Zbigniew Brzezinski - A Geostrategy for Eurasia (1997)

Introduction

Seventy-five years ago, when the first issue of Foreign Affairs saw the light of day, the United States was a self-isolated Western hemi spheric power, sporadically involved in the affairs of Europe and Asia. World War II and the ensuing Cold War compelled the United States to develop a sustained commitment to Western Europe and the Far East. Americas emergence as the sole global superpower now makes an integrated and comprehensive strategy for Eurasia imperative. Eurasia is home to most of the world s politically assertive and dynamic states. All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia. The world s most populous aspirants to regional hegemony, China and India, are in Eurasia, as are all the potential political or economic challengers to American primacy. After the United States, the next six largest economies and military spenders are there, as are all but one of the world s overt nuclear powers, and all but one of the covert ones. Eurasia accounts for 75 percent of the world s population, 60 per cent of its GNP, and 75 percent of its energy resources. Collectively, Eurasia's potential power overshadows even Americas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Rawlings Rees - Shaping of Psychiatry by War (1945)

Info

The Salmon Lectures, delivered by the consulting psychiatrist to the British Army and Medical Director of the Tavistock Clinic, compose this volume. The author's extensive experience with psychiatry during World War I as well as in World War II makes it the expression of mellowed observation and judgment.

The book really consists of a series of brief essays on a great variety of topics, which represent the innumerable links of psychiatry to the problems of military and social life in almost all their aspects. This diversity makes it impossible to present an adequate summary of the book. It deals with all the activities of a psychiatrist in the services. The author points out that 'the friendly running fight against opposition' is, of itself, stimulating, and that, 'for most psychiatrists army service provides a new angle to their job and the art of psychiatry itself becomes dynamic'.

As to treatment, the author is not yet sure whether methods have developed very much. In spite of the use of sedation, narcoanalysis, and modified insulin therapy, returns to duty are no greater than during the last war, although possibly long term results may be better.

The author points out the need for recognizing the dull man with a low I.Q. and assigning him to appropriate duties. He emphasizes the necessity for giving as much attention to the mental as to the physical health of the potential officer. An excellent series of points on leadership and morale is included.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jean Baudrillard - Hyperreal America (1993)

Abstract

May 1968 in Paris was a utopian revolt which failed; America is a utopia which has been achieved. It is the original version of modernity. This article examines the logic of Biosphere 2 a miniature version of the entire planet, but which means the society is already living with the prospect of a catastrophe affecting its utopia, it is a zoological museum in anticipation of its own destruction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alice A. Bailey - The Externalization of the Hierarchy (1957)

Info

The subject of human free will has always contrived to set men's mental teeth on edge. The fatalist automatically resigns himself to whatever befalls him, seeing in effects no cause attributable to his own action - or inaction; but resigned always to the working of an inexorable fate.

The Christian counterpart tends to accept his lot as the working of God's Will in which he has no say or part. At the other extreme stands the rebellious independent, determined to exercise his right to free, self-willed action.

This book, as one of its many values, shows the extent to which Hierarchy and other centres of life on the planet are dependent upon the unpredictable and often irresponsible factor of human free will. During the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, every opportunity and every possible spiritual stimulation was offered to humanity in an effort to avoid precipitation of conflict on to the physical plane. Disciples and aspirants to discipleship were asked to give special cooperation to the Hierarchy, and to make an all-out effort to provide adequate leadership to human thought and decision. All were left free, however, to determine their own limits, if any, and to decide their own actions. According to law, the Hierarchy - even at danger point - could not infringe human free will and dictate or impose a course of action based on their own deeper knowledge and more profound insight.

Many of the spiritual factors surrounding the period of human history from 1919 to 1949 are presented in this book. The energies at work behind the world scene are shown; and the identity revealed of certain great Beings magnetically attracted in service towards this planet at a climaxing moment in the evolution of our planetary life.

These factors are an aid to our understanding of the interrelated energy patterns within the universe which operate according to law. But essentially they provide the esotericist with knowledge of available energy flow responding to planetary purpose and plan which can be contacted and given conscious and intelligent cooperation, particularly by those in whom the selfish, self-centred will has been transcended so that the spiritual will can be given more adequate expression. Some of these energy factors are particularly clear in the special "Messages" given over a period of many years at the time of the Festivals of Easter, Wesak and the Christ.

