Cadmus

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Inside this Issue

SEED-IDEAS
A Revolution and a New Paradigm in Education
H. de Souza, G. Jacobs, W. Nagan, I. Šlaus, A. Zucconi

Freedom and Unity
Garry Jacobs

Musings on a New Paradigm
Jonathan Granoff
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Politicians are distracted with the on-going economic crisis and instability. While understandable this is far from the only challenge facing the world. If we are to seize the opportunities of the future then we have to address the legacy of the past and nowhere is this more evident than on defense and security issues. The blunt truth is that security policies in the Euro-Atlantic region, in NATO’s back yard, remain on Cold War autopilot, strategic nuclear forces remain to be launched in minutes, thousands of tactical nuclear weapons remain in Europe, a missile defense debate remains stuck in neutral, while new security challenges such as cyber, conventional, prompt strike force and space remain contentious and inadequately addressed. The truth is this legacy contributes to tensions and mistrust across the Euro-Atlantic region and needlessly drives up risks and most importantly at a time when unprecedented austerity drives up the cost of defense. But this is about more than guns and butter. The likelihood of a major war in Europe may have practically disappeared since the end of the Cold War but this legacy with its attendant mistrust undermines any effort to build a true partnership in the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The status quo, the legacy, divides our continent and sets both Europe and Russia up for a future of failure but worse, a future of irrelevance in the 21st century.
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Editorial Note: This paper was presented at the international conference “Opportunities and Challenges for the 21st Century – Need for a New Paradigm”, which was organised by the United Nations Office and the World Academy of Art and Science and held at the United Nations Office in Geneva on June 3, 2013.

Abstract
If there is a loose consensus on aiming at a world free of nuclear weapons in the future, there are clear oppositions as to the timeframe as well as the means for achieving this goal. The approach to nuclear disarmament followed to date has only yielded limited success because it has been conceived in isolation from global and regional security environments and threat perceptions. A new paradigm should thus be sought in order to reconcile nuclear powers’ security doctrines with global aspirations for a safer world, and ensure that nuclear powers derive their security less from others’ insecurity but from mutually beneficial cooperative security. This should not become a pretext for preserving nuclear weapons for ever. It will on the contrary require parallel tracks addressing the initial motivations for acquiring nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD), in particular in the context of regional conflicts, as well as dealing with the current issues necessarily related to nuclear disarmament (missile defence, weaponization of space, conventional imbalances and future weapon systems). Ultimately, in a globalised nuclear-weapon free world, state security will not require nuclear weapons because it will be inserted into a broader network encompass­ing all aspects of security addressed in cooperative and multilateral approaches.

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Abstract
This article seeks to appraise the Rule of Law in the context of international sovereignty and the growth of international non-governmental organizations. The article explores the meaning of the Rule of Law and suggests that it is better understood as a symbol representing the most basic values that underline our global constitutional system. When we relate the global Rule of Law to the values and the global constitutional framework, we recognize that the Rule of Law and the global constitution are better secured if their authority base can be strengthened. The obvious way this can be done is by strengthening the role of non-governmental organizations within the framework of global governance. If we see the Rule of Law as a defense and promotion of basic values, we may then pose the question about the Rule of Law as an agent of change in a novel developmental construct. Here the author notes that the dynamism of technological change will only increase in the future. But technological change will result in more use of technology and less employment. The question then is, should the benefits of technology not be shared with the workers as well? If that is true, one of the obvious benefits of technology in relation to labor is to reduce the number of hours or days that the worker has to work. Leisure time could result in an aggregate distribution of human happiness. It could evolve into an incentive to generate enhanced human co-creative activity. We could possibly even imagine a second renaissance in the impact of human imagination on society. A modern renaissance. In short, such a development could stimulate the evolution of a human rights based aesthetic.

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Abstract

Exactly 100 years ago, Austrian writer Robert Musil’s book “The Man Without Qualities” foresaw the cultural challenge that Relativity and Quantum Theory would pose to the Newtonian mechanistic worldview of the 19th century. His book anticipated the transition that would eventually compel a deterministic, reductionist science of predictability to enter into dialogue with the emerging subjective and intuitive perception of uncertainty, complexity, freedom and creativity, which promises to revolutionize our way of thinking in the 21st century. Musil anticipated the reconciliation of science and the arts – universal, immutable, scientific truth and dynamic, indeterminate human nature. This essay traces the evolution of Economics from a deterministic material science seeking to emulate the mathematical precision and predictability of Physics into a human-centred social science compatible with indeterminism and uncertainty. The notion of Newtonian equilibrium in Economics is rapidly giving way to dynamic, evolutionary disequilibrium.
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Abstract
The challenge is to redirect central bank money into the real economy and to the needs of society. If new money is issued to expand the productive capacity, there is no reason for inflation. Long-term financing could become available at an affordable price. Central bank money must not replace a sound tax system and the distribution of income and wealth, but complement them. The remaining task, apart from the financing of real needs, is the prevention of speculative asset price inflation. For this, central banks and regulators should install debt brakes for the financial sector. Furthermore, independent monetary policy calls for capital account management. It enables national central banks to find space for the conduct of their own policies in an interdependent global economy. Coordination between central banks and governments might increase as policies combine monetary, fiscal and regulatory facets. The future role of central banks should particularly lie in their insights regarding capital flows and leverage cycles and in their ability to create and withdraw money, depend­ing on economic conditions. Read More

Abstract
The distinction between complicated and complex systems is of immense importance, yet it is often overlooked. Decision-makers commonly mistake complex systems for simply complicated ones and look for solutions without realizing that ‘learning to dance’ with a complex system is definitely different from ‘solving’ the problems arising from it. The situation becomes even worse as far as modern social systems are concerned. This article analyzes the difference between complicated and complex systems to show that (1) what is at stake is a difference of type, not of degree; (2) the difference is based on two different ways of understanding systems, namely through decomposition into smaller parts and through functional analysis; (3) complex systems are the generic, normal case, while complicated systems are highly distinctive, special, and therefore rare.
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Abstract
This paper is the result of two recent e-workshops organized by The World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), one on the Science of Networks, the other on Complexity. These Sci­ences have emerged in the last few decades and figure among a large group of ‘new’ sciences or knowledge acquisitors. They are connected with one another and are very well exposed in the diagram available under the name ‘Map of Complexity Science’ on Wikipedia. Networks exist in extremely diverse contexts: in the biological world, in social constructions, in urbanism, climate change and many more. The novelty appears in the correlations and the laws (e.g. power laws), which were discovered recently, and indicates a totally different appraisal from what was generally expected to exist. The Science of Complexity is directly related to networks. Networks are an essential part of the complexity phenomenon. Their applications, which are highly diverse, are recommended by several scientists; decision makers and politicians have to make use of this knowledge for better evaluation of the impact of their decisions in increasingly complex societies and as a function of time. The paper mentions a recent report on Complexity in Economics and the Economic Complexity Index.

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Abstract

Replacing the United Nations system and large international institutions with plutocratic groups (G-7, G-8, G-20) and universal principles with the laws of the market has led to multiple crises that require immediate reaction to prevent them from becoming irreversible.
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The current socio-economic-political paradigm is destroying our most precious capital – natural, human and social. The current paradigm is non-sustainable. It has to be changed! The required paradigmatic change will have to be one of the most dramatic in the history of humankind, comparable to or even more profound than the agricultural, commercial, democratic, and industrial revolutions of the past.
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