World Public Forum Dialogue of Civilizations

Written by WPF Dialogue of Civilizations

Published on 20 May 2013

The New York University Press announces the publication of “22 Ideas to Fix the World: Conversations with the World's Foremost Thinkers” book, edited By Piotr Dutkiewicz and Richard Sakwa and produced in the frames of World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” and the Social Science Research Council joint research project. The book will be available in August 2013.

Dr. Vladimir Yakunin, who has initiated this project together with the co-editors of this volume and supported it on behalf of the World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations”, strongly strives for the return of a more practice oriented and critical common effort of the world’s leading intellectuals and experts aimed at subtle and responsible reevaluation of the globalization paradigm.

You are most welcome to buy the book following this link.

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Written by WPF Dialogue of Civilizations

Published on 20 May 2013

An Address by Jagdish Kapur (1920-2010), Co-Chairman of the World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations”, presented at the 5th Rhodes Forum, October, 2007

From the point of entry into the twenty-first century, there has been a rising crescendo of economic discontinuities and shifting balances of power, increasing cultural and religious confrontations and terrorism. We are engulfed in a state of chronic insecurity and deepening gloom. Old techniques of force and domination are being employed to resolve problem which belong to another age. The beneficiaries in a system of globalised deprivation and selective aggregations of wealth do not realise the chaos which is being created by the simultaneous fragmentation, of cultural, religious and political entities and globalisation of economies. This has become a major contradiction of the twenty-first century.

All its consequences are visible. Therefore one of the most important contribution by persons dedicated to civilizational issues through a dialogue is to help remove (or set aside) the physical and metaphysical roadblocks, which are frustrating all efforts towards a humane future.

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Written by WPF Dialogue of Civilizations

Published on 17 May 2013

A Speech by Hans Köchler, Founder and President, International Progress Organization, delivered at the 7th Rhodes Forum, October 10, 2009

One of the key factors of the present global instability is the so-called “global war on terror,” which was unilaterally launched by the United States – with large-scale use of force against Iraq and Afghanistan and subsequent regional destabilization. This development has led to an escalation of tensions at the global level and may have undermined efforts at civilizational dialogue for a long time. The global financial crisis has injected further volatility into the international system and has significantly weakened the leading Western power’s strategy of “reshaping” the global order according to its own ideology and in conformity with its interests. The shifting balance of power we are witnessing today may also be due to an “imperial overstretch” of that country’s military and financial capabilities. The political and military developments triggered by the events of 2001 and the subsequent economic instability may have accelerated the development towards a multipolar world order in which national sovereignty will acquire a more important role than during the transitory phase of political unipolarity when – immediately after the collapse of the cold war’s bipolar order – the great powers in the Security Council rallied around the United States as global hegemon. An important aspect of multipolarity is the emergence of the “global regions,” which may create a counterbalance to the strategies aimed at the perpetuation of global hegemony. If the multilateral philosophy of the United Nations Organization is to survive the next decades, the world organization – and in particular the decision-making procedures in the Security Council – will have to be reformed along regional lines.

Click here to read the Speech

Written by Adrian Pabst

Published on 16 May 2013

Adrian Pabst, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent, UK, Visiting Professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille (Sciences Po) and at IBS Moscow, specially for wpfdc.org

Introduction

About a dozen countries across the West are currently legislating in favour of gay marriage. Following months of mass mobilisation and parliamentary acrimony, the French National Assembly adopted the new law on ‘marriage for all’ on 23 April.

In the UK, the “Same-Sex Couples Bill” received its first reading on 24 January and – following a second reading – was approved by the lower chamber of parliament on 5 February in a 400-175 vote. It will probably become law sometime in June after its third reading in the House of Commons and its passage through the House of Lords.

On Monday Minnesota became the 12th US federal state to legalise gay marriage, which has already been approved in Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington as well as the District of Columbia. Various provisions of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage in federal law as a union between one man and one woman, have been judged to be unconstitutional and are currently under review by the US Supreme Court.

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