Many aspects of Hierarchical work, thought and planning are discussed in these Messages, with the Hierarchical effect shown of planetary evolution and initiation and its reflection into humanity. This achieved a climax at the time of the three Festivals in 1945, when a momentous decision was taken involving, among other results, the eventual externalisation of the Hierarchy and the reappearance of the Christ.

The final section of the book discusses the "Stages in the Externalisation of the Hierarchy". It is often difficult for the human mind to imagine the problems facing those liberated from the restrictions of form. It is even more difficult to contemplate the effects in those so liberated of a free choice to reassume such a limitation.

So we are helped to understand what the interdependence of life on this planet really signifies in terms of love, sacrifice and service by the part to the needs of the whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Bernard Shaw - The Population Question (1928)

Introduction 

Historically, socialist writings on population problems have exhibited a curious ambivalence. On the one hand, there has been an inclination flatly to deny that such problems exist at all. For a socialist society "the most precious asset is people.'" In capitalist societies talk about population problems is a cynical tactic by reactionaries aimed at diverting attention from the real problems of exploitation and class conflict. On the other hand, at least the abstract possibility of demographic growth generating economic hardship has often been acknowledged by socialist writers, coupled with the argument that if such problems are real only a socialist society will be able to resolve them. The pronouncements on population of the Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who was an ardent socialist of the Fabian variety, exhibit this ambivalence fully, the more so as Shaw's pellucid style is in happy contrast to the turgid theorizing characteristic of much of the earlier literature expounding socialist views on the subject. Reproduced below are passages from Shaw's most sustained discussion of political economy, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, a treatise of over 500 pages that first appeared in 1928. (The passages are from Chapters 25 and 80.) If Shaw's usual penchant for the iconoclastic pose-at times for sheer entertainment's sake-is evident also in his discussion of population problems, this flaw is amply compensated by numerous insights and critical points that after 55 years still retain their relevance and cutting edge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bo Gräslund - Early Humans and Their World (2005)

Abstract

Summarizing modern research on early hominid evolution from the apes six million years ago to the emergence of modern humans, this book is the first to present a synthetic discussion of many aspects of early human life. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arthur Koestler - Less equal than others (1974)

 

Introduction

 

When Professor H. J. Eysenck was beaten up by a bunch of nitwits at the London School of Economics some time ago, he roused a wave of sympathy even among those scholars who disagree with his ideas. This book (see below) will predictably lose him much of that sympathy. Not on the grounds on which the L.S.E. gang attacked him: to call Hans Eysenck a Fascist or a 'reactionary' is simply laughable, and race is not even discussed in the book. It is nevertheless a book with a potentially harmful effect on psychology students, educationists and even politicians, who might take Eysenck's controversial interpretations of ambiguous statistics as the ultimate scientific truth about human nature. His thesis is, briefly, that intelligence is 80 per cent determined by heredity, which leaves only a small, 20-per-cent margin where environmental factors, including education, can exert their influence on child or adult. This puts man into a universe where genetic predestination rules almost supreme — where, in the words of the Koran, every man's destiny is fastened round his neck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kermit Roosevelt - Progress In This Age Of Science (1935)

Introduction

Those of us who spent our days of childhood in the 1890's have seen many and miraculous changes in this world. Even the elastic imagination of a child would have to be stretched beyond all bounds, if asked to vision in the guise of anything but fairy tales many inventions which we now regard as commonplace, such as the radio and television and the transatlantic telephone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerome C. Glenn & Theodore J. Gordon - Issues and Opportunities for the Future (1998)

Abstract

This issue presents the distillation of views of approximately 250 participants from around the world who have contributed their judgments about the state of the future. A total of 180 developments were identified and rated that could evolve over the foreseeable future to significantly improve the human condition. These were clustered into 15 global opportunities with suggested actions that might be useful in achieving the opportunities. The effectiveness of these actions was judged by policy makers and advisors. The relationships and impacts of the 15 global issues from last year’s report and the 15 global opportunities in this year’s report are included. Lessons and questions from history were also identified and rated for value in futures research. Global exploratory scenarios from the first year of the Project were extended by judgments of Project participants, quantitative global models, and “lessons of history.” Results of a global participatory process to produce global normative scenario sketches are also included. Ó 1998 American Council for the United Nations University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C.D. Darlington - The evolution of man and society (1969)

 

