vice Chair of Democracy Without Borders USA) lays out what is happening, why Project 2025 is already 40 percent implemented, and what we can actually do about it. The short version: it is going to take more than the ballot box.

Read here: https://globalsolutions.org/updates/blog/democracy-disappearing-in-america/