A Thought About UNESCO's Future

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The new Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has announced three immediate priorities:

1. Climate Change
2. Dialog Among Cultures
3. Culture, Heritage and Development

The 800 pound gorilla disrupting each of these areas is globalization. It is the shift of industrial production to developing nations that is the underlying factor preventing agreement between newly industrializing and post-industrial nations on the limitation of the production of greenhouse gases. It is the cause of the increasing interaction of different cultures which leads to friction and the need for dialog. It is the main vehicle for development bringing with it rapid cultural change and stress on cultural heritage and values.

UNESCO's program on intercultural dialog has been somewhat shaded by the UN Alliance of Civilizations program, in part because UNESCO failed to move sufficiently expeditiously and forcefully to promote dialog between Western and Islamic cultures, especially after 9/11. I suspect that while the West-Islamic culture clash has drawn our attention in the last decade, the coming decades will see other clashes arise as globalization continues. I can imagine that clashes between Western and Asian culture may occur as China and India play greater roles in the global society and economy. There might be clashes between Asia and Africa as Asian industries seek to penetrate African economies in the search for more and more raw materials. The East-West divide may become more demanding of international attention as the Russian economy grows.

UNESCO is a laboratory of ideas and a clearinghouse. It can provide a forum not only to promote understanding between civilizations in increasing contact due to globalization, but to predict the tensions that will arise and to prepare to ameliorate them by education and cultural diplomacy that will promote mutual understanding.