New Normal and Rethinking:
Global Innovation in Post COVID-19 Era
Strategic Themes: Global Trends, Opportunities and Challenges in Post Covid-19 Era for International Collaboration in the Global Higher Education, Global Economy and Science & Technology Innovation Strategic
Theme for the June 2021: Innovation for Peace and Harmony
Strategic Context
On the 25th of June 2021, the EICC 4th Global Innovation Webinar Series – ‘Innovation for Peace and Harmony’ was successfully held with participants and distinguished speakers from the UK, US, and China. This Webinar is continuously supported and co-organized by United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), Research Centre of Technology Innovation, Tsinghua University (RCTI), and China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT), and is hosted by ELITE Innovation College Cambridge (EICC), United Kingdom.
The spread of the Covid-19 epidemic has had a significant impact and implication on the operation of the world economy, the global governance system, the international political landscape, and global higher education. The O2O (online and offline) innovative education platform has now been playing an even more important role. How does human society develop? Where is the driving force for development? There is no doubt that the ability of social innovation and technological innovation is crucial. Innovation is the driving force for human development. Conceptual innovation, theoretical innovation, technological innovation, and social innovation are all the driving forces that promote the development of human society. We believe that conceptual innovation and theoretical innovation are primary. Imagine that if there is no conceptual and theoretical innovation in human society, then all other innovations are empty talks, which will undoubtedly standstill.
Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies are one of the important UN Sustainable Development Goals. The word “peace” is a concept created to mean societal friendship and harmony without hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of violent conflicts, such as war and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups, or countries. The questions constantly confront us are:
• how to build peace and create harmony through innovation
• how to resolve the conflict, overcome the fear of violence as well as minimize the turbulence as a result of the international conflicts.
01 Welcome Speech
The Founder and President of EICC, Professor Li-Hua, as one of the organizer of the Global Innovation Webinar Series, delivered his opening speech and addressed the important relationship between innovation and peace.
Professor Li’s starting point is that human beings were born with a desire for “peace”, both in the west and the east. He gave an example that in the western civilization the olive branch was used as a symbol of peace, which could be traced back to at least 5th century BC Greece. Whereas in the east, Chinese civilization adheres to the concept of peaceful development and has formed a character of compassion, tolerance, virtue, and harmony, and diversity.
Prof. Li further examined the meaning of peace by linking the concept in history and political development and the role of politicians and leaders in peace-making. Prof. Li commented: ‘In the pursuit of the ideals of harmony between people, people and society, and people and nature, the pursuit of mutual exchanges with other civilizations, mutual benefits, and mutual learning. Throughout the development history of mankind, Politian and leaders have used peace-making and diplomacy to establish certain types of events, activities, and behavioral restraint through the signing of various agreements or peace treaties. Such activities have helped the establishment of regional peace, national social and political stability and then the achievement of economic development growth.’
Prof. Li concluded his welcome speech by emphasizing the United Nation’s mission on the delivery of sustainable development goals. Despite various reasons for conflicts, it is important to recognize the economic gain and ‘good’ life is ultimately the goal of all human beings and should be on the top of the list of the causes. The peace rise of China and its fast economic development in the past 30 years has provided a fresh perspective and a notable innovation for peace and harmony, which indeed coincides with the United Nation’s mission on peace dignity, and equality in a healthy planet.
Prof. Jin Chen
Prof. Ramu Damodaran
Prof. Chen Jin, Director of Research Centre from Technological Centre, Tsinghua University also welcomed the audience to participate in the webinar and engage in the examinations and explorations of the wider meaning of innovation which so far has been mostly understood in contributing to the wealth of the nation and accelerating economic growth.
Ramu Damodaran, First Chief from UNAI added his welcome to all participants and distinguished speakers. Mr. Damonarn reviewed the history of the sustainable development agenda which was created by the United Nation in 1945 when the world leaders met in San Francisco and signed the United Nations Charter. He said ‘Promoting a culture of peace and long-term global peace, security and adhering to the principles of freedom, justice, and tolerance’ is one of the key agendas of the United Nation.
02 Keynote Speeches
There are three distinguished speakers who delivered their keynote speeches on the topic of innovation for peace from different perspectives. Prof. Narinder Kakar, Professor Emeritus and Permanent Observer to the UN of University for Peace talked about the role of education in creating peace and harmony by drawing upon his 50 years of experiences in sustainable development education and research. Prof. Yinshan Tang, Vice Dean of Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK, Professor in Management Informatics, presented his research on various dimensions of conflicts that prevent peacebuilding and developed the Magna Carta Peace Index as a framework for world peace and sustainability; Dr. Simon Duan, an Advanced Manufacturing Sector Specialist from DIT, UK and a senior scholar from Cambridge University proposed his research on resolving international conflict and minimize casualty through new technology.
