WAAS Mission Statement
The world is eagerly awaiting innovative ideas and visionary schemes that will help guide its energies in a positive direction that will lead to improvement in human affairs. The world is faced with innumerable challenges. On the one hand the world has witnessed unheard of increase in prosperity and unimaginable technological achievements. On the other hand these benefits have not spread uniformly with the result that there is an uncomfortable coexistence of prosperity and poverty. Nuclear sciences have achieved remarkable break-throughs in unleashing nuclear power. But it has
become a double-sided weapon that can wreck colossal damage on the planet and threaten to wipe out civilization and mankind itself. Expectation among people in the developing countries have skyrocketed to great heights and consequent frustrations have fueled discontent that threaten the peace and integrity of many nations. Unrestrained consumption and exploitation of resources has damaged the environment and has given a warning that unrestrained usage of earth’s resources is not compatible with the health of the environment. The world cannot afford anymore competitive interactions based on national and ethnic and religious rivalries and must evolve a form of global governance that ensures harmonious and happy coexistence and interactions.
Many factors have accelerated human progress such as democracy, technology, education, science and cultural and spiritual values. Even war, quest for empire and explorations have played a role in governing social progress. Still our present acquisition of knowledge does not seem sufficient to meet the present challenges that the world is facing. We need to improve our knowledge of ourselves with respect to what enables us to be creative and what in us makes us be prone to commit errors and the positive points in our human personality that aid our progress and the negative points that impel us to destroy our own positive accomplishments.
In the past 150 years social and political advancement has been accelerated by revolutionary ideals such as freedom, equality, fraternity, universal education and communist slogans etc. Revolutionary activities have always resulted in calamitous upheavals that have violently shaken the social order before settling down. But this need not keep on repeating. We can develop evolutionary ideas that speed up social progress without the violence and disturbance that always accompanies revolutionary fervor and severely dislocate the delicate and fragile social and political and financial arrangements that govern our social interactions.
The World Academy of Arts and Sciences has a distinguished gathering of members drawn from diverse countries and cultures and academic disciplines who are all united by a common aspiration to improve the existing state of global affairs in such a way as to speed up the realization of humanity’s goals for peace and prosperity and remove existing hurdles in the way. Our approach to this issue is by promoting inter-disciplinary dialogue that sheds light on the root causes for the problems that afflict humanity and show us how to solve these problems once and for all. The Academy can play a constructive role in developing a leadership in thought that will help initiate effective action.
The following criteria should be applied for evaluating and selecting programs and activities.
- Global Reach – pertaining to issues of maximum importance to the future of science and society.
- Integrated approach - an all-encompassing perspective that is linked to many arts and science in a productive and creative manner.
- Theoretical contribution – capable of shedding new light on issues of fundamental importance to humanity.
- Uniqueness – capitalizing on the unique resources of our Academy’s members and their interests to address issues that have not been adequately studied so far.
- Collaboration – involving Fellows and non-Fellows and members of other reputed organizations.