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CADMUS

The acronym of the South-East European Division of The World Academy of Art and Science – SEED – prompted us to initiate a journal devoted to seed ideas - to leadership in thought that leads to action. We put this sentence as a motto, but we realize that we need a name for the journal. For our website it was easy to decide on www.seed-ideas. org , but name of a journal is more demanding. Several suggestions were made: Mercator (Gerard Mercator born as Gerard de Cremer in 1512 in Rupelmondanus - a Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and best known as a cartographer, professor at University of Leuven, He signed his work with Gerardus Mercator Rupelmondanus. Indeed, we are trying to provide maps) and, following the example of Daedalus, used by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for its journal, Cadmus. Cadmus (or Kadmos in Greek and Phoenician mythology) was a son of King Agenor and Queen Telephassa of Tyre, and brother of Cilix, Phoenix and Europa. Cadmus is credited with introducing the original alphabet – the Phoenician alphabet, with “the invention” of agriculture, and with founding the city of Thebes. His marriage with Harmonia represents the symbolic coupling of Eastern learning and Western love of beauty. The youngest son of Cadmus and Harmonia is Illyrius. The city of Zagreb, which is the formal seat of SEED, was once a part of Illyria, a region including what is today referred to as the Western Balkans and even more.

Cadmus will be a journal for fresh thinking and new perspectives that integrate knowledge from all fields of science, art and humanities to address real-life issues, inform policy and decision-making, and enhance our collective response to the challenges and opportunities facing the world today.

ISSN 2038-5242 - Cadmus (Trieste. Testo stampato)

ISSN 2038-5250 - Cadmus (Trieste. Online)

OUR VISION

The world is in need of guiding ideas, a vision, to more effectively direct our intellectual,  moral and scientific capabilities for world peace, global security, human dignity and social justice. Today we face myriad challenges. Unprecedented material and technological achievements co-exist with unconscionable and in some cases increasing poverty, inequality and injustice. Advances in science have unleashed remarkable powers, yet these very powers as presently wielded threaten to undermine the very future of our planet. Rapidly rising expectations have increased frustrations and tensions that threaten the fabric of global society. Prosperity itself has become a source of instability and destruction when wantonly pursued without organizational safeguards for our collective well-being. No longer able to afford the luxury of competition and strife based primarily on national, ethnic or religious interests and prejudices, we need urgently to acquire the knowledge and fashion the institutions required for free, fair and effective global governance.

In recent centuries the world has been propelled by the battle cry of revolutionary ideas — freedom, equality, fraternity, universal education, workers of the world unite. Past revolutions have always brought vast upheaval and destruction in their wake, tumultuous and violent change that has torn societies asunder and precipitated devastating wars. Today the world needs evolutionary ideas that can spur our collective progress without the wake of destructive violence that threatens to undermine the huge but fragile political, social, financial and ecological infrastructures on which we depend and strive to build a better world.

Until recently, history has recorded the acts of creative individual thinkers and dynamic leaders who altered the path of human progress and left a lasting mark on society. Over the past half century, the role of pioneering individuals is increasingly being replaced by that of new and progressive organizations, including the international organizations of the UN system and NGOs such as the Club of Rome, Pugwash and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. These organizations stand out because they are inspired by high values and committed to the achievement of practical, but far-reaching goals. This was, no doubt, the intention of the founders of the World Academy of Art & Science when it established this institution in 1960 as a transnational association to explore the major concerns of humanity in a non-governmental context.

The founders of WAAS were motivated by a deep emotional commitment an sense of responsibility to work for the betterment of all humankind. Their overriding conviction was on the need for a united global effort to control the forces of science and technology and govern the peaceful evolution of human society. Inhibiting conditions limited their ability to translate these powerful motives into action, but they still retain their original power for realization. Today circumstances are more conducive, the international environment is more developed. No single organization can by itself harness the motive force needed to change the world, but a group of like-minded organizations founded with such powerful intentions can become a magnet and focal point to project creative ideas that possess the inherent dynamism for self-fulfillment.

The Editorial Board

Editorial Policy

The editors welcome submission of proposals, articles, ideas, abstracts, reviews, letters and comments by Fellows of the World Academy of Art & Science, Members of the Club of Rome and Pugwash as well as invited and unsolicited articles from the public. All proposals are examined by the editorial board to determine their suitability for publication in Cadmus. A style manual is under preparation, but need not be of concern for submission of proposals or draft articles.

