*{Defining What We Share: Bridging Cultures and Civilizations [http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavigator.nsf/Content/Defining%20What%20We%20Share%3A%20Bridging%20Cultures%20and%20Civilizations?open&topic_id=300250000&theme_id=300]

            31.01.2002

            Annual Meeting 2002}

            Is globalization creating a convergence in cultural values or are there unbridgeable gaps that could lead ultimately to a "clash of civilizations?" Can different cultures co-exist peacefully, asked Moisés Naim, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy Magazine, USA, who moderated the discussion which focused more on the differences that divide cultures than their shared values. 

            François Burgat, Director, Centre Français d’Archéologie et des Sciences Sociales de Sanaa, Yemen, said there are no major differences in values among different civilizations but differences in the way cultures articulate and express them. He believes that the more people are informed about other cultures, the more they will realize the extent of their shared values. How many western elites, he asked, know a non-western language?

            Samuel P. Huntington, Chairman, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, USA, said there are real differences in values and cultures among civilizations. The idea of a bridge, as suggested in the title of the session, implies there is something separating them. The issue is whether this is a "bridge over a chasm, a wide ocean, a changing stream or what?" He is not sure of the answer, but he is sure that there are differences over values and cultures - and that these differences need not lead to clashes among civilizations. 

            Another interesting issue, he noted, is the extent to which modernization produces a reaction in other civilizations. The Davos culture, he added, is not universal, it is limited to an infinitesimal portion of humanity. To criticisms that his book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Reality of World Order, dwelt on the clashes between Islamic and western values while ignoring the conflicts between Christian groups such as seen in Northern Ireland, Huntington said the clashes between Protestants and Catholics don’t have the same cosmic significance nor do they pose a potential threat to world peace.

            Kishore Mahbubani, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations, New York, said nation-states make their national decisions on the basis of cultural and civilizational interests and impulses. The problem is these differences in values and culture are not passive and will not go away until a real global culture is created. As someone who grew up in a Hindu household next to Muslim neighbours in a Chinese-dominated country under British rule, his experience told him that different cultures can co-exist peacefully. But he believes that modernity and economic advancement will bring about an explosion of cultures not seen before. The problem is how to handle "this explosion of healthy confidence in a world full of inequalities" without leading to a clash of civilizations.

            Karim Raslan, Partner, Raslan Loong, Malaysia, said civilizations are not monolithic. There are just as many clashes within the same civilization as there are across geographic areas. Kuala Lumpur isn’t Kabul and Muslims in South-East Asia don’t share many of the values of Arab Muslims, he noted. Raslan added that Americans have tended to view many civilization engagements through the prism of Palestinian and Israeli confrontation, and that they have a different way of looking at the Islamic world than Europeans.

            Theodore Zeldin, President, The Oxford Muse, United Kingdom, said civilization is one of the instruments to facilitate understanding of the six billion people in the world. But understanding what these people are looking for is a key to bridging differences in values and cultures. He noted that people are looking for love, friendship and respect, but love is not an economic concept and therefore some might considered it out of place at a meeting of business leaders.
                        *{Contributors:       Burgat François
                  Huntington Samuel P.
                  Mahbubani Kishore
                  Naim Moisés
                  Raslan Karim
                  Zeldin Theodore}