*{Does the west still exist? [http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavigator.nsf/Content/Does%20the%20west%20still%20exist%3F?open&topic_id=300250000&theme_id=300]

            28.01.2000

            Annual Meeting 2000}

            James F. Hoge, Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine of the US Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out that while the traditional west is becoming more multi-ethnic and multicultural, the US is moving faster. And in Europe, a new generation is coming to the fore that yearns for greater self-sufficiency and for parity with the US.

            Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit of Turkey was clear as to his definition of the west, particularly within the European framework. Now that Europe is moving towards more permanent integration, he said, Turkey should be part of it. The Turks have become far more European today than during the Ottoman Empire. With the European identity based far more on ideas than religion, he said, the Turks have shown that Islam can be compatible with secularism, democracy and the emancipation of women. Ecevit stressed, however, that Turkey does not belong to Europe alone, but also to Asia, the Black Sea, the Trans-Caucasus, and the Middle East. Turkey has a lot to offer the west as a means of linking Europe with the East and Asia.

            Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said he considers it crucial to see Europe in a new sense. The west clearly exists geographically, but for the first time different countries have agreed to share the same rules, economy, democracy and tolerance. The real dilemma is not so much defining the concept of European integration but rather what one seeks to get out of it. We have to decide whether we wish to have an open society of specific values, or whether we close our structures against new and unknown phenomena, he said. Kwasniewski also maintained that humanitarian intervention is a key European value. Unlike World War II when the west was perfectly aware of Auschwitz but refrained from action, today the answer is very clear in the case of ethnic cleansing or genocide. If we remain blind, then we do not have western values.

            Timothy Garton Ash, writer and fellow at St Antony's College, University of Oxford in the UK, stressed the need to define the geographical west. The concept of the west is just as strong and apparent today as it was ten years ago with the disappearance of the common enemy. The Kosovo intervention, he said, was primarily a western one. The US is just as present in Europe today, if not more. All the western powers are still dictating the agenda. The European Union is now in a very dynamic phase of expansion; the west still exists although now slightly enlarged with Central Europe. The real question, maintained Garton Ash, is what will happen when the west moves beyond the west. He said he did not consider the integration of Turkey in Europe a problem, but rather an extraordinary opportunity. The ultimate challenge is for the west to no longer be considered the west.

            Dominique Moïsi, Deputy Director of the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, preferred to explore the definition of Europe as part of the west. First, he said, Europeans do not know their geography and will not know their geography for some time. Is Russia Europe? he asked. Europeans need to move from a "geographical frontier" to a "new frontier" as the Americans have. This implies greater openness, more reforms and a clearer definition of values. Newcomers to Europe, he said, should not represent the last borders. There needs to be more reform within institutions such as the EU, even if corruption remains the exception rather than the norm. Europeans must seek to defend their values. They must also be prepared to adopt cultural pluralism, whereby Normans are French as well as European. Religiously, too, there will be change. The integration of Turkey within Europe will mean that one-fifth of the population will be of Muslim origin. All this means that Europeans will have to redefine themselves and find a new identity.                 

                  *{Contributors:       Ecevit Bulent
                  Garton Ash Timothy
                  Hoge James F.
                  Kwasniewski Aleksander
                  Moïsi Dominique}