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The highly-respected “Diplomatic Gazette”, Brussels, No. 77, August 2013 provided an elaborate description (pp. 26-28) of the memorable Doctor Honoris Causa award ceremony that took place on February 15, 2013, at “Château Sainte-Anne”, Brussels, the headquarters of Diplomatic Club of Belgium. On this very special occasion, the honorable Léon F. WEGNEZ, Administrator Secretary General of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium, and Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, A.I.D.A. Brussels, was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the prestigious National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania.

The honorable Léon F. WEGNEZ understood the nature and role of diplomacy (as an intellectual activity based on the on-going processing and analysis of information) in meeting the demands posed by globalization and adapting to the new requirements and challenges, highlighting the importance of the relationship between imparting knowledge (which can be applied to decision-making) and developing skills so as to transpose the list of obstacles to diplomatic communication. He constantly pledged for networking and team-working in building a collaborative environment leading to the creation of adequate knowledge, by understanding the political context which frames diplomacy (including economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, digital diplomacy and so on) into a competitive context, by sharing values, by respecting and valuing differences, by engaging and educating.

Before the award ceremony organized and conducted by the SNSPA in cooperation with the Diplomatic Club of Belgium, Brussels, His Excellency, Mr. Ambassador Daniel LEROY, the President of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium, delivered a significant welcome address to: His Excellency Mr. Ştefan-Alexandru TINCA, Romanian Ambassador in Belgium; the well-known personalities of the National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania: Professor Remus PRICOPIE, Representative of the Academic Community of  SNSPA, and Minister of National Education; Professor Alina BĂRGĂOANU, Acting Rector of SNSPA;  Professor Iordan Gheorghe BĂRBULESCU, President of SNSPA Senate; Professor Vasile SECĂREŞ, Former Rector and Founder of SNSPA; Professor Paul DOBRESCU, Former Rector of SNSPA; Sorin DRAGNEA, Chief Secretary of SNSPA; the special invitees on this occasion: Petru FILIP, Professor at “Dimitrie Cantemir” University, Bucharest, and President of the Commission  of Foreign Policy of the Romanian Senate; Professor Florian POPA, President of the International Congress SANABUNA, Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee , and Vice-President of the Commission of Public Health of the Romanian Senate; Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA, Professor at Romanian-American University, President of the Romanian Distribution Committee and Member of the Board of A.I.D.A. Brussels; Paraschiva Dobre, Director European Affairs, Romanian Ministry of Education; Victor Lorin PURCĂREA, Director of “Carol Davila” Academic Publishing House, President of the Commission for Internal and International Policy of the Senate of the “University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila” Bucharest, Advisor to the Vice-President of the Commission of Public Health, Senate, Romanian Parliament, and President of the National Organizing Committee of SANABUNA International Congress; the distinguished  Members and Representatives of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium; students attending the Doctor Honoris Causa award ceremony.

The honorable Léon F. WEGNEZ is a well-known personality with a vision and commitment, knowing what to do with the time and having the power to give his life a meaning, with a real vocation for spreading knowledge.

Diplomatic Gazette (Cover), Brussels, No. 77, August 2013

Diplomatic Gazette (p. 26, VIP, Diplomatic Club), Brussels, No. 77, August 2013

Diplomatic Gazette (p. 27, VIP, Diplomatic Club), Brussels, No. 77, August 2013

Diplomatic Gazette (p. 28, VIP, Diplomatic Club), Brussels, No. 77, August 2013

The Conference Corner

Post by Irina Purcarea | Mini-track co-chair at ECSM 2014

European Conference on Social Media ECSM 2014
University of Brighton
Brighton, UK
10-11 July 2014

Since the emergence of the first social media networks, social media has continued to evolve and has now become a field of growing importance given the actual context that we are faced with nowadays, when people are using an array of social media technologies as part of their everyday lives and practices.

Due to this, scientists are now focusing even more on examining social media practices in order to provide new insight into how social media is reconfiguring daily life.

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This first European Conference on Social Media seeks to establish a platform where academic and professional approaches to this rapidly expanding field of online activity can learn and share. Drawing on best practice in social media we will call on interested parties, be they practitioners, scholars or doctoral students, to bring together and share examples, cases, theories and analysis of social media.

We look forward to welcoming you to the UK, the coastal city of Brighton and to the University of Brighton

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The conference welcomes a wide range of submissions such as academic research, case studies and work-in-progress/posters as well as PhD Research, proposals for roundtable discussions or knowledge cafés, non-academic contributions and commercial product demonstrations.

Very important, there will be a ‘best poster’ and ‘best paper’ competition at ECSM 2014!

Participants will be asked to vote for the best poster and a prize will be given for the poster receiving the highest number of votes. Additionally, a prize will be awarded to the best PhD paper presented at the conference.

