In view of the unequal power balance at the global level (whether in military, economic, political or social terms), it is important to emphasize that credible and sustainable dialogue among cultures and civilizations can only be achieved on the basis of mutual respect, which means the acceptance of equality of all cultures in the normative sense. [...] The quasi-global consensus found its political expression in the United Nations General Assembly’s proclamation of 2001 as the “Year of Dialogue among Civilizations” and in the establishment (in 2005) of the so-called “Alliance of Civilizations” upon the joint initiative of the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey. [...] As has been explained in the philosophy of mind, particularly since Fichte and Kant, individual self-awareness is the synthesis that results from a dialectical process in which the ego defines itself (in the sense of de- finitio: drawing the border) in relation to “the other.” This also applies to the collective self-awareness of a civilization or culture. [...] The simultaneity of distinct civilizations, each in a different phase of identity formation, and at the same place, in the same πόλις [polis], is an existential challenge from which decision-makers cannot escape lest they be “punished by history.” This is also the challenge of multiculturalism Europe is faced with, at the beginning of the 21st century. [...] Those who engage in the rhetoric and politics of a peaceful co-existence and partnership among civilizations – certainly the vast majority of UN member states, and especially those assembled in the “Alliance of Civilizations” – should be reminded of the philosophical principles of dialogue which do not allow a policy of “civilizational double standards.” Equality of civilizational expressions nece.
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