7 November 20001

HEADQUARTERS PRESS BRIEFING TO LAUNCH BOOK ON DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS

A new book entitled Crossing the Divide was launched at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon by Giandomenico Picco, Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, and by the Group of Eminent Persons for the Year.

The 19-member Group was established by the Secretary-General in September 2000 to reflect on the issue of Dialogue among Civilizations.  It has worked with Mr. Picco to prepare the publication that was both launched and presented to the Secretary-General today.

Representing the Group at today's launch were Kamal Aboulmagd (Egypt), Professor of Public law, Cairo University, and Judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal; Nadine Gordimer (South Africa), author and Nobel Laureate for Literature; Sergey Kapitza (Russian Federation), Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Professor of Physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; Hans Küng (Switzerland), Professor of Ecumenical Theology, University of Tübingen, President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Welethos); and Javad Zarif (Iran), Professor of International Law, Tehran University, and Deputy Foreign Minister.

Mr. Picco said that even though the book contained the work of the many distinguished members of the Group, it was not a collection of essays, but rather a complete text from beginning to end.  It was undersigned by all, including himself, and was a work for which everyone claimed authorship.  The text represented the views of the Group and was not per se a United Nations publication.  "We felt that this would allow more freedom, and we think the results justify the choice", he said.

Mr. Picco said the specialty of the book was that it contained no recommendations.  "We are not telling anybody what to do or what to think or how to behave, because a book about dialogue would be a contradiction in terms if we were to give recommendations", he said, adding that a great part of dialogue was about listening.

Mr. Picco underscored that the book was a view of the international system as it was emerging, not only over the last few years, but also after the events of 11 September, since the draft was completed after that date.  It contained a suggestion for what "we see emerging as a new paradigm of international relations."  That paradigm might develop if the elements were nurtured, or might be destroyed if those elements were destroyed.  "At the end of this book we basically say that determining whether there is going to be a dialogue among civilizations or a clash really rests with each of us", he said.

The publication, continued Mr. Picco, also underlined the extreme importance of individual responsibility for what happened in the world, and the author’s absolute non-belief in the unavoidable nature of events.

While the book had only been published in English so far, he continued, translations had already begun into other languages –- Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, and possibly Italian, Serbo-Croatian and German.  He hoped that trend would continue in other languages so that the book would be distributed as widely as possible.

Responding to question on the purpose of the book, Mr. Picco said it contained a number of quite provocative ideas, which hopefully would be taken up because they had been undersigned by individuals of great knowledge and calibre.

Giving an example of one such provocative idea, he said that the book recommended reviewing the "great impartiality myth" of the United Nations and focusing more on whether the Organization was credible or not.  "Credibility may be a better myth, if we need one, rather than impartiality", he said.  What was being suggested there was provocative in many ways, because it called things by their name -- particularly in the aftermath of all that had taken place.

Most importantly, continued Mr. Picco, the Group was also convinced that the book espoused the opposite of the terrorism philosophy.  "So we stand to be counted as being on the opposite side of the gamut of those who believe that diversity is a threat", he said.  That belief in diversity as threat was the essence of all terrorism, since terrorism implied killing innocents for one's own ideas.  So the timing of the book was actually quite proper since it reflected a view that was the opposite of terrorism.

A correspondent asked whether the events of 11 September were products of the clash of civilizations.  Mr. Picco said he did not believe the events had anything to do with that at all.  The book was dedicated to the innocents who lost their lives because their only fault was that they were different from their murderers.  "Here we are making a statement that is not impartial at all", he said.

Responding to the same question, Mr. Aboulmagd said he had two reactions: why this book and why now?  The publication was triggered by one factor and enhanced by another.  It was originally triggered by the coming of globalization -– people of different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds and political systems facing each other first-hand and almost for the first time in history.  The question then was, "How do we relate to each other?  Is it a state of animosity; one of indifference and isolation; or is it a state of needed and possible cooperation?”  So the original context for the book had been globalization as a "fait semi accompli".

