Citizenship in the World Merit Badge

What this page is

The Citizenship in the World merit badge, laid out so you can see how much of it you actually have to do. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.

How a merit badge is earned at all is a separate page, How to Earn a Merit Badge.

Thirty-two parts, and you are not doing thirty-two

This badge asks "do TWO of the following" three separate times. Counted flat it looks enormous. Answered, it is a good deal smaller:

• Requirement 4, two of three routes: international law, world trade, or describing the role of two international organisations.
• Inside 4(c), if you take that third route, two organisations from a list of nine, from the United Nations to the European Union.
• Requirement 7: two of five, ranging from reading a foreign newspaper to attending a world Scouting event. Answer the three questions above the plan and everything you are not doing comes off the list. Answer none of them and you see all thirty-two, each optional step marked as one that may not apply. Nothing is hidden because you have not spoken.

The choice inside a choice

The nine organisations under 4(c) only exist if you chose 4(c) in the first place. This page treats them properly: an organisation step appears only when you have picked both that route and that organisation. Pick international law and world trade instead, and all nine disappear together.

The one that needs a date in the diary

Everything here can be done from a library or a laptop except parts of requirement 7: visiting with a Scout or student from another country, attending a WOSM event such as a World Scout Jamboree or Jamboree on the Air, or going to an international festival or concert locally. Those need somebody else's calendar. If your time is short, 7(a) and 7(b) are the two that are not on anyone else's schedule.