Global Leadership in the 21st Century

In 2013 WAAS embarked on a new project to examine the global challenges and opportunities confronting humanity in the 21^st century. The first phase of the project was launched at a conference at the United Nations Office in Geneva on June 1, 2013 jointly conducted by WAAS and UNOG with the participation of 200 senior diplomats, heads of research institutions and civil society organizations. Phase I led to the publication of more than 100 articles on different sectors of global society, including peace and security, global governance, democracy, economy, finance, employment, education, ecology and environment, society and culture. Phase I identified certain common characteristics of all the challenges confronting humanity and argued that a mere change in public policies would be inadequate to address any of them. More fundamental changes would be needed necessitating a paradigm change in approach, including a reconstitution of institutions at the national and global level, a reformulation of social theory to take into account the interlinkages and interdependencies between sectors, a restructuring of education to overcome the barriers created to independence silos of knowledge and fundamental changes in the way we think of global issues. The outcome of Phase I conferences and published papers led eventually to the launch in 2019 of Phase II of collaboration between WAAS and UNOG under the title Global Leadership in the 21^st Century as presented above.