THE POST-SOVIET INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AND THE DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS

Shireen. T. Hunter

Shireen Hunter is the director of the Islam Program at
Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relatoins. She previously
served as director of the Mediterranean Studies program with the Center for
European Policy Studies in Brussels, deputy director of the Middle East
Program CSIS, as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and research
fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs. Hunter is the author
of many books, including: The Future of Islam and the West: Clash of
Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence?, Central Asia Since Independence, The
Transcaucasus in Transition: Nation-Building and Conflict, Iran After
Khomeini, Iran and the World: Continuity in a Revolutionary Decade, and The
Politics of Revivalism, as well as numerous chapters in edited volumes. She
holds a PhD in political science from the Institut Universitaire des Hautes
tudes Internationales in Geneva and an M.A. from the London School of
Economics and Political Science.

The international political and economic system that emerged
after the Second World War was built on the cultural and political foundations
of the European state system which was established following the Treaty of
Westphalia in 1648 and later was joined by the United States and a number of
other countries outside of Europe.

When the United Nations Charter was signed in 1945, most of
today's UN members were either colonies or under intense foreign pressure. Thus
they had no role in crafting the rules and regulations the international system
and their interests were not really considered. It is natural, therefore, that
for a half-century these states have been trying to change the international
system's discriminatory aspects. Between the 1950s and 1970s, these efforts were
related mostly to issues of political and economic independence and to trying to
of the international political system. In the 1980s, however, cultural and
value-related issues acquired greater importance, and this trend was
strengthened in the 1990s, following the Soviet collapse. Today, cultural and
civilizational issues are key elements of the international discourse and inter-
and -intra-state relations.