Info

 

Evolutionary history of human societies. Covers Ancient Egypt and Persia, the development of agriculture, and the influence of religions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herman Kahn - How Many Can Be Saved (1959)

Introduction

The general belief persists today that an all-out thermonuclear war would inevitably result in mutual annihilation, and that nothing can be done to make it otherwise. Even those who do not believe in total annihilation often do believe that the shock effect of the casualties, the immediate destruction of wealth, and the long-term deleterious effects of fallout would inevitably jeopardize the survival of civilization. A study recently carried out by the author and a number of his colleagues at RAND, and privately financed by The RAND Corporation, has reached conclusions that seriously question these beliefs.1 While a thermonuclear war would be a catastrophe-in some ways an unprecedented catastrophe-it would still be a limited catastrophe. Even more important, the limits on the magnitude of the catastrophe might be sharply dependent on what prewar measures had been taken. The study suggests that for the next ten or fifteen years, and perhaps for much longer, feasible combinations of military and nonmilitary defense measures can come pretty close to preserving a reasonable semblance of our prewar society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kurt Lewin - Frontiers in Group Dynamics: Concept, Method and Reality in Social Science; Social Equilibria and Social Change (1947)

Info

 

Published by SAGE, on behalf of The Tavistock Institute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael A. Aquino - "Project Star Gate": $20 Million Up in Smoke (and Mirrors) (2000)

 

Info

 

/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judith Rodin & Margot Brandenburg - The Power of Impact Investing: Putting Markets to Work for Profit and Global Good (2014)

Info

“Impact investing can be a powerful instrument of change.”
—Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Margot Brandenburg, in the introduction

A new wave of investors is using impact investing to address some of the greatest challenges of our time—from climate change and water scarcity to lack of access to health care, education, and affordable housing—with the intention of also generating a financial return.

This couldn’t happen at a more critical time. While philanthropy continues to be a transformative force for good, global philanthropic funds, even when combined with the development or aid budgets of many national governments, add up to mere billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the cost of solving the world’s problems runs into the trillions.

In The Power of Impact Investing, Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin and Margot Brandenburg, two of the foremost experts in the field, explain what impact investing is, how it compares to philanthropy and traditional investments, where opportunities are evolving around the world, and how to get started.

By sharing moving stories of impact investors and the exciting social enterprises benefiting from these investments, Rodin and Brandenburg offer a compelling resource for anyone interested in better understanding the power of impact investing—including retail investors, high-net-worth individuals, and heads of family offices, foundations, banks, and pension funds—while also offering experienced impact investors an opportunity to deepen their knowledge and benefit from the perspectives of other investors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roberto Manzocco - Transhumanism: Engineering the Human Condition - History, Philosophy and Current Status (2019)

About this book

This book is designed to offer a comprehensive high-level introduction to transhumanism, an international political and cultural movement that aims to produce a “paradigm shift” in our ethical and political understanding of human evolution. Transhumanist thinkers want the human species to take the course of evolution into its own hands, using advanced technologies currently under development – such as robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cognitive neurosciences, and nanotechnology – to overcome our present physical and mental limitations, improve our intelligence beyond the current maximum achievable level, acquire skills that are currently the preserve of other species, abolish involuntary aging and death, and ultimately achieve a post-human level of existence. The book covers transhumanism from a historical, philosophical, and scientific viewpoint, tracing its cultural roots, discussing the main philosophical, epistemological, and ethical issues, and reviewing the state of the art in scientific research on the topics of most interest to transhumanists. The writing style is clear and accessible for the general reader, but the book will also appeal to graduate and undergraduate students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alvin & Heidi Toffler - Global Gladiators Challenge the Power of Nations (2000)

 

Introduction

 

"The process under way now is as historically significant as the 30 Years War that ended in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, which laid the diplomatic groundwork for the now fading world order built around supposedly sovereign nation states."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRADOC Mad Scientist Initiative - Visioning the Future of Warfare: 2030-2050 (U.S. Army, 2016)

Info

In November 2016, Mad Scientist launched its first Science Fiction Writing Competition with the topic “Warfare in 2030 to 2050.” We sought out unconventional thinkers and solicited their unique perspectives — we were not disappointed! With over 150 submissions from authors in 10 different countries around the globe, the diversity of input provided us with a wide variety of thoughts and ideas about warfare and the Future Operational Environment. Through the art of Story Telling, the Army was able to visualize the known, probable, and possible challenges and opportunities that the future holds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aurelio Peccei - The Human Quality (1977)

