The dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute is pleased to announce the release of the World Public Forum – Dialogue of Civilizations Anthology. The book, at more than 500 pages, represents the development of the Dialogue of Civilizations initiative, from its origins in the work of the World Public Forum to the establishment of the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute (DOC) as a successor of the movement.
The volume provides a fundamental theoretical basis for the DOC Research Institute. It features texts from the World Public Forum founders and contributions from authors who have formed the core of the Dialogue of Civilizations expert community. This collection reflects the basic concepts and ideas of Dialogue of Civilizations in their original form, as they were presented at various World Public Forum events. The contributors consists of 26 experts from different countries around the globe.
The Anthology provides a perspective on the intellectual trends profiled and forged at the Rhodes Forums, which constitute the Dialogue of Civilizations heritage. These cover the major shifts in world order from the global financial crisis of a decade ago to the ongoing migration crisis in Europe. The Anthology’s purposes are to present the civilisational approach; to use history and philosophy to solidify dialogical methodology; and to contribute to the implementation of dialogue theory in practice.
Dr Vladimir Yakunin, co-founder and Chairman of the DOC, said: “The World Public Forum began to act as a largescale intellectual forum aiming to prevent the worst- case scenario of a degradation of humanity and a clash of civilisations in the form of a new world war. Today, the strategy of dialogue has become a regular practice in the field of international
relations. The language of the dialogue of civilisations has become an integral part of international communication and is now recognised at the level of intergovernmental organisations such as UNESCO, the G20, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, among others”.
Since 2002, the World Public Forum has brought into practice the idea of a ‘dialogue of civilizations’, first expressed by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at the UN in 1998. The World Public Forum began to act as a largescale intellectual forum aiming to prevent the worst possible scenario – the degradation of humanity and the clash of civilisations in the form of a new world war. Today, the DOC is developing and promoting the dialogue in everyday research work and activity involving the expert community, governments, and non-governmental organisations all over the world.
Among the major issues that the Anthology addresses are: the reason for the practice of dialogue at different levels of interaction among civilisations, nations, and cultures; the question of whether open and inclusive dialogue is possible in a context of global chaos; and the conditions that make the dialogical paradigm a real option and a viable alternative to the paradigm of clash. The main goal of the Anthology is to reach out to the wider world and make the ideas of dialogue of civilizations serve as a beacon of light and a means of better global understanding in the troubled times of tectonic shifts and global transformations.
The book is available in electronic form and in hard copy and will be presented at the 17 th Rhodes Forum on 11-12 October, ‘Global (dis)order: towards dialogue-based worldviews’.
If you share our ideas and would like to support the activity of the institute and make your contribution to our dialogue, please contact our fundraising director Carl Drexler.
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