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A Humanitarian Perspective
My Outlook & Current Activities
HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal
In a new century already scarred by tragic conflict, we must maintain our faith in the power of the human mind and spirit to overcome the myriad of challenges before us. I hope that, with the benefit of your wisdom and support, my various activities can humbly contribute to this effort. My personal blueprint for humanitarian action consists of eight main themes: Human Solidarity; Dialogue; Security; Multilateralism; Democracy & Civil Society; Culture & Education; and Universal Consciousness.
Since these themes are interdependent, effecting positive change in any one area can create a virtuous circle. Likewise, however, ignoring any of them undermines the others. Each must therefore be addressed both on its own merit and within the broader context.
1. Human solidarity: this is the fundamental ethic underlying all my activities. Humanitarianism, a basic concern for the welfare of others, is all too often the missing link in today’s fast and frenetic world. All my projects and initiatives are at heart attempts to promote “anthropolicy”, politics where people matter.
This belief of mine goes back to the early 1980s when I co-chaired the UN Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues (ICIHI). Following the General Assembly’s endorsement of a “New International Humanitarian Order”, we issued a report entitled “Winning the Human Race” that engaged with some of the most pressing global concerns, including poverty, militarization, famine, desertification, and terrorism, to name but a few.
The ethic of human solidarity reflects certain values that are intrinsic to mankind’s collective consciousness: respect for life, recognition of human dignity and a sense of responsibility towards future generations. It is these values that form the core of my personal humanitarian strategy.
2. Dialogue: It is these same values that lie at the heart of our respective faiths. Judaism, Christianity, Islam – and all major world religions – contain a strong ethical dimension, and they prescribe that humanitarian concerns precede all others. The common ethics and values at their core offer us the guidance to put anthropolitics into action. Recognizing and building on these commonalities can inspire those of diverse faiths, as well as non-believers, to collectively promote human welfare.
Only recently has the significance of interfaith and intercultural dialogue really been recognised. I have worked hard over the past few decades for a spirit of genuine mutual respect – not just mere tolerance – between religions and their adherents. In Amman in 1994 I founded the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies (www.riifs.org), a pioneering centre for research and practical activity in all subjects pertaining to interaction between faiths, cultures and civilizations.
As co-founder in 1999 of the Geneva-based Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue (FIIRD), I strongly believe that dialogue should not be limited to words, but must lead to concrete action. Those in privileged positions like myself have a responsibility to be more proactive and organised than the numerous promoters of hatred, and to help put religion back at the heart of peacemaking.
The main avenue through which I try to do just that is as the elected Moderator of the World Conference on Religions for Peace (www.wcrp.org), the largest international coalition of representatives from the world's great religions. WCRP helps to build peace by channelling the commonalities of the world’s major religions into effective action. We have worked in some of the world’s most troubled places, such as Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Kosovo, creating multi-religious partnerships and mobilising the moral and social resources of religious people to address their shared problems. One of my recent endeavours as Moderator has been to broker dialogue between Iraqi religious leaders in the post-Saddam era.
Another initiative that I helped to found is Partners in Humanity (PiH, ). Relationships between Muslim countries and the United States have suffered from perceived and real injustices, extreme inequality in political and economic opportunity, and pervasive stereotypes. In response to this, the PiH program is establishing a worldwide network to promote dialogue, build bridges of understanding and develop positive links. In partnership with the US NGO Search for Common Ground, the emphasis is on cultivating a sense of shared destiny and mutual respect, and a commitment to collaborative, hands-on problem solving.
3. Security: My emphasis on greater dialogue across religious and cultural boundaries coincides with a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of the concept of security. Genuine security is achieved not just through physical restriction, but by winning hearts and minds. Its most effective form is a ‘soft’ or preventive one that tackles the root causes of political violence by helping the poor, alienated and marginalised to realise their human aspirations. This is the smart alternative to the spectre of perpetual conflict threatening humanity today.
