Foreign Policy Blogs

Coming Soon – The 2009 Alliance

logo-aoc1President Obama is expected to participate in the UN-connected meeting called the Alliance of Civilizations. It is the second forum of the alliance and scheduled for April 6-7 in Istanbul. The Alliance was established in 2005, and it aims to reduce cross-cultural tensions. The director of the alliance has said that Obama’s visit to Turkey (his first trip to a Muslim country since becoming President) would “signal an attitude in favor of a high dose of openness and cautious dialogue. It would also signal a preparedness to listen and to show respect – one of the basic tenets of the Alliance.” The hope that this brings to the other member countries that U.S. policy has shifted is immense. One topic, which we have been following in this blog is the debate “on defamation of religion versus freedom of expression.” The press release for the upcoming Alliance Conference reiterates that the Alliance tries to stay clear of that controversial and inflammatory debate.

 

Author

Karin Esposito

Karin Esposito is blogging on religion and politics from her base in Central Asia. Currently, she is the Project Manager for the Tajikistan Dialogue Project in Dushanbe. The Project is run through the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies with the support of PDIV of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The aim of the project is to establish practical mechanisms for co-existence and peaceful conflict resolution between Islamic and secular representatives in Tajikistan. After receiving a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 2007, she worked in Tajikistan for the Bureau of Human Rights and later as a Visting Professor of Politics and Law at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP). Ms. Esposito also holds a Master's in Contemporary Iranian Politics (2007) from the School of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran and a Master's in International Relations (2003) from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (GIIDS) in Switzerland.

Areas of Focus:
Islam; Christianity; Secularism;

Contact