Between July 11th and 12th 2024, the President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Professor Emil Constantinescu, attended the proceedings of the Sixteenth Conference of Rectors from the Black Sea Region, taking place in Istanbul, Turkey.
Organized by the Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN) in partnership with the University of Istanbul, the conference held in the Plenary Hall of the Istanbul University Rectorate saw a number of notable interventions from leading scholars from across the international academic milieu, among them Professor Erol Özvar, President of the Turkish Council of Higher Education, Professor Osman Bülent Zülfikar, Rector of the University of Istanbul, Professor Muzaffer Șeker, President of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, Professor Ergül Berber, Vice-Rector of Istanbul Arel University, Professor Erekle Astakhishvili, Vice-Rector of Tbilisi State University, Professor Gulchohra Mammadova, Rector of the Azerbaijan Architecture and Civil Engineering University, Professor Viorel Bostan, Rector of the State Technical University of Moldova, Professor Marian Preda, President of the Black Sea Universities Network and Rector of the University of Bucharest, Professor Eden Mamut, Secretary General of the Black Sea Universities Network, or His Excellency, Ambassador Lazăr Comănescu, Secretary-general of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation,.
The conference was also attended by several notable representatives of the World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS) – Garry Jacobs, CEO and Chair of WAAS; Donato Kiniger-Passigli, Vice President for Social Sciences and Humanities; Alberto Zucconi, Director of the Institute for Person-Centered Research, member of the WAAS Board of Trustees; Alexander Zidansek, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Physics of the Josef Stefan Institute, member of the WAAS Board of Trustees – who outlined some of the main international projects currently being undertaken by the Academy and proposed several avenues for their implementation in the Black Sea area, in collaboration with the Academy’s regional partners.
The conference proceedings brought a number of generous topics into discussion, among them “Promoting Science-Based Decision Making in the Society and the Role of Universities”, “Transformation of Education and the Society”, “A new Agenda for Peace in the Extended Black Sea Region and the Reform of Regional Cooperation Institutions”, or “Pathways for a Pact for the Future of the Extended Black Sea Region”
In his intervention as part of the panel dedicated to setting out “A new Agenda for Peace in the Extended Black Sea Region and the Reform of Regional Cooperation Institutions”, the President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization underlined the extremely important contribution that the academic milieux of Eastern European countries had made to the fall of authoritarian regimes and the Iron Curtain at the end of the last century, as well as to the restoration and consolidation of democracy in the Eastern European space. President Constantinescu used this example to emphasize the need for a realistic and forward-looking vision – one emblematic of the scientific method – in shaping the future options for the societies of South-Eastern Europe and the prospects for crystallizing a culture of peace through education in the riparian states of the Black Sea, while also highlighting the fundamental role that the academic and educational environment can play in shaping the younger generations in the spirit of peace.
“What could, we do today to ensure a lasting regional and global peace? We could, first of all, reinforce the faltering prestige of the academic milieu. We could provide society with counterpoints to our most pressing challenges through applicable and relevant concepts, vision and long-term strategies. We could much better employ the direct relationship that universities themselves have with the younger generations that pass through their doors each year. We could choose to speak out the truths that are usually avoided out of political correctness. We may elect to avoid utopian visions, as well as dystopian ones. And we could increase the accountability of the academic milieu, rather than accepting the clichés being developed by the bureaucrats of international organizations specialized in communication techniques, without critique or rigour.
We could do all of the above, and we will only have begun the tremendous task of returning the academic milieu to the role of societal arbiter it enjoyed in ages past.
We could do all of the above, and still have much to do to reaffirm popular trust in international cooperation, in multinational institutions and in the core principles and values of a truly free, fair, representative and participative democracy.
We could do all of the above, and we would only have skimmed the surface of the effort needed to reform and renew the very way we see each other as individuals and nations, broadening our perspectives by focusing on the similarities that bind us to the proverbial Other, rather than what sets us apart.
We could do all of the above. But the truth staring back at us all, is that we, at least, have to start doing some of them.
July 15th, 2024
