Hello! I am writing to you on behalf of the Arsenault Family
Foundation, a grant-making foundation based near Boulder, Colorado, USA. AFF was made aware of your
work with the Global Governance Group and the New School of Athens through Mike
Intriligator and the One Earth Future Foundation (OEF), a sister foundation to
AFF with very similar goals. Based on AFF’s research into these
organizations, we firmly believe that, at this time, the NSoA should be
considered for this year’s round of grants. We believe that there is
considerable synergy between AFF and NSoA, and that a grant from AFF to NSoA
could serve to further the goals of both.
Wed 02 April 2008 The first evening was much fun and the opening speeches offered many of tasty nuggets, indicating the veritable intellectual feast to come. The venue is a lovely grand building opposite a pretty manicured park in an elegant part of Athens. I spent much of the evening talking to Dr. Keilis-Borok , who is working on using mathematics for everything from earthquake forecasting to predicting the outcome of US election (with surprisingly good results).
Saw Jaime only briefly, but she looked her usual lovely self, only caught sight of Bert across a crowded room, and Kimon is a splendid master of ceremonies. Should be an interesting few days. You will be missed.
Monday 3 May 2004 VINDICATION !
As you know my principal activities when I was at the OECD centered around the reform of the internal governance of the Organisation. Jocelyne Bourgon the new Canadian ambassador at the OECD tells me that my recommendations have recently been fully accepted by the OECD Council and are now operational. This is a great moral victory for me (no cash involved), which even after six years is very pleasing. The lesson : if you feel very strongly that you are right, stay the course and ultimately you will be vindicated.
Best Kimon
You asked me to give you in writing my comments on preemptive war against Iraq which I made at a Wednesday Night, a couple of weeks ago. I have done better. I am sending you the op-ed which I wrote for the Globe and Mail and which appeared today Tuesday 17th September .. see story
Regards, Kimon [ambassador KIMON VALASKAKIS] see Wed1070
The New Club of Athens is an international initiative to propose improvements to the present world order to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The intellectual foundation for this initiative is the proposition that the present system of international regulation, based on the premise of state sovereignty, is coming under increasing fire from Globalisation which, in creating a borderless world is, also, inadvertently, creating a rule-less world. The basic problem is that while the sovereignty of nation-states is exercised over physical territory, most contemporary challenges are transnational. Indeed the Internet, global warming, global finance, global epidemics, international security etc. can no longer be dealt with at the national level A situation is now arising where a number of key sectors of human activity are threatening to spin out of control. No one seems to be in charge. In addition, the rise in the power of the non-state actors (corporations, special interest groups, civil society etc.) is challenging the supremacy of the national governments and sovereignty itself. While some welcome this phenomenon, others claim that the withering away of traditional sovereignty may also signal the weakening of political democracy where the nations of the world are no longer in control of their destiny.
The originator of the idea is Dr. Kimon Valaskakis Ambassador of Canada to the OECD. He is professor of economics at the University of Montreal and was formerly the head of the GAMMA Institute, a Canadian forecasting and planning think tank. At time of writing he is assisted by Suzanne Pinet, Secretary-General for Canada and Claude Nigoul, Secretary-General for France. The Club operates through two legal entities, the Global Governance Group (Montreal) a not-for profit Canadian corporation under federal charter and the Global Governance Group (Nice) a French not-for profit corporation. The two legal entities share the same board of directors. A third legal entity may be created as a Greek company with headquarters in Athens.
An International Steering Committee is being formed which will constitute the nucleus of the Club. This Steering Committee will be chaired by Jean-Claude Paye, former secretary-general of the OECD and will involve among others (subject to final confirmation) Boutros Boutros-Ghali former secretary-general of the United Nations, Michel Camdessus, former head of the IMF, Dimitri Germides, former governor of the National Bank of Greece, Marcel Masse, former Canadian Minister, Kyra Bodard, secretary-general of the Academie Diplomatique, Claude Nigoul, secretary-general of the Academie de la Paix in Nice, France, Hughes de Jouvenel, Delegue-General of the Groupe Futuribles in France and Paris Arnoupoulos, former chairman of World Federalists (Canada). The group will recruit the full complement of 100 members of the Club by the end of 2001. Invitations to participate will be made to world leaders such as Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, George Soros etc
Dr. Valaskakis was until the end of August 1999 the Canadian Ambassador to the OECD, a permanent intergovernmental conference and policy analysis unit involving 29 member states and employing 2000 professionals. Appointed in 1995 by the Canadian Prime Minister, he sat ex officio on the Board of Governors of the OECD and was the plenipotentiary representative of Canada there. He is currently (1) professeur de sciences economiques at the University of Montreal , (2) Conseiller scientifique with Futuribles International and member of its board of directors and (3) Visiting Fellow at INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau.
academic career has encompassed 27 years of teaching
executive, he has headed the GAMMA INSTITUTE
consulting experience Chairman of ISOGROUP CONSULTANTS
Une diplomatie dynamique Kimon Valaskakis
Ambassadeur du Canada auprès de l'OCDE
Nommé ambassadeur du Canada auprès de l'OCDE à la fin de 1995, Kimon Valaskakis entame sa nouvelle mission avec détermination et confiance. Homme de sciences et d'expérience, il a occupé divers postes se rattachant à l'économie, la prévision, la planification et le développement international et dirigé plusieurs projets dont certains en Afrique.