 

Description

 

An autobiographical statement of the author's belief in the global approach to development and world problems. How can the human species survive the crisis of its own extraordinary techno-scientific success? In this truly unique book Aurelio Peccei shows us that the solution cannot be found in external factors. It must lie in re-establishing a sound cultural balance within man himself so that he becomes capable of living in harmony with the new human condition and changed world environment. Only by a cultural revolution which changes the human quality can we control and orient the material revolutions. Aurelio Peccei's distinguished career in industry, conservation, international affairs and as a counsellor on major world problems needs little introduction. He was a founder-member of the Club of Rome in 1968 and has been a member of its Executive Committee ever since. Inevitably he draws upon his wisdom and experience to highlight the arguments in his book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aldous Huxley - A Positive Program of Research for Peace (1947)

Introduction

 

The military are "intruding" into science, because they hope that an increase in knowledge will lead to the development of more effective weapons. Scientists are advised by Dr. Ridenour to "resist intrusion"
to the extent that it threatens to degrade pure science into mere engineering by ProfessorWiener, they are advised to resist it absolutely and unequivocally, on moral grounds. This negative procedure of "resistance to intrusion" requires, it seems to me, to be upplemented by some form of positive action, designed to offsett he military program of research for war, and to render it unnecessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander King - Education and Change (1956)

 

Info on Alexander King

 

Alexander King, who has died aged 98, was a pioneering scientist who warned of the dangers to the environment from extensive industrial development. He was one of the people who commissioned the 1972 Limits to Growth report, which triggered the first wave of international concern about the environment. This remains one of the world's largest selling books on the environment. He then became one of the founders of the international thinktank, the Club of Rome, which the Duke of Edinburgh has called the "conscience of the world".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi - The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive Science of Thermonuclear War (2005)

 

Info

 

Herman Kahn was the only nuclear strategist in America who might have made a living as a standup comedian. Indeed, galumphing around stages across the country, joking his way through one grotesque thermonuclear scenario after another, he came frighteningly close. In telling the story of Herman Kahn, whose 1960 book On Thermonuclear War catapulted him into celebrity, Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi captures an era that is still very much with us--a time whose innocence, gruesome nuclear humor, and outrageous but deadly serious visions of annihilation have their echoes in the "known unknowns and unknown unknowns" that guide policymakers in our own embattled world.

Portraying a life that combined aspects of Lenny Bruce, Hitchcock, and Kubrick, Ghamari-Tabrizi presents not one Herman Kahn, but many--one who spoke the suffocatingly dry argot of the nuclear experts, another whose buffoonery conveyed the ingenious absurdity of it all, and countless others who capered before the public, ambiguous, baffling, always open to interpretation. This, then, is a story of one thoroughly strange and captivating man as well as a cultural history of our moment. In Herman Kahn's world is a critical lesson about how Cold War analysts learned to fill in the ciphers of strategic uncertainty, and thus how we as a nation learned to live with the peculiarly inventive quality of strategy, in which uncertainty generates extravagant threat scenarios.

Revealing the metaphysical behind the dryly deliberate, apparently practical discussion of nuclear strategy, this book depicts the creation of a world where clever men fashion Something out of Nothing--and establishes Herman Kahn as our first virtuoso of the unknown unknowns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Dragos Aligica &  Kenneth R. Weinstein - The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking (2009)

Introduction

By the time of his untimely death in 1983, Herman Kahn was recognized by both friends and intellectual adversaries as “one of the world’s most creative and best minds.” He was one of the preeminent and best known futures studies scholars, a founding father of the field, with extensive and vital contributions to the debates on the nature of global economic development and its impact on human societies and their environment, as well as a key figure in the field of strategic studies, an area where he was also considered a founder and a leader. His work was followed all over the world and the directions he traced in the public debate on very sensitive issues of crucial public concern have continued to be unaltered today, more than twenty years after his unexpected death. Yet, in spite of the incessant influence of his arguments and ideas, today his intellectual legacy is still to be accounted for and the breath and depth of his contributions are still to be reviewed and analyzed in a systematic way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herman Kahn & Irwin Mann - Game Theory: Military planning in a uncertain world (1957)

Info:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis M. Bushnell - Future Strategic Issues/Future Warfare [Circa 2025] (2001)

Info

 

Bushnell's above presentation was given on August 14, 2001 at the 4th Annual Testing and Training for Readiness Symposium and Exhibition organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) and held at the Rosen Centre Hotel (formerly the Omni Rosen Hotel) in Orlando, Florida. For information on that, see the following page in which the above presentation is available:

"The 4th Annual Testing and Training for Readiness Symposium & Exhibition: Emerging Challenges, Opportunities and Requirements, 13-16 August 2001", Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). 