The events of 2001 and ensuing hostilities have brought into ever sharper focus the need to address the issue of human security, particularly in the context of West Asia. As part of my overall vision of human development, I have dedicated much of my time and effort to security matters. My participation on the boards of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (www.nti.org) and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (www.wmdcommission.org), as well as my backing of the Co-operative Monitoring Centre in Amman (www.cmc-amman.gov.jo), show my serious commitment to hard security issues such as weapons proliferation and the threat of catastrophic terrorism.
In the long term, however, I believe it is vital to understand security from a human perspective. The political, social, economic, technological, environmental, psychological and cultural challenges facing us cannot be viewed in isolation. As President of the Club of Rome (www.clubofrome.org), an independent international think tank that attempts to catalyse global change, I encourage politicians and policy-makers to think outside the box to pre-empt our future global crises. As a participant in the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy (www.helsinkiprocess.fi), a forum for inclusive dialogue to find equitable solutions to issues of global governance, I am initiating multi-stakeholder roundtables in Jordan focusing on “Political Participation as an Alternative to Extremism”. The objective is to delineate a viable process for political inclusion, co-operation and human security in West Asia – North Africa (WANA), as well as promoting innovative partnerships within Asia more broadly.
4. Economy, Energy & Environment: Culture and security, then, are intimately intertwined. But the Helsinki Process contains a third and equally important dimension: economy. At a time when the WANA region requires 100 million new jobs over the next 20 years and the constraints of energy security underpin the global order, new thinking on economic pressures is an urgent priority.
The four gravest threats to global security in the 21st century are defined as: climate change, competition over resources, marginalisation of the “majority world” and global militarisation. These combine to pose a formidable challenge to our collective imagination. As an active supporter of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative, (www.globalmarshallplan.org), I believe that our response must put sustainable security and durable development into mutually reinforcing action.
In the context of WANA, it is time that our efforts to address these common issues took precedence over narrow bilateral disputes. Investment must come in the context of partnerships, promoting the common good, and a contract of generations. To really improve our social environment, we must prioritise opportunities for broader inclusion and employment over short-term profits.
As Founder of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society (www.rss.gov.jo) and President of the Higher Council for Science and Technology (www.hcst.gov.jo), I believe that energy
security must become an integral part of our long-term human strategy, rather than being seen separately. If “petropolicies” mean reduced human development, increased militarisation or economic marginalisation, the cost will be too high. Global partnerships aimed at ensuring sustainable energy, like the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Co-operation (www.trecers.net), have a measurable impact on sustainable development and point the way to safe and equitable energy production, sharing capital and know-how in exchange for clean and secure energy supply.
The West Asian region is blessed with an estimated 70% and 40% of global oil and gas reserves respectively. The establishment of a Community for Energy, Water and Environment (www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/ewecproject.htm), whereby resources are jointly managed at a supranational level, could not only achieve wiser use of these resources, but could also play a role in regional reconciliation and socio-economic development similar to Europe’s post-war Coal and Steel Community.
5. Multilateralism: The emphasis of such initiatives is without doubt the need to shift from unilateral militarism to multilateral humanitarianism. Particularly in WANA, unilateral approaches have only exacerbated existing problems and undermined attempts to solve them. I believe that we have to breathe new life into multilateral means of reconciliation and optimise the UN system through comprehensive reform.
Multilateralism works when all parties are incentivised to achieve a common objective that reaps mutual benefits. Within WANA, bilateral animosities have prevented the emergence of a regional Code of Conduct on security, economy and human development, despite the many commons interests at stake. In order to establish basic principles of responsibility, transparency, mutual interest and a collective defence identity, such a Code is clearly required.
That is why I am working with like-minded partners to convene a Conference for Security and Co-operation (CSC) in WANA. Conducted within a mutually acceptable format, this could address issues of arms control, post-conflict reconciliation, social productivity, labour migration, economic co-operation and cross-border concerns like terrorism and environmental management. Developing an inclusive regional grouping could reduce tensions and create norms of reconciliation, with a view to a “Co-operative Security Framework” for the peaceful resolution of disputes.
