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				Focus The pace of global change is accelerating: New technologies, globalizing economies, demographic shifts, social mobility, migration, and global communication networks add up to a new quality and density of interpenetration and interdependence. As a result, the global social, cultural, and ecological environment will also change at a dynamic pace. Social systems are entering into a new phase of interaction and competition without losing their distinctiveness. World politics and world trade are being complemented by the emerging notion of a global village - however fragile and ambiguous that may be. While elites have begun to integrate across national or continental frontiers, the identity of most citizens continues to be defined in national, regional or local terms. Equally, globalization is not unrivaled, it is being opposed by decentralization and regionalization, and also by the threat of disintegration and fragmentation. Thus, the key parameters of social existence will change and current social institutions and patterns of social order will have to be rebuilt or adapted. Collective choices and preferences that are nurtured and protected within these frameworks will have to be replaced or shifted to new institutional settings. The attempt to steer these processes of change and build sustainable international structures is without alternative. Though of relevance in most parts of the globe, the level of affectedness, the awareness of the implications of global change, and the readiness to play an active role in change management are most pronounced in the three industrial centers of today's world: North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Here lie the sources of many of the issues on the future global agenda as well as the potential and resources needed to resolve them. Together, these three regions have the critical mass required to steer change and they offer the highest concentration of expertise and management potential. Goals and Structure The Project 'How We Want to Live Tomorrow' and the 'Aventis Triangle Forum' are designed to initiate and develop an intercontinental and intercultural dialogue on global change, challenges of the future, and options and strategies for steering global change towards a sustainable world. By bringing together interdisciplinary expertise and ideas from North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, it will seek to reconcile differences in defining patterns of social order, value systems, culture, and civilization so as to promote a new generation of answers to the issues of change. The project will attract high-profile personalities from the worlds of business, politics, society (i.e. culture, the arts, religion, philosophy, history) and the media. The findings of the project´s meetings and studies will be used to provide impetus to the debates in the Americas, Europe and Asia. At the heart of the project is the Aventis Triangle Forum, an annual meeting of around 30 personalities who will discuss the issues and studies presented to them. Meetings will rotate between locations in the three regions, beginning with the first forum in Germany in the fall of 1999. Each forum will be prepared by Input Task Forces which will collect expertise from the three regions with regard to specific topics. The task forces will prepare the input for the annual forums by setting up project groups, holding regional conferences or conducting independent studies. Their results will serve as a platform for the Triangle Forum. Results The results of each forum will be communicated in the form of memoranda which will present the outcome of the discussions. The impetus memoranda will be made available to business, political, and social elites and to the general public in North America, Europe and Asia. Communication, information, and feedback concerning the project will largely be Internet-based. The e-mail newsletter global_futures keeps readers up to date in the project. Additionally, it provides tips on projects, publications, and other information that provide special insight into the dynamics shaping our common future. Furthermore the so-called portals to the future will help visitors to conduct research on the Web. The Center for Applied Policy Research will continue to build up this project Web site giving access to the memoranda and materials and allowing a global dialogue on the project's agenda. Special sections will be created for expert communication. The results, proposals and recommendations of the project will also be made available in printed form. Partners The project is being conducted by the Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP), a leading German think tank on international affairs based at Munich University , and the Aventis Foundation established by Hoechst AG , a global leader in life sciences and industrial chemistry. Click here for further information on the project partners. Contact Us For further Information please contact Jürgen Turek (CAP) Tel. +49-89-21801300 Fax. +49-89-21801329 E-Mail Note also the Contact Us section.
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