Dennis M. Bushnell, "Future Strategic Issues/Future Warfare [Circa 2025]" (sic), NASA Langley Research Center (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), July 2001, 113 pp.; PDF, 1400357 bytes, MD5: c833f3fbc55d07fe891f5f4df5fb2f57. The aforesaid PDF was found on the US Department of Defense's Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) website.

Dennis M. Bushnell is the Chief Scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center. The following is a biography page for him:

Joe Atkinson, "Dennis Bushnell", NASA Langley Research Center (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Mar. 21, 2013. 

Bushnell's above presentation was given on August 14, 2001 at the 4th Annual Testing and Training for Readiness Symposium and Exhibition organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) and held at the Rosen Centre Hotel (formerly the Omni Rosen Hotel) in Orlando, Florida. For information on that, see the following page in which the above presentation is available:

"The 4th Annual Testing and Training for Readiness Symposium & Exhibition: Emerging Challenges, Opportunities and Requirements, 13-16 August 2001", Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). 

See also the following announcement page for this conference:

"4th Annual Testing and Training Symposium and Exhibition: A National Partnership, on August 14-16, 2001 in Orlando, FL at the Omni Centre Hotel", National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). 

The following is the conference proceedings:

Testing and Training for Readiness Symposium and Exhibition (4th Annual): Emerging Challenges, Opportunities and Requirements Held on 13-16 August 2001 (on CD-ROM), National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), Aug. 2001; National Technical Information Service (NTIS) Issue Number: 1014. 

The text on each page stating "Future Strategic Issues, 7/01" within the above PDF refers to the document's finalization date of July 2001. The creation date of the above PDF is given as Thu 13 Dec 2001 08:48:04 AM EST, which possibly refers to when the PDF was created from a Microsoft PowerPoint file (.ppt), as it looks like the document was perhaps originally a PowerPoint file.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew Holtmeier - Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (2016)

Abstract

Short piece for the National Film Registry discussing the historical, cultural, and aesthetic significance of Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB. This essay identifies Electronic Labyrinth as an important precursor to the development of Industrial Light and Magic, a visual effects company that has shaped the past 40 years of American film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frater 616: Satanism, and the Illuminati (Henry Makow, 2021)

Abstract

“Petor Narsagonan” or “Frater 616” was an Australian Adept in the world of Satanism, which is synonymous with the Illuminati. Included here are Henry Makow’s article on Frater 616’s revelations of the Satanic world as well as Frater 616’s two-part manuscript.

Not since Svali’s confessions of some years back has so much been said about the Illuminati’s hidden activities.

“Petor Narsagonan” aka “Frater 616″ died March 25, 2004. Recently, his executor, an “Aloysius Fozdyke” (their satanic names) sent the 15 pp. document by email to Arthur Cristian, webmaster of “loveforlife.com.au”

“I have felt it necessary to edit very little of this work,” “Fozdyke” wrote to Cristian, “although legal considerations have ensured that some names and details were excised. It was His intention to have this published in the popular media.”

 

(speculative)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DARPA - Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) Opportunity: Civil Sanctuary (2021)

Introduction

Social media platforms have the potential to be a great democratizing force, allowing individuals to participate in the free and productive sharing of ideas at a scale never before encountered in human history. During emergency situations and times of turmoil, these platforms can provide a crucial forum for discussing time-sensitive, potentially life-saving information. During DoD Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR) operations, relief efforts would benefit from a stable and constructive information environment that naturally facilitates informative dialogue. However, rather than aiding users in finding peaceable common ground, online social environments worldwide often fall prey to disinformation, bullying, and malicious rhetoric, which may be perpetuated through broader social dynamics linked to toxic and uncritical group conformity. New technologies are required to preserve and promote the positive factors of engagement in online discourse while minimizing the risk of negative social and psychological impacts emerging from violations of platform community guidelines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cass R. Sunstein & Adrian Vermeule - Conspiracy Theories (2008)

