We are entering a new age of global governance for the United Nations. This promise is based upon four long standing global trends which are certain to accelerate over the next decade.

The first trend is continued moderation of American dominance. The hallmark of recent US action has been increased social spending marked by higher taxation, leading to less private employment, slower economic growth and more debt. As budget priorities shift, America's military has also been reduced. Having validated this tradeoff as acceptable in the last election (2012), the majority of Americans expect full deployment of ObamaCare and continued expansion of social programs. The result is fewer resources for projecting American power around the world. The American response will be to turn to its UN partners in pursuit of goals that America cannot achieve alone.

The second trend is increasing willingness of America to defer leadership and embrace the global sovereignty of the United Nations. The US is engaged in several UN treaty negotiations that defer to UN control perogatives formerly left to the exclusive discretion of the US, including such issues as gun control, regulation of the internet, defensive weapons deployment in space, offshore oil drilling and other policy matters.

The predisposition of political organizations in the United States for embracing the United Nations as a coalition partner for checking federal power strengthens and accelerates this second trend. The last round of UN supervision of US elections came at the request of American progressive groups concerned about voting fraud. As state and local governments find themselves unable to check Washington, political activists seeking to reduce federal power may turn to the United Nations for leadership and help.

The third trend is the rise of nations seeking to check US power and fill the leadership vacuum with global coalitions. The rise of China and the Middle East are notable in this regard. The economic challenges of the Third World as well as the European Union all clamor for wealth redistribution involving the United States. These international member coalitions continue to aggresively push for UN treaties aimed at accomplishing their goals.

Finally, the United Nations increasingly provides political cover for policies which would not otherwise be viable in individual member states. Acting in concert with global partners under the auspices of the United Nations, member states can implement and participate in worldwide regulatory schemes as beneficiaries of redistribution, thereby accessing resources on a global scale. Examples include an international income tax and sourcing financial support from organized religion. As economically stressed social democracies (including the US) form coalitions with impoverished third world nations, the advantages of these initiatives will be overwhelmingly persuasive to individual member states.

These trends suggest that the political focus of the entire inhabited earth will increasingly shift to the United Nations as the center for government activism and leadership. America will still be influential and regional coalitions will still exercise policy leadership over local concerns. However, the determining debates over governance and economic development of the globe and its resources will slowly start taking place in the halls of the United Nations rather than the capitals of member states.

International business will want to influence these debates to insure favorable policies. Business has the opportunity to minimize the risk of unfavorable international regulation and advance their own agendas by working directly with UN Agencies. Examples include American oil, gas and mining interests under the proposed Law of the Sea Treaty. The interests of the technology industry in UN proposals to broaden the jurisdiction of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to regulate the internet is another example.

These international regulatory schemes directly affect commerce and the immediate bottom line of companies in these industries. Minimizing risk and advancing favorable outcomes requires engagement - DIRECT advocacy with the bureaucrats that draft, implement and oversee these regulatory schemes. Failure to engage risks ceding leadership favoring constituents more interested in exploitation than industry advancement.

The relationship between American business and the United Nations has been managed historically by US bureaucrats to jealously guard US sovereignty and advance Washington's preferences. However, instead of rejecting UN sovereignty, industry should embrace global governance as an opportunity to advance its own preferences in governing international commerce. Establishing worldwide business coalitions can help to advance industry based views that transcend the political and social concerns of any one member state.

This opportunity for industry to shape the world economy is unprecedented, and the time is now. As international regulatory schemes are embraced they will be difficult to change or overturn. Achieving the goals of the UN requires more than political stability and social justice. By investing in the United Nations, industry can contribute to the worldwide economic development necessary to achieve these goals.