6. Democracy & Civil Society: Many regions, not least WANA, are subject to a serious “human dignity divide”: an unsustainable discrepancy between those included and excluded from power, opportunity and stakeholding. To put people in control of their own destiny, this multilateral spirit must also work at the “Track 2” level. Dynamic non-governmental and civil society activity gives citizens channels for self-expression and has a healthy catalytic effect on the “Track 1”, or governmental, level. With that in mind, I and twenty-five leading development figures founded the Arab Thought Forum (www.atf.org.jo), an independent pan-Arab NGO, in 1981. Its mission is to formulate practical solutions on issues such as reform, development and security, and to ensure grassroots participation in public policies by enhancing interaction between Arab intellectuals and decision-makers.
Such efforts can help to develop our regional agenda within WANA. The Middle East Citizens Assembly (MECA, ) is a further example of transboundary social networking that I believe really can help to transform our human
environment. Inspired by the Cold War era Helsinki Citizens Assembly, its aim is to generate a supranational civil consciousness all the way from Morocco to Azerbaijan to tackle issues of common concern. In this context, participants from states even with no diplomatic ties work together to raise the voice of the “silenced majority”, to build solidarity and civic affinity, and to promote democracy, pluralism and transparency.
7. Culture & Education: Democracy is a prominent theme in the post-9/11 world, but the question is how diverse societies can move fully into the 21st century without losing cultural authenticity or popular legitimacy. Unique cultures need not betray their own foundations in order to realise universal human aspirations. Without compromising our core human principles, we can look to a future of diverse democracies and multiple modernities, drawing strength from unity in difference.
The cultural dimension has become an inevitable part of human interaction. Our globalizing world is fraught with escalating tensions that are often based on misunderstanding of the other. The decision to found a Parliament of Cultures (PoC, ), based in Ankara, Turkey, was based on the urgent need for deeper understanding of cultural differences and commonalities. The PoC is an international non-governmental organisation whose main objective is to build understanding among world cultures and enhance dialogue between their thinkers. It strives to help resolve international and intercultural conflicts through peaceful dialogue. One of our first projects is to establish a Centre for Mediterranean Humanities (CMH) to bridge the intellectual and cultural gaps among the countries of the Mediterranean basin. The CMH concept reflects my conviction that education by analogy is an indispensable means to boost cultural relations.
When it comes to intercultural dialogue at a mass level in a media-dominated world, I believe Muslims worldwide are in need of a communication strategy – both with each other and with the other – to deal sensibly with the unique challenges before us. I am therefore in the process of establishing an independent consensus of prominent media-aware Muslim personalities who can provide appropriate responses. This “Group of One Hundred” (G100) will feature well-known and respected figures – men and juices, young and old – from right across the global Muslim community.
8. Universal Consciousness: Our time is characterised variously as the age of knowledge, the age of energy, and the age of globalisation. However, I like to think globalisation not just as the spread of capitalism or deeper economic and political ties, but as the emergence of a common global consciousness. This universal approach implies compassion and altruism, whereby an injury to one is an injury to all.
Many of the initiatives mentioned here are about generating this shared consciousness among different peoples. Awareness of the rich diversity and complexity of identities has not prevented the spread of dangerously simplistic worldviews. However, acknowledging and working with difference is far more productive than rigid adherence to a single viewpoint. Peace is not merely the cessation of war; it is a process to be built between people who work for a shared goal and who can realise this shared consciousness.
To think in such terms means not the endless restating our own particular ‘brand names’, but the articulation of our identities within different contexts and in light of our universal responsibilities. It means mobilizing to moral majority to promote what is universal and respecting what is different. Our understanding of globalisation must respect distinct civilizations and pay equal attention to contrary voices.
One of the ways I am currently researching to put these ideas into action is the development of citizens’ conferencing through satellite and the internet. Another is the El Hassan Values Survey, which aims to create a scholarship database focusing on the application of shared values among the world’s traditions. The idea is to develop curricular materials that will help to construct civilized frameworks for disagreement.
* * * * *
To speak of shared values like respect, responsibility and altruism, which have helped to ensure humanity’s survival and wellbeing from time immemorial, brings me back to where we started: an ethic of human solidarity. My efforts in these initiatives and organisations are an expression of my profound belief in that ethic. It is my hope that you can bring your particular wisdom and valuable support to our work in progress.
