[martindevans]

Perhaps I did misunderstand, I was certainly interpreting it as a desire for concrete change in the political structures of how the world is run rather than a shift in attitudes amongst the people of the world. I'm definitely not opposed to less conflict in the world!

Personally I don't really agree with your assessment of the EU as a form of that though. In this context I would include something like the EU when talking about larger governments (maybe that's not strictly correct, but it is what I had in mind with my original comment). There are of course lower levels in the EU (i.e. the individual countries) but that's also true for many countries with a central government and smaller regional authorities (e.g. London & Edinburgh).