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Civilisation, dialogue, security: the challenge of post-secularism and the limits of civilisational dialogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

Abstract

The purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to consider the extent to which Dialogue of Civilisations (DoC) initiatives, as alternative visions of post-secular world order, are likely to address insecurities that they identify; and (2) to point to other insecurities that are likely to remain unidentified and unaddressed in the process. In their present conception, DoC initiatives risk falling short of addressing the very insecurities they prioritise (the stability of inter-state order) let alone attending to those experienced by non-state referents, which they overlook. The article advances three points in three steps. First, I point to how projects of civilisational dialogue have bracketed civilisation, thereby leaving intact the Huntingtonian notion of civilisations as religiously unified autochthonous entities. Second, I argue that while contributing to opening up space for communication, DoC initiatives have nevertheless failed to employ a dialogical approach to dialogue between civilisations. Third, I tease out the notion of security underpinning DoC initiatives and argue that the proponents DoC, in their haste to avert a clash, have defined security narrowly as the absence of war between states belonging to different civilisations. Theirs is also a shallow notion of security insofar as it fails to capture the derivative character of security and insecurity.

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Articles
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Copyright © British International Studies Association 2012

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References

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23 The former president's dialogue-themed addresses have since then been removed from the website of the Iranian representation to the UN.

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28 As Petito notes, President Havel did not use DoC formulation. He is nevertheless counted among the proponents of DoC by virtue of the content of his message. See, Petito, Fabio, ‘The Global Political Discourse of Dialogue among Civilizations: Mohammad Khatami and Václav Havel’, Global Change, Peace & Security, 19:2 (2007), pp. 1026CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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32 {www.reset.org} accessed 17 January 2012.

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39 Hobson, John M., ‘Deconstructing the Eurocentric Clash of Civilizations: De-Westernizing the West by Acknowledging the Dialogue of Civilizations’, in Hall, Martin and Jackson, Patrick Thaddeus (eds), Civilizational Identity: The Production and Reproduction of 'Civilizations' in International Relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 153Google Scholar.

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42 Quoted in Hevdelien, ‘Post-secular Consensus?’, p. 113. On Pope Benedict XVI's notion of civilisation and practices of dialogue, see Mavelli, Luca, Europe's Encounter with Islam: The Secular and the Postsecular (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), pp. 115–23Google Scholar.

43 Khatami as quoted in Esposito and Voll, ‘Islam and the West’, p. 254.

44 ‘Erdoğan, ‘Batının Ahlaksızlıklarını Aldık’ [Erdoğan: “We Got the West's Immoralities”]’, Milliyet, 24 January 2008.

45 This is a process Ahmet Davutoğlu depicts as ben-idraki (self-cognition). See the following section for a discussion on how this notion of DoC is not in tune with the ethics or epistemology of dialogical approaches in the Bakhtinian sense.

46 Quoted in Esposito and Voll, ‘Islam and the West’, p. 254.

47 Hobson, ‘The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations in Dialogical-Historical Context’.

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56 Guillaume, ‘Foreign Policy and the Politics of Alterity’, p. 9.

57 Quoted in Petito, ‘The Global Political Discourse of Dialogue among Civilizations’, p. 111. Compare with: Davutoğlu, ‘Medeniyetlerin Ben-idraki [Self-cognition of Civilizations]’.

58 Pasha, Mustapha Kamal, ‘Civilizations, Postorientalism, and Islam’, in Hall, Martin and Jackson, Patrick Thaddeus (eds), Civilizational identity: the production and reproduction of ‘civilizations’ in international relations (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 70Google Scholar.

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62 Ibid.

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65 Dallmayr, Dialogue Among Civilizations, p. 21.

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70 Kratochwil, ‘Religion and (inter-)national politics’, p. 113.

71 Ibid., p. 114.

72 Shirin Ebadi, ‘Who Defines Islam?’, openDemocracy, {www.opendemocracy.net} accessed 1 February 2012.

73 It is not only DoC initiatives but also the project of multiculturalism that suffers from such a problem of silence when it comes to internal struggles within civilisations, thereby effacing difference within. For a feminist perspective, see Ebadi, ‘Who Defines Islam?’.

74 Lynch, ‘The Dialogue of Civilisations and International Public Spheres’, p. 324.

75 Kratochwil, ‘Religion and (inter-)national politics’, p. 132.

76 The court had ruled that the Turkish state was within its rights in banning headscarf from Universities. See {http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4424776.stm} accessed 15 February 2012.

77 ‘Erdoğan Doktrini [Erdoğan Doctrine]’, Milliyet, 16 November 2005.

78 Asad quoted in: Mavelli, Europe's encounter with Islam: the secular and the postsecular, p. 72. While Asad's remark is directed against non-Muslims who pass judgment on Muslim ‘religious’ symbols, his elaboration on religion as a plural space is relevant for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

79 Fred Halliday, ‘The End of the Vatican’, openDemocracy, {www.opendemocracy.net} accessed 1 September 2007.

80 Inayatullah and Blaney, International Relations and the Problem of Difference.

81 McSweeney, Bill, Security, Identity and Interests: A Sociology of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 239CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

82 McSweeney, Security, Identity and Interests, p. 239.

83 Petito, ‘In Defence of Dialogue of Civilizations’, p. 763.

84 Kratochwil, ‘Religion and (inter-)national politics’.

85 Inayatullah and Blaney, International Relations and the Problem of Difference, p. 9. Also see, Pasha, ‘Civilizations, Postorientalism, and Islam’, p. 63.

86 Petito, ‘In Defence of Dialogue of Civilizations’, p. 762.

87 Burke paraphrasing Kristeva. See Burke, Anthony, Beyond security, ethics and violence: war against the other (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 105Google Scholar.