Sometimes I am inclined to believe that the nations of the world will never cooperate for the common good unless we are attacked by alien hordes from outer space.

Some years ago, I read a science fiction story that pursued that idea.  In this short novel a billionaire businessman devised and financed an elaborate hoax to convince world leaders that the aliens were coming.  The hoax was successful, and the nations of the world abandoned their petty prejudices and united to repel the common enemy.  Cooperation became the watchword.

Maybe we should try it.  The revival of interest in UFOs is a start.

Perhaps our astronauts will now find an alien forward outpost on one of the moons of Saturn.  That would surely stir things up.