Marc Lynch
Marc Lynch is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Williams College. He received his PhD from Cornell University, and has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and the University of California, Berkeley. Columbia University Press published his book "The International Politics of Jordan's Identity", in 1999. Among his published articles are "The Dialogue of Civilizations and International Public Spheres Theory," Millennium: Journal of International Studies 29, no.2 (2000); "Globalization and International Democracy," International Studies Review 2, no.3 (2000); and "The Politics of Consensus in the Gulf," Middle East Report 215 (2000). His current research focuses on the role of international deliberation and public opinion in the politics of the sanctions on Iraq.
The President of Iran, Hujjat al-Islam Mohammad Khatami, has made a challenge to the Western world to abandon its discourse of "clash of civilizations,"and instead replace the mentality of conflict with one of dialogue. Implicit in his challenge is an appeal to rationality over force and aggression. Khatami is arguing against both the arguments of Samuel Huntington, who has posited a "clash of civilizations" as part of his world-view, and the actual foreign policy of the United States vis--vis its "containment" of Iran. There are many difficulties in attempting to introduce a mentality of dialogue into Iranian-American relationships. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatullah Khameini, has emphasized the continuing spirit of hostility in the two countries relationships, combined with the power imbalances inherent in American-Iranian relationships. For many on both sides of the conflict, building a relationship based on dialogue holds no normative value, and there may be little incentive for either party to abandon the politics of confrontation. There are also difficulties borne of Iran's political situation. The tension between Ayatullah Khameini and the liberalism of President Khatami will dominate any attempts to build a dialogue with the United States. Whatever possibility there may be for a constructive dialogue of civilizations, it will not occur in a vacuum. It will have to take into account the actual dynamics of foreign policy and international relations.