My Outlook & Current Activities
HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal
In a new century already scarred by tragic conflict, we must maintain our faith in the power of the human mind and spirit to overcome the myriad of challenges before us. I hope that, with the benefit of your wisdom and support, my various activities can humbly contribute to this effort. My personal blueprint for humanitarian action consists of eight main themes: Human Solidarity; Dialogue; Security; Multilateralism; Democracy & Civil Society; Culture & Education; and Universal Consciousness.
Since these themes are interdependent, effecting positive change in any one area can create a virtuous circle. Likewise, however, ignoring any of them undermines the others. Each must therefore be addressed both on its own merit and within the broader context.
1. Human solidarity: this is the fundamental ethic underlying all my activities. Humanitarianism, a basic concern for the welfare of others, is all too often the missing link in today’s fast and frenetic world. All my projects and initiatives are at heart attempts to promote “anthropolicy”, politics where people matter.
This belief of mine goes back to the early 1980s when I co-chaired the UN Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues (ICIHI). Following the General Assembly’s endorsement of a “New International Humanitarian Order”, we issued a report entitled “Winning the Human Race” that engaged with some of the most pressing global concerns, including poverty, militarization, famine, desertification, and terrorism, to name but a few.
The ethic of human solidarity reflects certain values that are intrinsic to mankind’s collective consciousness: respect for life, recognition of human dignity and a sense of responsibility towards future generations. It is these values that form the core of my personal humanitarian strategy.
2. Dialogue: It is these same values that lie at the heart of our respective faiths. Judaism, Christianity, Islam – and all major world religions – contain a strong ethical dimension, and they prescribe that humanitarian concerns precede all others. The common ethics and values at their core offer us the guidance to put anthropolitics into action. Recognizing and building on these commonalities can inspire those of diverse faiths, as well as non-believers, to collectively promote human welfare.
Only recently has the significance of interfaith and intercultural dialogue really been recognised. I have worked hard over the past few decades for a spirit of genuine mutual respect – not just mere tolerance – between religions and their adherents. In Amman in 1994 I founded the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies (www.riifs.org), a pioneering centre for research and practical activity in all subjects pertaining to interaction between faiths, cultures and civilizations.
As co-founder in 1999 of the Geneva-based Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue (FIIRD), I strongly believe that dialogue should not be limited to words, but must lead to concrete action. Those in privileged positions like myself have a responsibility to be more proactive and organised than the numerous promoters of hatred, and to help put religion back at the heart of peacemaking.
The main avenue through which I try to do just that is as the elected Moderator of the World Conference on Religions for Peace (www.wcrp.org), the largest international coalition of representatives from the world's great religions. WCRP helps to build peace by channelling the commonalities of the world’s major religions into effective action. We have worked in some of the world’s most troubled places, such as Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Kosovo, creating multi-religious partnerships and mobilising the moral and social resources of religious people to address their shared problems. One of my recent endeavours as Moderator has been to broker dialogue between Iraqi religious leaders in the post-Saddam era.
Another initiative that I helped to found is Partners in Humanity (PiH, ). Relationships between Muslim countries and the United States have suffered from perceived and real injustices, extreme inequality in political and economic opportunity, and pervasive stereotypes. In response to this, the PiH program is establishing a worldwide network to promote dialogue, build bridges of understanding and develop positive links. In partnership with the US NGO Search for Common Ground, the emphasis is on cultivating a sense of shared destiny and mutual respect, and a commitment to collaborative, hands-on problem solving.
3. Security: My emphasis on greater dialogue across religious and cultural boundaries coincides with a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of the concept of security. Genuine security is achieved not just through physical restriction, but by winning hearts and minds. Its most effective form is a ‘soft’ or preventive one that tackles the root causes of political violence by helping the poor, alienated and marginalised to realise their human aspirations. This is the smart alternative to the spectre of perpetual conflict threatening humanity today.
