The Emerging Multicivilizational World

From Why The West Can’t Win:[1]

Russia, Iran, and China are very different nations, each with different political and economic systems. Russia is a secular democratic country with a capitalist economy. Iran is an Islamic state, with a capitalist economy based on Islamic values. China has a meritocracy-based communist political system with a mixed economy of publicly and privately-owned businesses. Fundamentally, however, they are very similar. All three are civilizational multi-ethnic states with deep roots in history, Russia one thousand years, Iran and China several thousand years each.

The Future of the Sovereign World

As reflected in the diverse political and economic models of the RIC, the Sovereign World will see a variety of development models coming into existence, reflecting the civilizational diversity of the world. It is this civilizational diversity, where each civilization has its own unique features, that is the cornerstone of an egalitarian world and a key component of the right to self-determination. Inherent in civilizational diversity is the acceptance of the cultural and religious orientations of the different civilizations, hence an acceptance of the ‘others’ as they are.

Just as cuisine has no one dish that is universally accepted as the ‘best,’ similarly with civilizational diversity, there is no one civilization that is ‘best.’ The acceptance of this understanding forms the basis for egalitarian relationships between civilizations, and points to the consequent absence of a ‘leading nation,’ let alone an ‘exceptional’ or ‘indispensable’ one – to say nothing of the ‘necessity’ for it. This can be seen in practice in the relationships between the RIC countries over the past several decades. Within the RIC there is no ‘leader.’ This contrasts with the West where the U.S. is recognized and accepted as ‘leader,’ or the ‘exceptional’ nation.

The win-win cooperation model, as exists currently between the RIC themselves and between the RIC and other nations is a natural consequence of civilizational diversity. This is projected to be the norm within the Sovereign World.

A reflection of the developing civilizational world is the Orthodox Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Pyongyang.

Quoting the Embassy of Russia to the DPRK:[2]

The decision to build the first Orthodox Church in the DPRK was made personally by its leader Kim Jong Il on August 22, 2002, after his visit to the Church of St. Innocent Innokentiy of Irkutsk in Khabarovsk in the course of his trip to Russian Far-East.

The two-domed building of the Church was built by Korean workers in two years at the expense of the DPRK budget. Bells, icons and church utensils were donated by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Whereas it is en vogue to refer to the emerging world as a “Multipolar World”, it would be more accurately described as the “Multicivilizational World”. This is nothing new, as it was historically the tradition to accept and respect “the other’s” civilization. Quoting Laurent Guyénot:[3]

In the ancient world, respecting the variety of the gods was the basis of international relationships. From the third millennium BCE onward, nations built their mutual trust on their capacity to match their gods; in this way they knew they were living under the same heaven.

“Religion functioned as a medium of communication, not elimination and exclusion. The principle of the translatability of divine names helped to overcome the primitive ethnocentrism of the tribal religions, to establish relations between cultures, and to make these cultures more transparent to each other.”

Moving forward 4000 years to the Trilingual Tablet discovered in Sri Lanka in 1911. The tablet made in Nanjing, China in 1409 was inscribed in three languages: Chinese, Tamil and Arabic. Though the Chinese civilization is anchored in the teachings of Confucius, the Chinese inscription offered praise to Buddha, the Tamil inscription offered praise to Hindu God Tenavarai-Nayanar, and the Arabic inscription offered praise to Allah. Offerings to Buddha, Tenavarai-Nayanar and Allah were exactly equal, and consisted for each:[4]

1,000 pieces of gold; 5,000 pieces of silver; 50 rolls of embroidered silk in many colours; 50 rolls of silk taffeta, in many colours; 4 pairs of jewelled banners, gold embroidered and of variegated silk, 2 pairs of the same picked in red, one pair of the same in yellow, one pair in black; 5 antique brass incense burners; 5 pairs of antique brass flower vases picked in gold on lacquer, with gold stands; 5 yellow brass lamps picked in gold on lacquer with gold stands; 5 incense vessels in vermilion red, gold picked on lacquer, with gold stands; 6 pairs of golden lotus flowers; 2,500 catties of scented oil; 10 pairs of wax candles; 10 sticks of fragrant incense.

Thus, from antiquity until colonialism aka “Age of Discovery” the world was multicivilizational, and the norm was respecting “the other”.

From the ashes of colonialism and neocolonialism the multicivilizational world is reemerging.

---

[1] WHY THE WEST CAN’T WIN: From Bretton Woods to a Multipolar World, Fadi Lama, Clarity Press, 2023

[2] Orthodox Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Pyongyang, Embassy of Russia to the DPRK, 2024

[3] From Yahweh to Zion: Jealous God, Chosen People, Promised Land...Clash of Civilizations, Laurent Guyénot, Sifting and Winnowing, 2018, p63

[4] The trilingual inscription of Admiral Zheng He, Universiteit van Amsterdam