World Academy of Art & Science

In reviewing several of the suggestions concerning the mission statement, I have a few additional thoughts that may help to clarify and sharpen the discourse. 

            The World Academy of Art and Science is composed of members of eminence and scientific distinction on a global basis.  Its mission therefore reflects the inclusiveness of its concerns, which are global in scope and emphasis.  The central characteristic of the state of the global universe is that it is in a process of transition.  It is therefore important for the Academy to play a role in a better understanding of where we have been and what we are transitioning to.  One emphasis has been that there is a critical transitioning from social systems and public orders based on exploitation, repression, and a complete disrespect for the essential dignity and the very idea of the life of the human person.  These perspectives are invariably based on the exercise of raw power, arbitrary coercion, and the exercise of political decision without authority.  The transition is indicated in the language collective humanity has found the practices of slavery and colonialism repulsive.  Still, while we experience the euphoria of a global antipathy toward slavery and coercivity, there are critical forces of reaction that have in fact created new forms of slavery and labor exploitation.  One illustration of this is the modern problem of trafficking in human beings and the evolution of sexual slavery.  Thus, the struggle, in the context of transition, continues. 

            In the context of economic justice, there is similarly a rejection of famine, unemployment, and poverty as an inevitable consequence of global economic processes.  Still, the rejection of economic justice has not led to an adoption of global policies and practices that do not entrench these outcomes.  However, our global perspective on economic justice and freedom has in fact impacted upon the economic status quo, in terms of changed perspectives, which often emerge from non-governmental groups in global society.  (For example, consider the World Social Forum, Jubilee 2000, The Club of Rome, or the Trilateral Commission.)

            One of the urgent tasks of the Academy is to better understand and document the change in human consciousness and perspective, which makes the human being and his/her well-being a central focus of intellectual and scientific concern to guide inquiry and action.  These changed perspectives are evident in the peace movement and its antipathy to war and the costs of war, evident in the perspectives on human rights and economic justice, the perspectives on development and environmental integrity, rising expectations about global governance, which enhance accountability, responsibility, and transparency at every level of social organization.  In this process of transition, it has been widely remarked that the previous framework (which was largely a sovereignty/state-centered model) is being undermined by global processes that make the state a porous player in the international system.  We therefore grapple with the problem of what may serve as a more effective complement to the state in sustaining a public order consistent with the changed form and structure of human consciousness. 

            Among the central issues that challenge the evolution of the plenitude of human freedom are issues of population, resources, and environmental sustainability.  The critical question (as to the first issue) is the forecast of demographics and its impact on scarce resources and their depletion, which make the general environment less assured.  In some development contexts, increases in population negate developmental progress.  The problem of demographics is in fact a global problem, and not simply a matter of state sovereignty.  Tied to increases in population is the assumption that industrial development can expand indefinitely.  This is not a model (scientists say) that can be made into a universal standard.  The competition for scarce resources provides enormous incentives for greed and acquisitive culture.  This has political ramifications, in the sense that elites will tend to monopolize most of what there is to get.  This brings us to the question of the interplay of global governance and governance within sovereign states.

            Efforts to address these questions have not been satisfactory.  There is evidence that the U.N. is losing some of its competence over important global issues, which require global solutions.    How can we reform the U.N. without also reforming the consciousness of political expectation, globally?  The Academy is in an unique position to facilitate an important discourse on these issues.  In fact, issues of global governance are implicated in a wide variety of values critical to the expectation of human freedom.  To give one example, the United Nations has adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity.  The U.N. has had an on-going conference of the states' parties, because of the implications that biodiversity holds for issues like climate change.  The critical question is, "Is this a matter that should be of high interest to the Academy?"  How can the Academy participate in these important discussions (which in fact are generating global policies on biodiversity and climate change)?

            These issues also provide an opportunity for the Academy to clarify what it sees as the central goals and values that should normatively guide the transition of global social and political systems.  Among the most important of these would be the issues of the global war system and major forms of conflict; the strategies of war prevention and disarmament; and the strategies of achieving the goals of ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction.  Additional critical issues include social justice and economic equity; the impact of human population expansion and all values; and the particular impact of economics and demographics and of the war system on environmental integrity.  An overarching issue is the centrality of human rights and humanitarian values.  Moreover, we must be concerned with the promotion of democratic values, in terms of global institutions of decision-making, and in terms of activities at the community level. 

             Finally, the critical question that confronts W.A.A.S. is the currency of the insights and advice of a scholarly, intellectually driven organization that functions outside of the boundaries of state sovereignty.  Here, W.A.A.S. is part of the larger and emerging non-governmental force concerned with the well-being and importance of planetary values.  The question is whether we can bring other academies together to exert influence on decision-makers concerning specific themes that we deem important to intellectual and scientific responsibility.  These issues all implicate the policies of human dignity and freedom.  These policies should be a major emphasis and objective of the mission of the W.A.A.S.