Global Leaders in Baku: The World Is Running Out of Time XIII Global Baku Forum, Baku, Azerbaijan – Special Session NGIC-WAAS, 15 March 2026

The opening was chaired by WAAS Secretary General Janani Ramanathan, with co-chair of NGIC, former Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, saying turbulence was a feature of change and calling for a more human approach grounded in compassion, and Secretary-General of UNCTAD Rebeca Grynspan setting the scene with a call for the United Nations to be respected as the world’s anchor of peace and the provider of the "off ramp" for the world's conflicts. WAAS President Garry Jacobs anchored the day's intellectual frame: today's turbulence as part of a long process of social change and the product of unfinished business - deferred structural crises now arriving all at once.

The war and conflict session, moderated by former World Bank VP Ismail Serageldin,produced the starkest verdict: the world has reverted to an early 20th-century moment - before multilateral norms held - where conflict and foreign policy once again recognise no boundaries. The widening Middle East war, now drawing the US into direct confrontation with Iran, was cited as exhibit one. Former Latvian President Vīķe-Freiberga, former Arab League chief Amre Moussa and former Belgian PM Yves Leterme were among the panelists. Peter Galbraith, former US ambassador to Crotia, pointed to the critical importance of understanding cultures and political systems abroad in avoid miscalculations in wars that claim to foster peace.

In an intense session on technology and sovereignty, Ketan Patel, WAAS executive director and chair of Force for Good, warned that humanity has entered an age of cognitive empires - the mind itself being colonised as geopolitical power shifts from physical territory to subtly occupying the minds of people across the world. Panellists included former President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic, former Minister of Defence of Montenegro Milica Pejanovic-Durisic, Club of Rome member and impact investor Mariana Bozesan, and WAAS Fellows Elena Mustakova and Mila Popovich, argued for measures to protect sovereignty and use science to drive progress for all,.

A climate session, held in partnership with the COP29 Presidency and chaired by Nicolaos Theodossiou, examined water security and sea-level variability, with Azerbaijan's climate envoy Mukhtar Babayev and COP29 champion Nigar Arpadarai at the table. Hafez Ghanem then moderated a human security session arguing for a bottom-up reframing of the turbulence agenda around ordinary people's lived experience. Panellists included economist and Peking University Dean Lin Yifu, former Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Programme Executive Director Steven Hartman and WAAS General Manager Grant Schreiber

Former UN General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa ran the final session on the challenge facing leadership itself - what kind of leaders, institutions and modes of thinking are equal to such an age. Patel then brought the day to a close, framing turbulence as not merely a product of political or economic crisis but a feature of civilisational shift - and the only path through it, without the world wars and mass turmoil that marked previous such transitions, is a fundamental raising of human consciousness.

The session was convened by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the World Academy of Art & Science as part of its work on bridging divides.