Global Disorder and the Limits of ‘Dialogue’

Abstract

Since 2001 (designated as the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations) several initiatives have been developed as a means of resolving problems whose causes have been ascribed, primarily by Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis, to civilisational difference. This article questions responses to the ‘clash of civilisations' thesis which seem to accept the postulates on which it is based. It suggests that while dialogue is an indispensable tool of social cohesion, the source of many of the problems that pose a continuing threat to regional and global order is not ‘civilisational difference' but the failure of governments to comply with international laws and conventions they have sworn to uphold. The explanation that ‘civilisational difference' is the root cause of global disorder allows them to sidestep responsibility for the consequences of their own policies. Manipulation of the United Nations at the level of the Security Council is further evidence that the answer to global problems lies in redressing the failings of an entrenched world system that is based far more on power and state perceptions of self-interest than justice. The clearest evidence of structural weakness in the international system is to be found in the Middle East, where the UN Secretary-General's former special representative to the ‘peace process', Alvaro de Soto, has drawn attention to the disjunction between public declarations of good intentions and high-level manipulation of this ‘process' by powerful actors from behind the scenes. The article concludes that where dialogue is not the problem, it cannot be the solution.

Notes

1 Samuel P Huntington, ‘The clash of civilizations?’, Foreign Affairs, 72 (3), 1993, pp 22–49.

2 Samuel P Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

3 In discussing the civilisational debate in this article, I have drawn on an early chapter in my forthcoming book, The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands, Berkely, CA: University of California Press, 2008.

4 See discussion with Elizabeth Wasserman, ‘Islam's interpreter’, The Atlantic Unbound, 29 April 2004, at http://www.theatlantic.com. Lewis has repeated the line in other interviews.

5 Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1954, p 178.

6 Bernard Lewis, The Middle East and the West, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964, p 135.

7 Ibid, p 137.

8 Bernard Lewis, ‘The roots of Muslim rage’, Atlantic Monthly, 266 (3), 1990, pp 47–60.

9 Bernard Lewis, Islam in History: Ideas, People and Events in the Middle East, Chicago, IL: Open Court Press, 1993, p 410.

10 Quoted by Ian Buruma in his review of the Lewis book, From Babel to Dragomans. See Buruma, ‘Lost in translation: the two minds of Bernard Lewis', The New Yorker, 14–21 June, posted online on 6 June, at http://www.newyorker.com.

11 Sir William Muir, The Life of Mahomet from Original Sources, London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1878, p 535.

12 Mr Zapatero was speaking during a session of the UN General Assembly in September 2004.

13 For background, see ‘The co-existence expedition, at http://www.co-existence.org.

14 Quoted in ‘Erdoğan calls on EU to help global peace’, Today's Zaman, 16 January 2008, at http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=131753.

15 Jorge Sampaio, ‘Alliance of civilisations’, Al Ahram Weekly, 25 January 2008, at http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/print.2008/881/op23.htm

16 Flemming Rose, ‘Europe's politics of victimology’, Blueprint, 17 May 2006, at http://www.ndol.org.

17 Ibid.

18 Dr Heba El-Kholy, UN Resident Co-ordinator and undp Resident Representative in North Africa, speaking at a forum on ‘The Euro-Mediterranean Political Challenges', Brussels, 7 December 2006. For full text, see http://www.unictunis.org.tn.

19 See the statements by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, and by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, in ‘Sharia law may result in legal apartheid’, Daily Telegraph, 10 February 2008, at http://www.telegraph.co.uk.

20 See the 2007 Irving Kristol lecture by Bernard Lewis, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, 20 March 2007, at http://aei.org.

21 Pope Benedict XVI, ‘Faith, reason and the university: memories and reflections'. For full text, see http://www.vatican.va.

22 The extent to which it might have happened, especially after the fury of a battle, is a separate matter for debate.

23 See Reuters report published under the heading ‘Pope defuses tensions on visit to Turkey’, abc News Online, 29 November 2006, at http://www.abc.net.au.

24 Interviewed by Annette Grossbongardt and Joachim Preuss in Ankara, Der Spiegel, 16 April 2007. Full text in English at http://acturca.wordpress.com.

25 ‘Interview with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’, at http://www.lefigaro.fr/english.

26 See ‘Rehn warns of clash if Sarkozy blocks Turkey’, Today's Zaman, 12 June 2007, at http://www.todayszaman.com.

27 Peter Burke (ed), A New Kind of History: From the Writings of Febvre, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973, p 241.

28 Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilisation, 2 vols, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987.

29 John M Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

30 HAR Gibb, Studies on the Civilisation of Islam, eds Stanford J Shaw & William R Polk, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962, p 324.

31 Francis Fukyama & Nadav Samin, ‘Can any good come of radical Islam? A modernising force? Maybe’ (Opinion Journal), Wall Street Journal, 12 September 2002, at http://www.opinionjournal.com.

32 Philip K Hitti, A History of the Arabs, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p 441.

33 Cağlar Keyder, ‘Dialogue Among Civilisations?'' Background Paper (BP8), 28 July 2005, European Commission's Advisory Group on Social Sciences and Humanities in the European Research Area, at http://ec.europa.eu.

34 ‘There are times in the long history of the human adventure when we have a real turning point, a major change—the end of an era, the beginning of a new era. I am becoming more and more convinced that we are in such an age at the present time—a change in history comparable with such events as the fall of Rome, the discovery of America and the like.’ Lewis, Irving Kristol lecture.

35 See Mr Annan's address to Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy and International Relations in South Orange, NJ, 5 February 2001, at http://www.un.org.

36 See Eric Rouleau, ‘Why Washington wants to oust Mr Boutros Ghali’, Le Monde Diplomatique, November, 1996, English translation and summary published on Global Policy Forum, at http://www.globalpolicy.org.

37 See Phyllis Bennis, ‘Veto’, The Link, January–March 2003, p 9, at http://www.ameu.org.

38 Perry Anderson, ‘Made in USA’, The Nation, 2 April 2007, at http://www.thenation.com.

39 Ibid, quoting Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin.

40 See Alvaro de Soto, ‘End of Mission Report’, May 2007. The report can be downloaded from various sites, including that of the Guardian. See ‘Secret report condemns US for Middle East failures', Guardian, 13 June 2007, at http://www.theguardian.co.uk.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid.

48 Ann Penketh, ‘UN no longer seen as neutral says former chief’, Independent, 25 June 2007, at http://news.independent.co.uk.

49 ‘Alliance of Civlisations, Final Report of the High-Level Group', 13 November 2006, at http://www.un-ngls.org/site/IMG/pdf/Final_Report.pdf.

50 Ibid.

51 Mahmood Ayub, UN resident co-ordinator in Turkey, ‘Alliance of civilisations aims to celebrate diversity’, Today's Zaman, 16 January 2008, at http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=131713.

52 Ibid.

53 A large volume of material has been published on and offline on the questions of alliance of civilisations and on related matters. Apart from the references in this article, valuable sources include material available on the unesco website (http://portal.unesco.org) and on Reset (http://www.resetdoc.org; the publications of the Strategic Foresight Group of Mumbai, especially its monograph by Sundeep Waslekar, An Inclusive World, 2007; reports of the Pew Research Centre, especially An Uncertain Road: Muslims and the Future of Europe (October 2005) and The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other (June 2006), a report on a 13-nation attitudes survey; a Chatham House address by former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami (‘Tolerance, moderation and the dialogue of civilisations’, 1 November 2006); and a cnn interview with Mr Khatami, 7 January 1998, at http://www.cnn.com.WORLD9801/07/iran/interview.html.