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Inside this Issue



ARTICLE | | BY Ivo Šlaus, Garry Jacobs, Orio Giarini

Author(s)

Ivo Šlaus
Garry Jacobs
Orio Giarini

Cadmus Journal has been launched to promote leadership in thought that leads to action. The first issue focused on wealth and welfare and concluded that a paradigm change is necessary - a change as profound as the paradigm change in physical sciences at the beginning of the 20th century and much more profound than the Copernican paradigm change. The first issue of Cadmus identified major issues that need to be addressed by the new paradigm. In this issue Orio Giarini, Ian Johnson and Patrick Liedtke challenge some of the basic premises underlying prevailing economic theory. The new paradigm emphasizes the paramount significance of human and social capital, justifying the fact that the founder of economics - Adam Smith - was a moral philosopher primarily concerned with economics as a means to alleviate human suffering. Several articles in this issue focus on the global problem of unemployment and underemployment, which represents a massive waste of human capital as well as a threat to the survival and welfare of billions of people.

Such a radical paradigm change requires adequate political, social and economic measures. Therefore, the first issue included a proposal for a new measure of welfare. It is rewarding that simultaneous with the publication of that issue, the Commission headed by Stiglitz and Sen, as well as the Human Development Report, came to similar conclusions. In this issue, Hazel Henderson provides recent poll data regarding the inadequancy of GDP, which she refers to as grossly distorting picture.

This issue of Cadmus broadens the discussion of wealth and welfare to explore the relationships between economics and governance. The word governance derives from Greek verb kubernao, which means ‘to steer’ (apparently first used by Plato). Often the verb to govern is conceived as restrictive. Yet as G. B. Shaw wrote in his Don Juan “to be in hell is to drift, to steer is to be in heaven.” Governance is a creative system and activity intended to guarantee freedom, protect human rights and promote human security – three inseparable components of human welfare. Winston Nagan and Jasjit Singh explore this relationship in articles on economics and human rights and the linkage between economic opportunity and social stability.

As our physical universe has been characterized in terms of six numbers*, human beings and human society can be characterized by the following nine numbers: 1) seven billion (soon to increase to nine, then very gradually decline to 2-3 billions) individual human beings – the source of ideas, actions and creativity; 2) five to ten thousand different cultures that provide stimulus and safety for individual human activities; 3) 203 sovereign states, some of them unified regionally, of which 193 are members of the UN, providing the structure for social cohesion, as well as for law and order; 4) numerous other organizations (networks of individuals): political parties, trade unions and civil society organizations, including some 40,000 international NGOs and several million more at the national and local level, where individuals express, accomplish and fulfill their specific interests and goals; of which regional academies and world societies such as WAAS, the Club of Rome and Pugwash share unique capabilities and responsibilities, and also 5) e-connections: Google, Facebook, Twitter – these new and constantly emerging interactions which are becoming more and more important; 6) professional associations (healthcare, engineering, law, etc); 7) commercial organizations structured as SMEs, multi- and transnational corporations, as well as structures for coordinating and monitoring their activities; 8) more complex networks involving individuals (e.g. experts) and social structures (e.g. nations, governments, academies, societies) such as IPCC and the Inter Academy Panel, underscoring interactions among different entities, and 9) all of these united as one global, interconnected world.

These complex networks require governance. In a rapidly changing interconnected world, safety and social structure need not only to be robust in order to survive; they must also be flexible and resilient to develop. Governing the complex, constantly changing social networks and individuals, each of these types of organization has its own undeniable sovereignty. It is necessary to protect the rights of each one, yet also assure synergistic, non-destructive interactions among all of them. Just like economic activity, governance is everywhere, and there is no way to distance economics from governance or from its various aspects, including policies and politics. Governance is essential. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize that major improvements are necessary and that, possibly, we are also facing a governance paradigm change, as suggested in the articles by Agni Vlavianos Arvanitis, Andreas Bummel, and T. Natarajan.

Over the past few decades, the World Academy of Art and Science has organized General Assemblies and many workshops addressing the issue of governance. Many WAAS fellows have made major contributions to this subject: Harold Lasswell, Harlan Cleveland, Walter T. Anderson, David Held and James Rosenau can be truly called fathers of global governance. Of course, the governance of our Academy has to serve as a role-model for global organizations.

The world needs breakthrough, out-of-the box ideas concerning governance and human security in order to arrive at the new paradigms in economics and politics required to meet the challenges and tap the opportunities of the 21st Century. Therefore, this second issue of Cadmus starts with a new section: Seed-Ideas− short proposals, often the result of collective brainstorming and, therefore, authorless, as well as presentation of a proposed new Vision and Mission of the Academy for readers to ponder and respond to. These are followed by a section containing articles on welfare and well-being, a section on governance, and a section on human security followed by reports on activities of fellows of WAAS and members of the Club of Rome relevant for these endeavors.

Ivo Slaus, Chairman Garry Jacobs, Managing Editor Orio Giarini, Editor-in-Chief

*. Martin Rees, Just Six Numbers, Basic Books, 1999.

About the Author(s)

Ivo Šlaus

Honorary President, World Academy of Art & Science; Member, Club of Rome, European Leadership Network and Pugwash Council; Dean, Dag Hammarskjold University College for International Relations & Diplomacy, Zagreb.

Garry Jacobs

President & Chief Executive Officer, World Academy of Art & Science; CEO & Chairman of Board of Directors, World University Consortium; International Fellow, Club of Rome; President, The Mother’s Service Society, Pondicherry, India.

Orio Giarini

Director, The Risk Institute, Geneva, Switzerland; Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science