Op-Ed Contributors

Promote dialogue of civilizations

By Yu Sui (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-09 07:51

Effective global governance requires better communication and less political and cultural misunderstanding

Against the backdrop of complicated and variable international situations, civilizational dialogue and global governance have become two hot topics in international relations. This is to some extent a reflection of human aspirations for lasting peace and common prosperity.

Since May 21 was declared the "World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development" by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2002, advocacy of civilizational dialogue has gradually gained ground. By declaring such a day, the UN aims to help different countries pursue self-improvement and development, learn from each other through mutual dialogues, and jointly cope with difficult global issues.

An open dialogue mechanism will facilitate trans-civilization communications and help to eradicate misunderstandings and promote mutual coordination.

Notably, some consensuses have been reached among world members on civilizational dialogue, as indicated by their awareness that they are in the same boat and should help each other following the global financial crisis. However, it remains difficult to put civilizational dialogue into practice. For its better implementation, countries should first have a better grasp of different cultures and clear away the artificial obstacles in the way of dialogue.

Given that all civilizations are equal and there is no superiority or inferiority among them, different civilizations should pursue common development while shelving differences. Every civilization should be tolerant of others instead of hostile.

Civilizational dialogue also remains a precondition for world members to better promote the global governance strategy.

As a theory of international political science, the concept of global governance was first put forward in 1990 by Willy Brandt, a German politician and chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. There have been strong political calls for global governance in the international community in recent years, especially since the outbreak of the global financial crisis. However, no substantial headway has been achieved.