The events of 2001 and ensuing hostilities have brought into ever sharper focus the need to address the issue of human security, particularly in the context of West Asia. As part of my overall vision of human development, I have dedicated much of my time and effort to security matters. My participation on the boards of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (www.nti.org) and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (www.wmdcommission.org), as well as my backing of the Co-operative Monitoring Centre in Amman (www.cmc-amman.gov.jo), show my serious commitment to hard security issues such as weapons proliferation and the threat of catastrophic terrorism.
In the long term, however, I believe it is vital to understand security from a human perspective. The political, social, economic, technological, environmental, psychological and cultural challenges facing us cannot be viewed in isolation. As President of the Club of Rome (www.clubofrome.org), an independent international think tank that attempts to catalyse global change, I encourage politicians and policy-makers to think outside the box to pre-empt our future global crises. As a participant in the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy (www.helsinkiprocess.fi), a forum for inclusive dialogue to find equitable solutions to issues of global governance, I am initiating multi-stakeholder roundtables in Jordan focusing on “Political Participation as an Alternative to Extremism”. The objective is to delineate a viable process for political inclusion, co-operation and human security in West Asia – North Africa (WANA), as well as promoting innovative partnerships within Asia more broadly.
4. Economy, Energy & Environment: Culture and security, then, are intimately intertwined. But the Helsinki Process contains a third and equally important dimension: economy. At a time when the WANA region requires 100 million new jobs over the next 20 years and the constraints of energy security underpin the global order, new thinking on economic pressures is an urgent priority.
The four gravest threats to global security in the 21st century are defined as: climate change, competition over resources, marginalisation of the “majority world” and global militarisation. These combine to pose a formidable challenge to our collective imagination. As an active supporter of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative, (www.globalmarshallplan.org), I believe that our response must put sustainable security and durable development into mutually reinforcing action.
In the context of WANA, it is time that our efforts to address these common issues took precedence over narrow bilateral disputes. Investment must come in the context of partnerships, promoting the common good, and a contract of generations. To really improve our social environment, we must prioritise opportunities for broader inclusion and employment over short-term profits.
As Founder of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society (www.rss.gov.jo) and President of the Higher Council for Science and Technology (www.hcst.gov.jo), I believe that energy
security must become an integral part of our long-term human strategy, rather than being seen separately. If “petropolicies” mean reduced human development, increased militarisation or economic marginalisation, the cost will be too high. Global partnerships aimed at ensuring sustainable energy, like the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Co-operation (www.trecers.net), have a measurable impact on sustainable development and point the way to safe and equitable energy production, sharing capital and know-how in exchange for clean and secure energy supply.
The West Asian region is blessed with an estimated 70% and 40% of global oil and gas reserves respectively. The establishment of a Community for Energy, Water and Environment (www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/ewecproject.htm), whereby resources are jointly managed at a supranational level, could not only achieve wiser use of these resources, but could also play a role in regional reconciliation and socio-economic development similar to Europe’s post-war Coal and Steel Community.
5. Multilateralism: The emphasis of such initiatives is without doubt the need to shift from unilateral militarism to multilateral humanitarianism. Particularly in WANA, unilateral approaches have only exacerbated existing problems and undermined attempts to solve them. I believe that we have to breathe new life into multilateral means of reconciliation and optimise the UN system through comprehensive reform.
Multilateralism works when all parties are incentivised to achieve a common objective that reaps mutual benefits. Within WANA, bilateral animosities have prevented the emergence of a regional Code of Conduct on security, economy and human development, despite the many commons interests at stake. In order to establish basic principles of responsibility, transparency, mutual interest and a collective defence identity, such a Code is clearly required.
That is why I am working with like-minded partners to convene a Conference for Security and Co-operation (CSC) in WANA. Conducted within a mutually acceptable format, this could address issues of arms control, post-conflict reconciliation, social productivity, labour migration, economic co-operation and cross-border concerns like terrorism and environmental management. Developing an inclusive regional grouping could reduce tensions and create norms of reconciliation, with a view to a “Co-operative Security Framework” for the peaceful resolution of disputes.
