Global Turbulence: Sources & Solutions
The project approaches global turbulence as the result of a widening gap between rapidly expanding human capabilities and the slower evolution of social values, governance systems, and collective awareness. Advances in science, technology, and economic integration have outpaced society鈥檚 capacity to manage their consequences responsibly. This imbalance has generated uncertainty, polarization, and insecurity across political, economic, social, and cultural domains.
A central objective of the initiative is to move beyond reactive, fragmented responses toward integrated, long-term solutions. It emphasizes that global challenges cannot be resolved through isolated policies or narrow disciplinary approaches. Instead, they require transdisciplinary understanding, ethical reflection, and coordinated action that address root causes rather than surface symptoms.
The project focuses on identifying the conditions and processes necessary for conscious global transformation. These include strengthening human security, redesigning economic and governance systems, guiding technological innovation with values, and fostering a shared sense of global responsibility. By clarifying the nature of the crisis and the pathways forward, the initiative aims to support informed decision-making and collective leadership.
Ultimately, Global Turbulence: Sources & Solutions seeks to contribute to a new framework for global stability鈥攐ne that replaces fragmentation with integration, fear with understanding, and competition with cooperation, enabling humanity to navigate change and build a more peaceful, sustainable future.
EVENT
WAAS@65 Addressing Global Social Turbulences
Online, July 21-24, 2025
This conference addressed the “polycrisis”鈥攁 multifaceted global storm of political, economic, and technological instability鈥攖hreatening the future of humanity. The event functioned as a high-level inquiry to move beyond treating surface-level symptoms, such as isolated conflicts or news cycles, and instead focused on identifying the deep-seated structural drivers of this unprecedented volatility. The concept note emphasized that traditional institutions and unidisciplinary approaches have failed to keep pace with the sheer speed of global social evolution. Ultimately, the conference called for Conscious Social Evolution, a strategic global effort to reorganize social power and transform human consciousness to ensure technology, finance, and governance serve as a force for collective human security and sustainable peace. Read more.
EVENT
Global Turbulence: Sources and Solutions
Online | May 1, 2025
Organized by WAAS in collaboration with the ASU Global Futures Laboratory, the World University Consortium, and the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition, the meeting addressed the polycrisis currently facing humanity. The meeting served as a global forum for experts, policy-makers, and thought leaders to examine the root causes of the unprecedented volatility in today鈥檚 world. It moved beyond “surface symptoms”鈥攕uch as daily news cycles and isolated conflicts鈥攖o look at the underlying structural and systemic drivers of global instability. 听The meeting called for Conscious Social Evolution, moving from a state of leaderless, unpredictable change to a unified, strategic global effort to restore trust and stability. Read more.
EVENT
Course on Social Power
Croatia, Oct 31-Nov 2, 2016
Organized by WAAS in collaboration with the World University Consortium (WUC), the course examined the fundamental mechanics and evolution of social power as the primary driver of human development. It provided a transdisciplinary space to analyze how raw human energy is channeled through social institutions and converted into the capacity to achieve collective goals. Rather than focusing solely on political authority or military force, the sessions explored the deep-seated psychological and organizational roots that allow society to function, progress, or stagnate. By mapping how social energy is transformed into political and economic influence, the course highlighted the need to reorganize these forces to prioritize human security and collective welfare over narrow institutional interests. Read more.
Events
November 19-22, 2004- A Conversation With Charles Oppenheimer
September 18, 2023 - Root Causes and Solutions to the Great Social Turbulence
March 16, 2025
Reports & Articles
October 2022 鈥 March 2024-
August 2023 -
March 2023
September 20, 2022
November 6, 2020
October 26, 2016
November 29, 2021
March 17, 2020
28 August, 2021