Publication opportunity

Papers presented at the conference will be published in the conference proceedings. There will be a selection of papers presented at the conference that will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management.

Mini track call for papers on Social media and innovation

Mini track co-chairs: Dr Luisa Carvalho, Open University, Lisbon, Portugal and Dr Irina Purcarea, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania

Social media has become important both in the private lives of people and in business. Nowadays social is being integrated into the communication strategy of organizations and it has a fundamental role in building brand awareness through communications with the customers, the diffusion of innovation as well as the management of open innovation. Additionally, social media networks can support the definition and demographics of the target audience, and thus lead to a better understanding of what the public expect from an organisation.

This mini-track intends to examine the nature of social media innovation and the set of strategies that contribute to achieving company innovation goals, by looking at Social Media applications in different industries and ways of measuring the effectiveness of social media application on innovation processes.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

• Early adopters and diffusion of innovation
• Web 2.0: a new wave for innovation
• Social media and product innovation
• Business value and adoption of innovation
• Trends in early stage of adoption
• E-marketing
• Social media and the product life cycle
• Social media innovation strategies
• The power of social media in open innovation
• Case studies of social media innovation projects in specific industries

Full details are available on the Call for Papers webpage: http://academic-conferences.org/ecsm/ecsm2014/ecsm14-call-papers.htm#Carvalho_Purcarea

Submissions can be made directly on line at http://academic-conferences.org/ecsm/ecsm2014/ecsm14-abstract-submission.htm

The Abstract submission deadline is 19 December 2013!

For those interested in the conference, join now the Conference LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mini-track-on-Social-media-4974139.S.267211553?qid=d28c9064-d430-4bae-8c0a-76455f92a764&trk=groups_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmp_4974139

See you next year in Brighton!

The Italian philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer Giordano Bruno (1548-1600; “The universe is… not capable of comprehension and therefore is endless and limitless…”) stated that: “Time is the father of truth, its mother is our mind”. Climbing the ladder of time, trying to continuous feed our mind with fragments of the step-by-step sought truth, we found out that on November 22nd, 2011, Michael Snyder (the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/17-quotes-about-the-coming-global-financial-collapse-that-will-make-your-hair-stand-up; the author of the book “The Beginninig of the End”, published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform on May 15, 2013, and looking at the fact that we are still not prepared for what is ahead) wrote on his blog: “The western world is drowning in an ocean of debt unlike anything the world has ever seen before, and our financial markets are gigantic casinos that are dependent on huge mountains of risk and leverage remaining very stable… many top financial professionals… are telling us that “time is running out”… “the whole system is going down”… If we continue on the road that we are on, our economy will progressively get worse and worse… In the end, time will reveal the truth to all of us.”

One year before, in 2010, our valuable old Friend and Colleague Valeriu Ioan-Franc, who uses to teach the love of reading (https://www.distribution-magazine.eu/the-distinguished-professor-thierry-de-montbrial-adds-a-new-romanian-journal-page/ ), offered us another challenging book (please see Valuable Author Autograph, 2010) published by “Expert”: “About crisis without anger and with discernment”, by Napoleon Pop, Amalia Fugaru, Valeriu Ioan-Franc. From the very beginning the authors argued that: “The complexity of the crisis we are going through, with no end in immediate future sight and beyond all the comparisons with the others of the kind is questioning both the economic model and the knowledge model about nowadays economics… A balanced approach of internal factors which can be under the pressure of the transmission channels bringing external shocks is more appropriate for the judgement of the possible domestic outcomes of the present crisis, either in financial field or economic one.”

Napoleon Pop, Amalia Fugaru, Valeriu Ioan-Franc were keen to emphasize that the crisis was predictable in many ways, drawing attention to the necessity of accurate understanding of: the causes of neglect of the risk management and of the exercise of prudentiality; the imperative of the doubling the emotional state by the knowledge rationality; identifying the optimal timing of intervention by an anti-crisis plan; the weaker link of the financial crisis with the economic fundamentals and a greater link with the image’s game of perceptions, of the irrational; the acute need to reset our own national strategy as a Member State of the European Union, and of NATO;  the new equilibrium configuration of the future international order, a “burden sharing” with more actors; the fact that the risk attractiveness ends with risk aversion; the imperative of not running  from the correct placement of the causes and responsibilities in addressing the complex link between globalization and the crisis; the efficiency of the efforts started from the point of view of their contingency to the new realities; the correlation between national competitiveness and national security; the need for realignment of the longevity risk with the new financial instruments for long-term savings; the right way of crisis management (two sets of measures), considering the conditionings of optimality and opportunity of the anti-crisis package; the fact that any reform of the tax system needs a clear answer to the question: “What does the taxpayer get in terms of quality?”; the role of national solutions (in front of the suddenly and chaotic bottlenecks in the global network of the flows of capital, goods, services and labor) as  “preventive measures” related to the background of national economic policies truly dedicated to long-term sustainable development; the effect of globalization on the meeting between cultures (knowing that the basic element of the culture is the vision on time); the fact that the lack of courage to admit the falsity of economic theories based on the logic is to blame under the circumstances of the new frontiers designed by the realities of the globalization and of the new knowledge gained from empirical study of this phenomenon …

