A recurring problem with these forms of civilizational inadequacy is bystander effect/first-mover disadvantage/prisoners' dilemma/etc, and the obvious solutions (there might be others) are coordination or enforcement. Seeing if there's other solutions and seeing how far people have already run with coordination and enforcement seems promising. Even if one is pessimistic about how easily the problems can be addressed and thinks we're probably screwed anyway but slightly less probably screwed if we try, then the value of information is still very high; this is a common feature of FHI's work, which, by the way, I consider extremely valuable!

What reasons might we have to believe or disbelieve that we can do better than (or significantly improve) governments, the UN, NATO, sanctions, treaty-making, etc.?