Abstract

Many millions of people hold conspiracy theories; they believe that powerful people have worked together in order to withhold the truth about some important practice or some terrible event. A recent example is the belief, widespread in some parts of the world, that the attacks of 9/11 were carried out not by Al Qaeda, but by Israel or the United States. Those who subscribe to conspiracy theories may create serious risks, including risks of violence, and the existence of such theories raises significant challenges for policy and law. The first challenge is to understand the mechanisms by which conspiracy theories prosper; the second challenge is to understand how such theories might be undermined. Such theories typically spread as a result of identifiable cognitive blunders, operating in conjunction with informational and reputational influences. A distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing quality. Conspiracy theorists are not likely to be persuaded by an attempt to dispel their theories; they may even characterize that very attempt as further proof of the conspiracy. Because those who hold conspiracy theories typically suffer from a “crippled epistemology,” in accordance with which it is rational to hold such theories, the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups. Various policy dilemmas, such as the question whether it is better for government to rebut conspiracy theories or to ignore them, are explored in this light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EU Institute for Security Studies & National Intelligence Council - Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Juncture (2010)

 

Preface

 

The United States’ National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) have joined forces to produce this assessment of the longterm prospects for global governance frameworks. This exercise builds on the experience of the two institutions in identifying the key trends shaping the future international system. Since the mid-1990s, the NIC has produced four editions of its landmark Global Trends report. The most recent one, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, published in late 2008, noted that momentous change was ahead, with the gap between increasing disorder and weakening governance structures widening. The EUISS produced the first EU-level report on the factors affecting the evolution of the international system, The New Global Puzzle. What World for the EU in 2025?, in 2006. The report stressed that a multipolar system is emerging and that matching the new distribution of power with new rules and institutions will be critical to preserving international peace and stability. 

The US and the EU do not always see eye to eye on every issue on the international agenda, but they share fundamental values and strategic interests to an extent not matched by any other partners in the world. Transatlantic agreement is no longer enough to effectively manage global challenges. Doing so will require renewed efforts to address governance gaps and strengthen multilateralism, in partnership with other pivotal centres of power and with the international community at large. This report provides an informal contribution to an important international debate on the way forward for global, regional and bilateral institutions and frameworks to meet emerging challenges. It is not meant as an exhaustive analysis evaluating the performance of individual institutions. While not being policy prescriptive, the report shares a strong belief – as exemplified by multilateralist approaches of the US and EU governments to resolving global problems such as the recent financial crisis – that global challenges will require global solutions. 

The report does not seek to examine all the various challenges likely to require multilateralist efforts, but rather highlights several important governance gaps. We therefore do not go into depth on proliferation or cybersecurity – which we believe are receiving greater attention. Instead, we focus on such issues as intrastate conflict, resource management, migration and biotechnology. Although recognised by many as ongoing challenges, we believe that the long-term impact of these issues on the strength of the international order has not been fully appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top War -  Black transplantologists of Ukraine (2022)

Info

The human organ market is a whole underground industry with billions of dollars in circulation. Criminal groups organize networks that unite entire states. Demand invariably exceeds supply, which affects the cost of human organs. The price of a kidney now starts at $60-70 and ends at $150-180. A part of the liver will cost half as much, and a corneal fragment costs only $6-10. Prices are given for situations where the donor remains alive after organ removal, albeit practically disabled. In total, by selling a part of his body to black transplantologists, the unfortunate person receives no more than 10-15% of the average world cost of the organ. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Center for Global Development - Horizon 2025: End of the Beginning Development Cooperation in the Pandemic Age (2020)

Abstract

COVID-19 and economic responses to it have amplified and changed the nature of development challenges in fundamental ways. Global development cooperation should adapt accordingly. The focus of our analysis is on the “intelligent reconstruction” phase of 2022-2030, once the immediate stabilization of economies and the health pandemic have taken place. We look at changes in the development context that may have long-term effects: global growth, debt, budget deficits and taxes, aid, capital markets, along with poverty and vulnerability. We suggest that aid is moving beyond altruism to become an instrument of national self-interest and of better planetary management of the global commons. These new objectives for aid put more emphasis on what is happening within each country, rather than across countries. Metrics of environmental sustainability and social inclusion performance, as well as governance, will become more important determinants of aid’s effectiveness. We identify the trade-offs in using aid to simultaneously relieve debt distress and development distress, and conclude that other instruments beyond aid are needed. Prominent among these is far more ambitious use of multilateral and national development banks, and global policies to reduce capital outflows from developing countries. We encourage the delineation of areas of cooperation and competition between geopolitical rivals, to limit the tainting of development priorities with elements of “us” versus “them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Club of Rome - The Aurelio Peccei Lectures & Dialogues (2001 - 2018)