Let us finally conclude by referring to two recent approaches:

a) On February 28, 2013, David Frances pointed out, in The Fiscal Times (while quoting a McKinsey Global Institute Report released a day before: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/02/28/Is-This-the-End-of-Globalization.aspx#HpvfKye0bZhHXTgZ.99): “The global economy is at a crossroads… It remains to be seen which way we’re headed”.

b) On June 4, 2013, an article published by onlinelibrary.wiley.com (Economic Crisis Globalization, and Partisan Bias: Evidence from Spain, by José Fernández-Albertos, Alexander Kuo, Laia Balcells; DOI: 10.1111/isqu.12081; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isqu.12081/abstract ) showed the results of theories about blame attribution with respect to the economic crisis, the authors arguing that “blame for the crisis is partially conditioned by partisan bias and framings of the crisis as being related to globalization.”

It is well known that: “Only your friends steal your books” (Voltaire); “Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon” (Bertolt Brecht); “The language of friendship is not words but meanings” (Henry David Thoreau); “You cannot open a book without learning something” (Confucius). Our valuable old Friend and Colleague Valeriu Ioan-Franc (http://www.crd-aida.ro/our-team/valeriu-ioan-franc-2/ ) uses to teach the love of reading. Nine years ago we quoted (in a book introduced by the “Diplomatic Gazette”, Brussels, No. 45/December 2004) – thanks to a book given by him – the distinguished Professor Thierry de Montbrial, president of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri, which he founded in 1979; Professor Emeritus at the “Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers”; he launched the “World Policy Conference”, in 2008; Author of about eighty professional articles and of fifteen books in economics and international affairs; Member of the “Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques” of the “Institut de France” since 1992; Member of the Board of Directors of Cap Gemini and of Renault Foundation; Member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Meetings; Member of the Advisory Committee of the Peterson Institute for International Economics – IIE, Washington, of the Carnegie Moscow Center, and of the Advisory Council of the Standford Institute for International Studies and so on – http://www.thierrydemontbrial.com/), Member of the Romanian Academy (December 1999). On the occasion of the reception, in 2000, Thierry de Montbrial delivered a speech on “The meaning of history”, by highlighting the link  between the positive message of the Father Teilhard de Chardin (“the human epic resembles nothing so much as a way of the Cross”), and the wisdom of Mircea Eliade, Constantin Brancusi, Nicholas Georgescu Roegen (whom he met), and the Romanian most valuable asset: the comprehension of the essential acquired thanks to our great culture impregnated by cosmos and transcended by many tests.

In the book “Action and Reaction in the World System. The dynamics of economic and political power” (UBC Press, Canada, 2013), Thierry de Montbrial concluded that “good global governance is a survival issue and achieving it is a race against time”. In the context, he underlined, among others, that “there is no problem more important than determining how to enforce the structural stability of our increasingly complex international system”, and “even the European Union remains a long way from becom­ing a well-rounded political unit”.

Our valuable old Friend and Colleague Valeriu Ioan-Franc gave us a new challenging book (being reponsible for the editorial coordination) of the distinguished Professor Thierry de Montbrial, “Penser l’Europe”/“A gȃndi Europa” (published this year by “The National Science and Art Foundation/“Fundația Naționala pentru Ştiință şi Artă”; Preface signed on 28 February by Academician Eugen Simion, who underlined from the very beginning that the book brings together texts lectures held by Professor Thierry de Montbrial in the “Penser l’Europe” Seminar since its creation in 2002 until today). This wonderful book will be launched in Paris, in June 2013.

Friday, March 22, 2013, took place the works of the Forum celebrating “World Water Day” (22 March) and “World Meteorological Day” (23 March), organized by the “Group of Ecological Initiative and Sustainable Development – GIEDD in collaboration with the Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences „Gheorghe Ionescu-Şişeşti” (ASAS), “Romanian Waters” National Administration and the National Meteorological Administration. GIEDD was represented by the distinguished Members of the Executive Board: the former President of Romania, His Excellency Mr. Ion ILIESCU, President of GIEDD, Dr. Eng. Cristiana SÎRBU – Executive President of GIEDD, and HRH Prince Michael of LAUFENBURG.

