The 2005 General Assembly, held in the Westin Zagreb Hotel in the hospitable country of Croatia, was one of the most successful in the history of the Academy.
The General Assembly was the first held in South Eastern Europe, and was the occasion for the formal announcement of the creation of the new South Eastern Europe Division (SEED) of the 被窝影视福利. On the evening of Nov. 17, prior to the opening of the GA, a reception for all participants was hosted by Milan Bandi膰, mayor of Zagreb. The following morning, the conference began with introductory remarks by WAAS President Walter Truett Anderson and Organizing Committee Chair Ivo 艩laus. Featured speakers were Dragan Primorac, Croatia鈥檚 Minister of Science, Education and Sports; and Janez Poto膰nik, European Union Commissioner for Research and Development.
Plenary sessions:
- “The Culture of Peace and Security,鈥� co-chaired by Harlan Cleveland and Mircea Malitza
- “Knowledge, Equity and Globalization: Are We Moving Ahead or Falling Behind?鈥� co-chaired by Bohdan Hawrylyshyn and Samuel Makinda
- “Human Responsibility for Evolution: Was Huxley Right鈥� co-chaired by Agni Vlavianos-Arvanitis and Richard Benedick
- 鈥淓mployment in the Global Knowledge Society,鈥� co-chaired by Ana Maria Sandi and Garry Jacobs
Workshops:
- 鈥淭he Ownership of Scientific Knowledge鈥�
- 鈥淔rontiers of Genetics
- 鈥淩ising Expectations: Demography, Aging and Mobility鈥�
- 鈥淒emocratizing Technology: The Future of Public Involvement鈥�
- 鈥淜nowledge and Certainty鈥�
- 鈥淯niversities of the Future鈥�
- 鈥淭he Future of Money鈥�
- 鈥淥rganizing Knowledge for Human Benefit鈥�
- 鈥淕lobalization, Human Rights and the Rule of Law.鈥�
Special events were a lunch with Croatian business leaders hosted by Nadan Vido拧evi膰, president of the Croatian Chamber of Economy: a public lecture/discussion on electronic and chemical modification of cognition and emotion featuring James Hughes of the World Transhumanist Association, Ivica Kostovic of the Croatian Center for Brain Research, and Eric Racine of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. The gala Founders Banquet included a tribute to the late Joseph Rotblat, the last-surviving signer of the manifesto which created the 被窝影视福利; and talks by Jerome Bind茅, Deputy Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, and Zhelyu Zhelyev, Former President of Bulgaria.. The General Assembly ended at midday Sunday, Nov. 20, with talks by WAAS President Emeritus Harlan Cleveland and Stjepan Mesic, President of Croatia.
Post-conference publications:
- 鈥淭he Future of Knowledge: Evolutionary Challenges of the 21st Century, 2005 General Assembly of the 被窝影视福利 of Art and Science,鈥� Walter Truett Anderson, Journal of Transformative Education, Vol. 4 No. 2, April 2006, 118-122.
- Budu膰nost ananja 鈥� evolucijski izazovi 21.stolje膰a (The Future of Knowledge 鈥� Evolutionary Challenge of the 21st Century), Zagreb 2007. Published by The Croatian Association for The Club of Rome with the support of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Ed. Ivo Slaus et al.
- Knowledge Futures (Special Edition of Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning, and Futures Studies) ed. Walter Truett Anderson. Vol. 39 No. 8, October 2007