 

Info

 

The CoR-EU Chapter started its lectures in the year 2001, before the formal constitution of the Club of Rome EU-Chapter as an autonomous association under Belgian law in January 2002. Upon initiative of Professor Dr. ir. Raoul Weiler (+ 2019), Founder President, the first lecture was given by the late Professor Sergey Kapitza, from Russia, Member of the Club of Rome. The topic dealt with the question of planetary demography on which he published a book. It was a successful start and convinced the EU-Chapter leaders to go on with the named Aurelio Peccei Lectures, a name was chosen in honour of the founder and inspirer of the Club of Rome. Over almost two decades the number has reached today the 100 lectures.

The topics and the speakers were chosen in harmony with the objectives of the Club of Rome. The city of Brussels, being the de facto capital of the European Union, provided an excellent environment with eminent experts in the different fields in which the Club of Rome has been active over half a century. Looking back over this fascinating period, it is not exaggerated to state that the CoR-EU has succeeded to build a strong intellectual profile, which has been appreciated by a large international public. A wide range of topics have been addressed: demography, poverty, globalisation & sustainability, knowledge societies & networks, ecology & alternative energies, climate change, cultural diversity, economy, micro-credit, planetary food availability, degrowth & social enterprise, ethics, and much more. The lecturers came from the entire planet, Europe, US, Africa, Asia, Australia, particularly drawn from UN organisations such as UNFCC & IPCC, UNEP and UNESCO, as well as from the World Bank, the World Economic and Social Forum, the OECD and Wikipedia. The Club of Rome EU-Chapter, through the broad spectrum of topics and eminent speakers, has gained international recognition and contributed to address the challenges the human society will face along the 21st century and beyond.

Mark DUBRULLE, 10 September 2018
President & Executive Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center - Cyborg Soldier 2050: Human / Mashine Fusion and the Implications for the Future of DOD (2019)

Abstract

This report, authored by Peter Emanuel, Scott Walper, Diane DiEuliis, Natalie Klein, James B. Petro, and James Giordano (proclaimed Mad Scientist); and published by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (CCDC CBC), culminates a year-long assessment to forecast and evaluate the military implications of machines that are physically integrated with the human body to augment and enhance human performance over the next 30 years. This report summarizes this assessment and findings; identifies four potential military-use cases for new technologies in this area; and makes seven recommendations on how the U.S. should proceed regarding human/machine enhancement technologies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis M. Bushnell - The bots, borgs and genetically modified humans welcome you to the future of energetics (date unknown)

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slideshow / presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donald N. Michael - Technology Assessment in an Emerging World (1976)

 

Abstract

While the profound social changes under way today are by no means solely the result of technology, one of the important impacts of technology is the growing need for more concentrated efforts at producing and applying technology assessments; i.e., the need for systematic examinations of the long-range interactions between technology and the rest of societal activity. It is from this situation that I draw my thesis: The very conditions of social change, including the anticipated role of technology assessments (TA’s), preclude defining and valuing TA’s as exclusively rational, formal, technical activities. Instead, I suggest that the applicability of TA’s is at least as great if they are also valued and viewed as a form of art. Here, I do not mean, as is usually meant, that, given their primitive stage of development, TA’s are more craft than science. I mean art as art-on a par with, but different than science in process as well as purpose. The implications of this viewpoint for the producer and user of technology assessments are significant, and, if pursued, will overcome the limitations imposed by valuing TA’s only to the degree that they approxi-mate purely logical creations, useful only for technical applications. The realization of these benefits will require major efforts to conduct, use, and legitimize TA’s as an art form in which logic and the formal methodologies of TA serve the same functions as can- vas, paint, and brushes for the painter; or stone, chisels, and mallets for the sculptor; or musical notation, musical instruments, and performance capabilities for the composer.