Mr. Aboulmagd went on to say that what made their task more important and urgent was the spread of talk on the clash of civilizations.  So in a sense the book was an answer to the claim of the inevitability of a clash of civilizations.  It presented a substitute –- namely dialogue among civilizations –- which would eventually lead to awareness of commonalities conducive to cooperation.

According to Mr. Aboulmagd, when the tragic events of 11 September took place, people started looking for the guilty.  In the heat of discussion and the haste to draw conclusions, what emerged was some sort of guilt by association. 

People started to say that the West and other cultures were in conflict.  "This is very far from being true", he stressed.  "These people who commit acts or terror internally or internationally are a very narrow margin of the mainstream of every culture and civilization."  So to say that Western and other cultures were in conflict was not only wrong, but also dangerous, because it taught and propagated the idea of a clash and diverted efforts away from the real enemy, which was the common danger.

Mr. Zarif said the international community was going through a transitional phase.  That phase could bring about a reaffirmation of the previous system, which in their view was characterized by exclusion and the need for an enemy to justify governance.  That paradigm produced violence, hatred and division.  "We can use this transitional stage to move either to a new phase of the same old paradigm, or use the elements of a new paradigm and a new global environment.  Now there were non-State actors who could have tremendous impact.  Those new elements could be used to nurture a paradigm in which terrorism could no longer flourish, where there was no longer any hatred and ethnic cleansing and rivalry.  We believe that this is a realistic possibility", he said.

"If we advocate the possibility of a clash because of the events of      11 September”, continued Mr. Zarif, "we have played into the hands of the terrorists because that is their ultimate objective".  They wanted to see a clash and division on the international scene between one group and another.

A correspondent said the average man on the street was not aware of the great and noble idea of a Dialogue among Civilizations, and wanted to know whether there were any specific media in mind that could be used to reach such people.

Responding to that question, Mr. Küng said "we cannot do what every schoolmaster or person in a family should do.  We need other levels so that the ideas we have in this book will be acknowledged in schools.”  It was hoped that the publication would be used in colleges, and that discussion groups of all sorts would use its ideas.  He believed that in some countries such as Germany and Switzerland, there were films which disseminated an understanding of other religions and other ethical standards.

A correspondent asked the Group whether it hoped the book would be read by governments of the Middle East and have some impact on them. Ms. Gordimer said she hoped the book would go far beyond being just read by governments, intellectuals and concerned people.  That was the danger of books of that nature.  "It is our intention that this book will be commercially published, and it will be done in a way that is perfectly attractive and as acceptable as any other book, rather than as just another tract."

Ms. Gordimer went on to say that Crossing the Divide asked a great many questions but did not give the answers.  It was a book to make people think, and she believed it would be very widely available and would not just preach to the converted.  What happened when the Twin Towers fell shook the whole world.  People were now examining their lives, why they were here, and their relations with one another much more closely.  "It comes out of a sense of bewilderment

and vulnerability”, she said.  "And I think a book like this will find readers that perhaps it would not have had before the 11 September tragedy."

Ms. Gordimer said the book also had another value in that it asked "what is civilization?"  Civilization, she said, was “a collective noun that means many different things".  The book examined what civilization really was and what the common values rather than the differences were in that process.

Mr. Kapitza said the converted needed to be preached to and encouraged to move from the adoption of theories to action.  They needed to be more active in serving the cause in which they believed.  "We are also aware of the fact that we cannot change history by volume."  This book, however, was the first step in bringing people to reflect and consider things in the light of the tragic events of 11 September.

The other members of the Group who were not present at the launch today are Lourdes Arizpe (Mexico); Hanan Ashrawi (Palestine); Ruth Cardoso (Brazil); Jacques Delors (France); Leslie Gelb (United States); Prince El Hassan bin Talal (Jordan); Hayao Kawai (Japan); Tommy Koh (Singapore); Graça Machel (Mozambique); Amartya Sen (India); Song Jian (China) Dick Spring (Ireland); Tu Wei-Ming (China); and Richard von Weizsäcker (Germany).

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