Professor Gheorghe SIN – President of ASAS, opened the works of the Forum, followed by Dr. Eng. Vasile PINTILE, Director General, National Administration “Romanian Waters”, Dr. Ion SANDU, Director General, National Meteorological Administration, and the distinguished Members of the Executive Board of GIEDD.

Dr. Eng. Cristiana SÎRBU – Executive President of GIEDD gave the floor to other distinguished participants: Mrs. Lucia Ana VARGA, Minister Delegate to Waters, Forests, Fisheries; Mr. Cristian HERA, President of the Commission of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences of the Romanian Academy;  Mr. Petre Roman, Member of the Chamber of Deputies; Mr. Alexandru T. BOGDAN, Member of the Romanian Academy; Mr. Petre DAEA, Member of the Chamber of Deputies; Dr. Răzvan TEODORESCU, Dean of the Faculty of Land Reclamation and Environmental Engineering, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV), Bucharest; Dr. Eng. Daniela RĂDULESCU, Director of the National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management; Mr. E. CHIRU, Deputy Director General, “Apa Nova” Bucharest; Mr. Vladimir ROJANSCHI, Vice Rector of Ecological University Bucharest (and Member of the Board of Romanian Water Association); Mr. Vasile CIOMOS, President of the Romanian Water Association; Dr. Eng. Ioan BICA, Dean, Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest; Mr. Ioan–Niculae ALECU, Vice President of ASAS (and Honorary President of USAMV Bucharest); Students of Dr. Eng. Cristiana SÎRBU displaying a real team work; and the last but not least, Professor Ioan JELEV, Secretary General of ASAS. Let us also salute the participation of distinguished former Ministers Ion TESU, Ion OANCEA, Aurel Constantin ILIE, and of other distinguished Professors of the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest.

The lively debate allowed the clarification of questions and concerns. As a confirmation of the solidarity and confidence needed to tackle complex problems – that President Ion ILIESCU made reference to also in the end of the Forum works, while drawing valuable conclusions – allows us to emphasize two other significant contributions in the qualitative manner of carrying out the Forum:

●the special contribution brought by the multiple World and Olympic champion, Mr. Ivan PATZAICHIN, President of “Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23” Association, a great friend of the water, a real model of devotion in encouraging young people to love nature, to appreciate water, the most precious natural resource, to love sport and performance (http://www.rowmania.ro/ ); Mr. Ivan PATZAICHIN (born in the  village “Mila 23” in the Tulcea county) aims at achieving and promoting sustainable development projects of local and regional interest, promoting the cultural profile of his native area, and encouraging healthy living, in a sustainable environment, encouraging ecotourism in rowboat;

●the inspirational cultural message of the sculptor Doru Dragusin:  “water passes, the stones remain… polished; …each type of material has its valences and must be respected… I love this very hard work so much that I sometimes wonder why so soon is dark outside…”. Mr. Doru Dragusin (http://www.dorudragusin.com/  ), born in the  village “Nicolae Titulescu” in the Olt county, confirmed both, the words of Nicolae Titulescu (by understanding that each of us has its mission and the success comes from the unity, the feeling of confidence being an essential condition for any productive work, and that the ideal is in itself a becoming reality, because the honest people always proceed in the same direction under the command of the conscience), and the words of Constantin Brancusi (by acting accordingly, proving the understanding that in order to express something essentially we need to see the essence of things and to go from here towards the right direction).

It is also worth to underline the cultural moment represented by the Vernissage Sculpture Doru Dragusin (on “Diplomacy through Art” dedicated to the year “Constantin Brancusi”) on the occasion of the Forum, Mr. Doru Dragusin being the well-known author of the bronze statue of “Nicolae Titulescu” (former Romanian diplomat and statesman, twice President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1930 and 1931) unveiled in April 2002 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva (on the occasion of marking the 120th Anniversary of Nicolae Titulescu); within the context of the discussions during the Vernissage,  Mr. Doru Dragusin rediscovered the temporal coincidence with the intervention of Mr. Theodor Purcarea (as President of the Romanian Competition Council: http://www.crd-aida.ro/our-team/theodor-purcarea/ )  in the same month, April 2002, in Geneva at the level of World Trade Organization (this intervention was presented in position 1 of the Final Report of the Working Group for Trade and Competition Policy – document also presented in a “Diplomatic and Protocol Customs” Book introduced by the “Diplomatic Gazette”, Brussels, No. 45/December 2004).

There is no doubt that water is the key to development, becoming an increasingly important strategic issue, not only a public health and environmental issue. There is a real need to consider both, the dynamic links between water, energy, and farming, and to build resilience against climate change, including by improving the ability to project future climate through adequate monitoring and research. Taking into account the importance of appropriate dosage between science and policy in order to align the activities on key priorities, policy responses should include adaptation to climate change and adequately addressing issues such as water-related disasters, health and the role of ecosystems.