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.