"World-historical men -- the Heroes of our epoch -- must therefore be recognized as its clear-sighted ones: their deeds, their words are the best of their time."
"Friedrich Hegel -- Lectures on the Philosophy of History"

Introduction

In historical retrospective, President Khatami's inauguration of a global discourse on "dialogue among civilizations" may well turn out to qualify him as a Hegelian "world-historical" visionary leader. In today's world wrought with severe challenges of peace and prosperity, wherein the integrationist forces of globalization, e.g., internet, coexist with the polarizing forces of global poverty, ethnic cleansing and other forms of intolerance, Khatami's idea of "dialogue of civilizations" presents a timely antidote to the discursive violence of its antinomy, the "clash of civilizations" thesis; a content analysis of the latter makes clear that it denotes the following themes: Western superiority, domineering, arrogance, cultural hostility and even insultingness.

Notwithstanding its widespread appeal, as a feasible paradigm for the "new world order," the "clash of civilizations" thesis is but a low-level vision cementing the global fragmentations. But, for a world already reeling from half a century of Cold War rivalry, Khatami's imaginative antithesis represents a high-level vision addressing our global need to rebound intellectually and otherwise. The "dialogue of civilizations" counter-thesis is best defined along the lines of Vico's notions of "imaginative universals" and "recollective fantasia" or Kant's "productive imagination," and Khatami himself as the Owl of Minerva of Iranian renaissance culture -- he is likely to claim a place in the history of political thought.

The Question of Motivation

What motivated Khatami to spell out the idea of "dialogue of civilizations?" This is a complex issue that requires kneading together individual-psychological and state-political motivations, encompassing far more than the vicissitudes of a political discourse arising as a skeptical reaction to another discourse. Rather, we must take into consideration the context of post-revolutionary state and identity formations in Iran. The historic revolution, which the French philosopher Foucault viewed as a "great refusal," showed a sign of its maturity in Khatami's positive discourse, the fact that we need not remain locked in refusal.

Khatami's idea is, first and foremost, a "world constructing" philosophical idea, living up to John Searle's claim, in his book, The Construction of Social Reality, that "philosophical theories make a tremendous difference to every aspect of our lives." At the heart of this idea is an ethics of global community that starts with an interacting sense of self, as situated in a web of interactions with others, leading to a recognition of difference, not as deviance or deficit that threatens but as otherness to connect with, cherish, and celebrate.

Second, in light of Khatami's religious credential, the idea of "idalogue of civilizations" invokes the notions of interfaith dialogue and religious hope, thus setting a unique precedent for the "re-enchanting" of the United Nations, which had previously ejected religion and spirituality outside its policy domains, a trend somewhat reversed by the recent religious summit at the UN.

Third, Khatami's proposal to the United Nations, to make 2001 the year of ‘Dialogue Among Civilizations', represents an act of discursive power, notwithstanding Michel Foucaut's insight that meanings are determined by "power relations" and to bring meaning into the world is ultimately an act of power." Khatami's initiative is in tandem with the Husserlian "world-disclosing" operation of Iranian power, and the need to glory the republic.

Fourth, a plethora of other needs/desires come into picture in a motivational analysis of "dialogue of civilizations" initiative by Khatami, including such variables as leadership, status, peace, transformation, interdependence, and emancipation. Sifting through the cognitive, political, behavioral, and other motivational variables discernible behind the "dialogue of civilizations" initiative, yields a total of twenty four factors, which are as follows:

1. Deconstruction	the desire to deconstruct the "clash of civilizations" thesis
2. Re-Interpretation	the desire to present an alternative interpretation
3. Idealism	the desire to make a philosophical contribution
4. Peace	the desire to contribute to global peace
5. Initiative	the desire to make a global initiative
6. Assertiveness	the desire to assert oneself in the global community
7. Acceptance	the desire to gain acceptability by the world community
8. Identity	the desire to foster a new identity
9. Acceptance	the desire to win acceptability for the political system
10. Coping	the desire to cope with the international system
11. Mobility	the desire to enhance position in the world community
12. Glory	the desire to bring glory to the political system
13. Power	the desire to enhance Iran's international power
14. Change	the desire to induce change in the international norms/system
15. Leadership	the desire to exert moral-political leadership
16. Spirituality	the desire to promote spirituality in the world
17. Credibility	the desire to earn moral-political credibility
18. Reference	the desire to act as reference for others
19. Order	the desire to bring order in the anarchic world
20. Progress	the desire to contribute to the esprit of historical progress
21. Interconnectedness	the desire to promote the idea of cultural interconnectedness
22. Interdependence	the desire to promote the notion of global interdependence
23. Interfaith	the desire to deepen the on-going interfaith dialogue
24. Emancipation	the desire to freedom -- from all forms of oppression

In conclusion, while it remains to be seen what the practical accomplishments of "2001, Year of Dialogue of Civilizations" will be, we need not relegate to posterity any balance sheet of Khatami's initiative: it has already become the world's most active "creative illusion" thus sealing Khatami's stature as an authentic "world-historical" leader.

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This article first appeared in Iran News, November 29, 2000.