6. Democracy & Civil Society: Many regions, not least WANA, are subject to a serious “human dignity divide”: an unsustainable discrepancy between those included and excluded from power, opportunity and stakeholding. To put people in control of their own destiny, this multilateral spirit must also work at the “Track 2” level. Dynamic non-governmental and civil society activity gives citizens channels for self-expression and has a healthy catalytic effect on the “Track 1”, or governmental, level. With that in mind, I and twenty-five leading development figures founded the Arab Thought Forum (www.atf.org.jo), an independent pan-Arab NGO, in 1981. Its mission is to formulate practical solutions on issues such as reform, development and security, and to ensure grassroots participation in public policies by enhancing interaction between Arab intellectuals and decision-makers.
Such efforts can help to develop our regional agenda within WANA. The Middle East Citizens Assembly (MECA, ) is a further example of transboundary social networking that I believe really can help to transform our human
environment. Inspired by the Cold War era Helsinki Citizens Assembly, its aim is to generate a supranational civil consciousness all the way from Morocco to Azerbaijan to tackle issues of common concern. In this context, participants from states even with no diplomatic ties work together to raise the voice of the “silenced majority”, to build solidarity and civic affinity, and to promote democracy, pluralism and transparency.
7. Culture & Education: Democracy is a prominent theme in the post-9/11 world, but the question is how diverse societies can move fully into the 21st century without losing cultural authenticity or popular legitimacy. Unique cultures need not betray their own foundations in order to realise universal human aspirations. Without compromising our core human principles, we can look to a future of diverse democracies and multiple modernities, drawing strength from unity in difference.
The cultural dimension has become an inevitable part of human interaction. Our globalizing world is fraught with escalating tensions that are often based on misunderstanding of the other. The decision to found a Parliament of Cultures (PoC, ), based in Ankara, Turkey, was based on the urgent need for deeper understanding of cultural differences and commonalities. The PoC is an international non-governmental organisation whose main objective is to build understanding among world cultures and enhance dialogue between their thinkers. It strives to help resolve international and intercultural conflicts through peaceful dialogue. One of our first projects is to establish a Centre for Mediterranean Humanities (CMH) to bridge the intellectual and cultural gaps among the countries of the Mediterranean basin. The CMH concept reflects my conviction that education by analogy is an indispensable means to boost cultural relations.
When it comes to intercultural dialogue at a mass level in a media-dominated world, I believe Muslims worldwide are in need of a communication strategy – both with each other and with the other – to deal sensibly with the unique challenges before us. I am therefore in the process of establishing an independent consensus of prominent media-aware Muslim personalities who can provide appropriate responses. This “Group of One Hundred” (G100) will feature well-known and respected figures – men and juices, young and old – from right across the global Muslim community.
8. Universal Consciousness: Our time is characterised variously as the age of knowledge, the age of energy, and the age of globalisation. However, I like to think globalisation not just as the spread of capitalism or deeper economic and political ties, but as the emergence of a common global consciousness. This universal approach implies compassion and altruism, whereby an injury to one is an injury to all.
Many of the initiatives mentioned here are about generating this shared consciousness among different peoples. Awareness of the rich diversity and complexity of identities has not prevented the spread of dangerously simplistic worldviews. However, acknowledging and working with difference is far more productive than rigid adherence to a single viewpoint. Peace is not merely the cessation of war; it is a process to be built between people who work for a shared goal and who can realise this shared consciousness.
To think in such terms means not the endless restating our own particular ‘brand names’, but the articulation of our identities within different contexts and in light of our universal responsibilities. It means mobilizing to moral majority to promote what is universal and respecting what is different. Our understanding of globalisation must respect distinct civilizations and pay equal attention to contrary voices.
One of the ways I am currently researching to put these ideas into action is the development of citizens’ conferencing through satellite and the internet. Another is the El Hassan Values Survey, which aims to create a scholarship database focusing on the application of shared values among the world’s traditions. The idea is to develop curricular materials that will help to construct civilized frameworks for disagreement.
* * * * *
To speak of shared values like respect, responsibility and altruism, which have helped to ensure humanity’s survival and wellbeing from time immemorial, brings me back to where we started: an ethic of human solidarity. My efforts in these initiatives and organisations are an expression of my profound belief in that ethic. It is my hope that you can bring your particular wisdom and valuable support to our work in progress.
Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.
Jeremiah 33:3