Prof. Narinder Kakar
In his keynote speech, Prof. Karkar emphasized that education is an essential human right. It is one of the most important means to achieve or strengthen peace and ensure development. The key is to keep up with technological progress and strengthen existing technological innovation capabilities. It is important that educational institutions not only provide high-quality science and mathematics education but also play a role in cultivating future peacebuilders. Therefore, courses designed specifically for peacebuilding have special significance. In addition, Prof. Karkar asked more attention need to be paid to the challenges and opportunities presented by COVID-19 in providing peacebuilding education. In any case, research and development is not a static process. He pointed out that COVID-19 provides us with an opportunity for innovation. It is important to recognize the need to design new ways, methods, and methods to provide peacebuilding education, and design new and innovative education methods. Education should not be limited to classroom lectures, but should also lead to the design of innovative methods through which an understanding of the necessity of building a peaceful society can be developed and strengthened. The world already has the resources and technology to meet the challenges. Prof. Karkar calls for educators and strategic policymakers to formulate and implement policies and plans that help alleviate difficulties and achieve peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet. The important thing is to explore innovative educational methods. Professor Kakar also shared with the audience the examples of the Peace Leadership Development program that he has been involved in to illustrate an innovative model for developing peacebuilders and peace leaders.
Prof. Yinshan Tang
Professor Yinshan Tang started from the conflict in biological nature and then introduced the theme of the Philosophy of Violence and Peace. Prof. Tang has examined the meaning of Peace from different levels including negative peace and positive peace, which is very much developed by Johan Galtung and his theories of structural violence and Kenneth Boulding’s concept of ‘twelve friendly quarrels’ and nation’s internal peace and international peace. After integrating such philosophical thoughts into human society, he further examined about human philosophy of violence and peace. When talking about innovation for peace, Prof Tang suggested that we need to build up strength to be better prepared for conflicts. Concepts under the laws of nature, such as Conflicts, Violence, and winner, have a new understanding. For example, Conflicts—physical power favors survival at individual, species, and cross-species levels; Violence—favored by nature to promote survival; Winners—will have more rights to enjoy peace. At the end of the speech, the professor showed his scientific research results.Using 5 groups of quantitative measures and AI technology to decide the weighting, Professor Tang and his PhD student Yiran Wei has created a theoretical framework of measuring Peace separating internal and external affairs forming different indexs which contributes to the Magna Carta World Peace Index. Prof. Tang created a theoretical framework of measuring Peace mixed internal and external affairs. Finally, he formed the Magna Carta World Peace Index and Global Peace Index.
Dr. Simon Duan
Our final speaker Dr. Simon Duan presented his research on Unmanned Battle-Technology enabled casualty-free international conflict resolution. Dr.Duan used a fascinating short video about "world peace" to introduce how the concept of peace is interpreted by the public. He views conflicts as part of being human, and collective ego is a powerful destructive force to introduce what the root of the conflicts are. Dr.Duan explained Technology as a double-edged sword for peaceful development in terms of creating potential damage and casualties as well as creating an innovative solution for security. The multifaceted nature of technology should be fully examined, explored, and understood by human beings. He proposed that unmanned battles might be fought using technology.
03 Closing speech
At the end of the webinar, Professor Richard Li-Hua thanked the three distinguished speakers for their thought-provoking speeches which leave many threads for further research projects and discussions in future events and joint initiatives. He also thanked the audience for their active engagement in such an important global agenda.
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ELITE Innovation College Cambridge
ELITE Innovation College Cambridge (EICC) is an educational institution, think tank and smart platform with a global vision founded by the "Father of Chinese Embracing Innovation" Professor Richard Li-Hua. It focuses on innovation research and is committed to creating a highly innovative feature [ELITE Innovation University Cambridge] in the heart of world innovation. She was founded in September 2015 and is located in the St. John’s Centre in Oxford. Her history can be traced back to 2006 at the International Conference of the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT) held at Tsinghua University. A group of outstanding management scholars initiated the China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT). CAMOT was subsequently registered in the UK. Since its inception, ELITE Innovation College Cambridge has successfully held CAMOT International Conferences and China Embracing Innovation Forums at Tsinghua University in China, Cambridge University in the UK, Bournemouth, Lavasier in France and Helsinki in Finland, and has provided customized leadership development, management innovation and executive development and coaching projects. ELITE is an acronym for online learning innovation, technology and entrepreneurship in Online to Offline innovative universities in global higher education. We are building four distinctive colleges based on the 15 years of scientific research and innovation accumulated by the [China Association for Management of Technology] (CAMOT) on the technology innovation platform of [ELITE Innovation College Cambridge]. These colleges are closely linked to our offline tutoring centers in selected cities around the world. Through these colleges, at this stage we can build strong competitiveness and core advantages together with other academic colleges of the university. The four special colleges (ELITE) include:
Camot College of Innovation
Camot College of Technology
Camot College of Entrepreneurship
Camot College of Global Leadership
Our efforts to create these colleges are aimed at transforming special knowledge in innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and global leadership into general knowledge in liberal arts education.
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