The clear intention behind the founding of Cadmus is to publish fresh perspectives, original ideas, new approaches that extend beyond contemporary thinking with regard to the relationship between knowledge, public policy and society today and their impact on human wealth, welfare and well-being – human security defined in its broadest terms. It is summed up in the motto “Leadership in Thought that Leads to Action”.

Special issues will also be published from time to time devoted to specific topics.

The primary guidelines for selection of articles are

  • The article should address issues of broad social concern to the world today.
  • The article should not be one that naturally qualifies for publication in a more traditional journal devoted to a specialized discipline, i.e. it should be multi- or trans-disciplinary in scope and implications.
  • The article should present an original perspective, conception or practical approach.
  • The article may be in the form of an essay of ideas, an annotated theoretical discussion or fact-based scientific evaluation of evidence. We accept all three.

These guidelines are general and not rigid. Acceptance or rejection of an article does not reflect at all on its academic or intellectual merit, only on the degree of its alignment with the specific objectives of Cadmus.

Submissions may be of any length but preference will be given to articles of 5-10 pages and shorter pieces of 1-3 pages.

We would encourage you to share any manuscript with us that you think might be what we are looking for.

SEED

- South-East European Division of The World Academy of Art and Science

The Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) established its South-East European Division (SEED-WAAS) in 2005. SEED-WAAS includes fellows, associate and junior fellows of WAAS from South European countries, i.e. from Portugal and Spain to Greece and Turkey. Since 2005 membership of SEED-WAAS has more than tripled. SEED-WAAS is a member of the Central-Eastern European Network of national academies and of the ALLEA - association of all European academies. SEED-WAAS cooperates with The Club of Rome and national associations of the Club, with the Pugwash Movements and its national associations, and with The Balkan Political Club. Many fellows of SEED-WAAS are also members of these organizations.

Together with its partners SEED-WAAS has organized numerous international  conferences, sessions during international conferences and meetings, including events at Barcelona (2010), Ljubljana (2008), Zagreb (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009), Banja Luka (2006, 2010), Sarajevo (2006), Dubrovnik (2009), Podgorica (2009) and Istanbul (2006 and 2009). Proceedings of some of these conferences are published and distributed to Fellows of WAAS and to participants. One remarkable achievement worthy of specific mention was the initiative by Orio Giarini, Fellow of SEED-WAAS and Member of The Club of Rome, who initiated and now for more than five years successfully directs the journal “The European Papers on New Welfare - The Counter-aging Society”. That journal served as a foundation and inspiration for the launching of CADMUS.

SEED-WAAS members are actively engaged and have initiated several recent and on-going programmes of the World Academy, notably the Initiative for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Global Employment Challenge, The Evolution of Individuality, From Crisis to Prosperity and Limits to Rationality. Other notable SEED activities include: a bilingual English-Croatian website www.vrijemeje.com (it is time!) publishing articles on economic and related issues by SEED-WAAS fellows and serving as a platform for interaction with the public; formulation of long-term energy strategy; proposals to raise employment in the region; and a proposal to declare SE Europe as a nuclear weapons free zone with guarantees for peace and security under the umbrella of NATO.

Ivo Šlaus, President

WAAS

The World Academy of Art and Science was established in 1960 as a non-official network of not more than 650 individual Fellows from diverse cultures, nationalities, and intellectual disciplines, "chosen for eminence in art, the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. Its activities focus on "the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge."

The spirit of the Academy can be expressed in the words of Albert Einstein: "The creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind." Its Fellows share the ambition (as the Founders said in their 1960 Manifesto) "to rediscover the language of mutual understanding," surmounting differences in tradition, language, and social structure which, unless fused by creative imagination and continuous effort, dissolve the latent human commonwealth in contention and conflict.

To this end the Academy serves as a forum for reflective scientists, artists, and scholars to discuss the vital problems of humankind independent of political boundaries or limits, whether spiritual or physical -- a forum where these problems can be discussed objectively, scientifically, globally, and free from vested interests or regional attachments.

The World Academy of Art and Science, said the 1960 Manifesto, "will function as an informal `world university at the highest scientific and ethical level, in which deep human understanding and the fullest sense of responsibility will meet."

Scientific discovery and technological innovation keep developing instruments of unparalleled power for fulfillment or destruction. We humans, more and more, are taking into our own hands the future evolution of our bodies, our minds, the civilizations we create, and the very planet we inhabit. So it is imperative that we guide what we do by what we know, and guide what we know by what we value.

More about WAAS.