Inter-Civilizational Dialogue
Status
2018
Gregorio Bettiza and Fabio Petito:
"Against narratives and actions of clash, discourses, initiatives and institutions focused on promoting inter-civilizational dialogue and understanding have similarly flourished since the late 1990s. In the UN context, the year 2001 was designated as the Year of the ‘Dialogue among Civilizations’ on the proposal of then-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammed Khatami. This initiative was followed in 2005 by the launch of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, which has since developed a permanent secretariat in New York. In the last 15 years, UNESCO and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have developed actions and programs on dialogue of civilizations. Similarly, many NGOs and interreligious platforms like, for example, the Sant’Egidio Community International Meetings ‘Peoples and Religions’ and the World Public Forum ‘Dialogue of Civilizations’, have used the idea of dialogue of civilizations as a vision to counter the dangerous possibilities of clashes. Leaders of very different political, cultural and religious orientations like Václav Havel, Ahmet Davutoglu, and Barack Obama have called for the need for more dialogue and understanding across civilizational lines in international relations."
More information
- A typology of Civilizational Politics