En congé de l'Université de Montréal où il est professeur d'économie depuis trois décennies, Kimon Valaskakis trouve dans sa nomination auprès de l'OCDE bien des motifs de fierté et de satisfaction. La problématique poursuivie par les pays de l'OCDE, souligne-t-il, est de favoriser le dialogue entre les différents pays dans le cadre de la mondialisation. "Un sujet dit-il, qui a toujours été au centre de ma carrière et nourri ma réflexion." Et d'ajouter : "l'OCDE touche presque à tous les domaines de développement et constitue, de par sa philosophie d'ouverture, un forum tout à fait indiqué pour amorcer et consolider ce dialogue nécessaire entre les pays riches d'une part et ceux du tiers-monde d'autre part."
Selon Kimon Valaskakis, le Canada joue un rôle privilégié au sein de l'OCDE. En raison de son caractère polyvalent, le Canada est en effet perçu comme un modèle et une référence. Son appartenance à divers sous-groupes, comme le G7 ou l'ALENA, permet à la diplomatie canadienne d'avoir une présence dynamique et agissante pour accentuer l'ouverture et promouvoir le développement international.
MONTREAL
1980 Sherbrooke West
Montreal, Québec,
Canada
Tel : 1-514 739-8634
Fax : 1-514 739-3693
PARIS
Futuribles International
55 Rue de Varennes F-75341
Paris Cedex 07, France
Tel : 33 (0)6 61-58-86-34
Fax : 33 (0)1 42-22-65-54
from WEDNESDAY-NIGHT #948
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Three Ambassadors
The treaty of Westphalia, signed on October 24, 1648, radically changed the concepts of national boundaries and sovereignty in the western world, ending thirty years of combat and upheaval. In so doing, it essentially eradicated the Holy Roman Emperor as a secular ruler in all but a limited territory, establishing Switzerland and the Netherlands as independent states, filling the void left by the HRE with the Hapsburgs. The three and a half subsequent centuries have seen consolidation of the concept of government by the state, but recent changes have clearly demonstrated that Democracy lags behind Westphalia and Westphalia II must be written.
The issue is globalization. It has become evident that, due to equal weighting of member states, the United Nations, while playing an effective, even essential role in many areas, is incapable of dealing with the world’s tribal conflicts that occupy the conscience of the World. With increasing globalization in the realm of Communications and Commerce, the agenda is being driven more by the electronic media, Internet and Transnational Corporations. Meanwhile tribal and religious conflicts continue.
It is clear that because of this situation, the United Nations has been unable to intervene in Kosovo, Intervention by NATO, and more particularly the United States, was clearly illegal under international game rules respecting sovereignty. The campaign was poorly thought out. The Americans, because of their obsession over losing American soldiers in foreign wars made three fundamental errors, namely their alignment with radical Albanian Kosovars, their reluctance to use ground troops and the bombing, which consolidated support for Milosevic [bio] even from his political opponents. In the end, the war stopped when the Russians threatened to discontinue supplying fuel oil to Serbia. The problem, more complex than that in Cyprus, will probably persist as long.
With CBS and CNN focussing the world’s attention on a small band of international players whose interests and actions are inimical to those of the United States, the real tribal problems, genocide and starvation in Africa for example, are totally ignored.
National economies no longer exist in isolation or as part of colonial trade empires. The interdependence of nations and their economies requires global competition laws. Without global rule of law, "market systems become mafia systems". The obvious solution appears to be a new all-inclusive global government, created not on the United Nations model, but on the European model. The alternative is continuing conflict, chaos and human suffering in every part of the world, as we are seeing now in Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Chechnya, Ethiopia, East Timor....
From the Club of Rome, to the may be a new club,, international diplomats, statesmen, thinkers have actively sought a solution, a workable Global Governance model which can be accepted by nationalists and special interest groups as a benign and necessary alternative to the failing theories of democracy and republicanism.
"I enjoyed the evening, especially the insights into the ordinary life of the OECD - a round of cocktails and seminars- and the difficulties of making any significant changes to the community, given the one nation/one vote/one veto principle.
How does one assign relative voting rights/veto rights? I know the USA in
their air bilaterals makes a distinction between "who benefits More'' and therefore
should pay more - can one translate such commercial principles into voting rights
in terms of who represents more - more wealth, more people, more criticality?
Surely Global Governance demands going beyong the dominant 5 or 7 or 21 and shifting location,perspective and eventually direction.
And this from a missing airline representative:
Sorry I'm going to miss you tonight especially with the hot topics
of our financials and the government testimony going on (including
the fanciful allegations of oneworld partners -- they did have the
oportunity to aid Canadian just as Lufthansa and United aided us).
I'll try to get back to you in the next couple weeks.
Meanwhile, it's interesting to discover that the politicians, diplomats and international civil servants are trying to find solutions quite in the same human way as we airline people try to maximize revenues, understanding the psychology of our clients and taking on certain positions and postures."
NOTE: Type in $25000 in the "Initial Investment" section.
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