International Project for Global Leadership in the 21st Century

THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE WORLD ACADEMY OF ART AND SCIENCE

Between November 13^th and 16^th, Emil Constantinescu, the President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, took part in the annual reunion of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) and the World University Consortium (WUC) held in Belgrade, Serbia, at the Association of Serbian Economists. Over the course of these events, the Boards of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science and of the World University Consortium established the bodies’ logistical and administrative priorities for 2020, and presented a series of international projects promoted and supported by the WAAS and the WUC.

On the evening of November 13^th, President Constantinescu took part in a meeting of the Board of the World University Consortium, which highlighted the decisions taken during the Annual Meeting of its Board of Trustees held two days prior on November 11^th, with regard to the evaluation of a series of events organised throughout 2019 and the organization of upcoming events for the following year, such as the high-level roundtable meeting on the process of social transformation (Dubrovnik, March 2020), the round-table on the future of global governance or the 5^th edition of the International Conference on Education. On this occasion, President Constantinescu reiterated his proposal – echoed by the WUC leadership – to nominate Professor Remus Pricopie, the Rector of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest and President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization to the position of Secretary General of the World University Consortium.

The reunion of the Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science on the morning of November 14^th debated the nominations of new members to the Board of Trustees, and approved the points of order setting out the reunion’s activity over the following days. The meeting was followed by the annual WAAS General Assembly, wherein the organization’s associates were able to vote in newly-nominated members, and where the World Academy’s leadership, through Mr. Garry Jacobs (CEO), Professor Heitor Gurgulino de Souza (President) and Professor Nebojsa Neškovic (Secretary General) presented the WAAS activity for 2019 (including the Accord for Education for the Culture of Peace and the Sustainable Development Goals, supported by President Constantinescu as a representative of the WAAS Board in Paris, May 21^st 2019; the International Summit on the Future of Capital: Financing the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda (September 12^th-13^th 2019, UN Headquarters in New York); or the 4^th Edition of the International Conference on the Future of Education, organized in Belgrade just a few days prior, between the 11^th and 13^th of November 2019), as well as the WAAS’ projects for 2020 (a roundtable on the Future of Capital, Dubrovnik, November 18^th–20^th 2019; International Project for Global Leadership in the 21^st Century (Geneva, Switzerland, scheduled for the first half of 2020), or the support offered the EuroScience Open Forum 2020 (Trieste, Italy).

During the General Assembly, broadcast live online through the Webinar platform owned and operated by the World Academy of Art and Science, President Constantinescu presented the activity report of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization: the Institute’s completed and ongoing projects, programmes, initiatives alongside its secured partnerships over the course of 2019, and those forecast for 2020. President Constantinescu seized on the opportunity to personally present those members of the Scientific Council of the IASLCC their copy of the Pope John Paul II in Romania. Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue Nine Centuries after the Great Schism anniversary album, while the WAAS members, in turn, surprised the President with a thoughtful gift on the occasion of his upcoming 80^th birthday.

The meetings of the Board of Trustees held on the 15^th and 16^th of November tackled a series of organizational, logistic and administrative issues, such as the modification of internal regulations, the status of ongoing activities and collaborations, the updating of the processes and criteria for the future induction of new members into the organization, the presentation of fiscal reports for 2019 and provisional reports for 2020, with each decision, following successive rounds of debate, being subjected to a majority vote on the part of the Members of the Board gathered in the Library of the Serbian Economists Association in Belgrade.