Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations

A Lecture by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Former Prime Minister of Spain; April 03rd, 2014

(Rome; March 31st - April 3rd, 2014)
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Biography

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (born August 4, 1960) is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was elected for two terms as President of the Government of Spain, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On the 2nd April, 2011 he announced he would not stand for re-election in the 2011 general election. He left office on the 21st of December, 2011.

President Zapatero studied Law at the University of León (Spain), graduating in 1982. After that he worked as a teaching assistant in Constitutional Law at the University of León until 1986 (he continued working on a voluntary basis until 1991). He eventually joined the PSOE on the 23rd of February, 1979.

In 1982, President Zapatero became head of the Socialist Youth Organization in the province of León (Spain). In 1986, he was elected to represent the province of León in the Cortes (Parliament), becoming its youngest member after the election held on the 20th of June. In 1988, he became Secretary General in León after a complex internal fight for power that ended a long period of division. In 1996, after the General Election, President Zapatero kept his seat at the Congress of Deputies. The following year, President Zapatero was again elected Secretary General of León and after the national conference held by the party that year he entered the National Executive (the party's governing body).

President Zapatero decided to run for the leadership of the Socialist Party in its 35th Conference to be held in June 1996. Together with other socialist members, he founded a new faction within the party called Nueva Vía (New Way) in April 2000. On the 25th of June, 2000 President Zapatero officially announced his intention to run for the federal Secretary General at a Conference of the Socialist Party of León. President Zapatero resulted successfully and was officially elected. He was appointed as Secretary General of the PSOE and the opposition leader in 2000 until he became Prime Minister of Spain on the 14th of March, 2004.

Among the main actions taken by the Zapatero administration were the withdrawal of Spanish troops from the Iraq war, which allegedly resulted in long-term diplomatic tensions with the George W. Bush administration; the increase of Spanish troops in Afghanistan; the idea of an Alliance of Civilizations, the legalization of same-sex marriage; reform of abortion law; an attempt at peace negotiation with ETA; the increase of tobacco restrictions; and the reform of various autonomous statutes, particularly the Statute of Catalonia.

Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations

A Lecture by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Former Prime Minister of Spain

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Poster Image

Firstly, I want to thank the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy for their invitation to participate in this Symposium. My gratitude is for all its members and especially to Minister Frattini with whom I shared governmental tasks. Believe me, it is a pleasure to be in Rome; in this unique city, and furthermore it is of great interest to me to be in the Senate, which is actually in a very transcendent moment.  In Spain we also have a Senate, which we have been reforming for already 25 years.

Dear friends, a look to the past, to the not far away past, does not induce us to feel proud of ourselves. In the XXth Century, millions of people died as victims of the wars: here in Europe, in the Balkans, in Korea, in Vietnam, in the Middle East, and also in my own country. How many dead people died as a result of war in the world of the XXth Century? 70, 80, 90 million? And then the cold menace of the Cold War and the nuclear apprehensiveness. And now, the Middle East´s conflicts, and terrorist violence. Terrorism has generated and is generating pain and suffering because it is an unfair violence, useless as well. Against that we have to reaffirm strong principles which have to involve every civilization and culture; because violence can never defend a religion or an ideology, since violence is only violence.

Killing is not defending an idea, it is merely killing. The use of the force can only be legitimated when it is done by a State; and always as a last resort, and like a defense as according to the United Nations Charter. But we have to have a more positive perspective for this XXIst Century which is just starting. Nothing makes us think in a world of confrontation. There are no big polarized divisions today in the world. Conflicts tend to be at regional or local levels: Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and mostly Palestine. The Israel-Palestine conflict is a permanent risk for the Middle East and a factory for radicalism, and this is the big subject to resolve in order to have peace in the world.

In that conflict are all the factors that use to provoke confrontations between different cultures, religions and identities. But globally - and Crimea´s crisis will not change the tendency - we can think that we are decreasing the amount of wars, innocent victims, terrorist and guerrilla groups. Terrorist groups do not exist in Europe any longer, after the annulment of violence from ETA in Spain; there is a progressive decline in Latin America, and the decrease of violence in Sri Lanka, Asia, and there is Turkish progress with the PKK for peace in that region as well.

Nevertheless, there stays a menace of radical Islamic terrorism. We can ask ourselves what is the cause, because terrorism, conflicts and wars are ever decreasing. A very clear point: democracies do not have wars between them. There is not any example about two democratic countries who had a conflict. We know that very well in Europe. And we know that with consolidated democracies, conflicts happen very randomly. And how is the world developing?  In the last 30 years we have seen how we have advanced from 50 to 100 countries with democracies, more or less institutionalized. In recognition of pluralism, freedoms and legitimation are the values and the conditions for peace. Wars and violence are the consequence of negating pluralism; the imposition of values and ideas, the idea of thinking people as ‘lower’ who do not think as we do, or do not share our faith, or our flag.

And nevertheless, there is no culture or civilization which is not the result of the influence of another culture and civilization. This is how it has always been and always will be. There are just a few places in the world so conducive to provoke this reflection as much as Rome; cradle of civilizations, civilization of civilizations, and cradle of the European civilization, even if sometimes, and more in the current times. There is a tendency to forget that Europe was born in the South. If we have a look at all the landscapes of the world from East to West and North to South, from Oslo´s street to Tangier´s ones, from Prague´s, Saint Petersburg´s, Jerusalem´s, Riyadh´s, Lima´s, Beijing´s or New York´s, what highlights is the plurality and the diversity of human beings.

This plurality is still on the ideas we had inherited, in the faith we had embraced, and in the flags that thrill us as well. But the different ideas, cultures, civilizations and religions should not be used to class men but to understand ourselves better and to understand each other better. Our different identities had justified wars and violence - and also the religious identities. We had religious wars, and we know that killing has been done in the name of a faith, and nevertheless all the religions contain a message of peace. That message has strength when it goes together with the ideas of freedom and pluralism. The same as modern society’s plurality should protect religious freedom as a fundamental freedom. Religions should assume the plurality of the faith as a natural process, not as a deviation. More than heretics what we have here are people with different creeds. As Roger Williams said, almost one of North America´s Founding Fathers, God is too big to leave him under a single ceiling.

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and other have all have made decisive contributions to progress; to civilizing culture, to solidarity and to the noble cause of remembering the forgotten. However, we have also in name of these religions committed big mistakes. The religions are big believers that they progressed civilizations, sustaining and identifying them. Catholicism in the West, Islam in the East, Buddhism in the Far East. When religions contribute to peace it is when there is dialogue and they open themselves to each other. When they resign to dogmatism is it the opposite. Dialogue has become a way to reach the goal of peace itself. Dialogue between religions is the main condition for peace, because it presumes the idea of pluralism. Dialogue is to look for and to be open to knowledge, to find ideas, history, creativity and spirituality. Dialogue is not to win or to loose, but to recognize that there is no culture, religion or nationality superior to others.

Fortunately we can see that there are several initiatives for dialogue among religions and civilizations; the Foundation for Asia-Europe, the Asia-Pacific Centre for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Vienna´s Centre for Dialogue, etc. But there is one place in the United Nations; the institution where all countries are included. The Alliance of Civilizations, which has 136 countries and 20 international organizations as members, and that has celebrated 5 forums and has a High Representative, from Qatar, who works with projects and programs in four specific areas: education, youth, communication and media, and migration. It has three regional strategies: Mediterranean, Southeast Europe, and Latin America; and work for doing them in Asia, Pacific and Africa. Its objectives are to spread the ideas of reconciliation, peace and respect, religious freedom, and pluralism. I was a promoter with Turkey at the Alliance of Civilizations, and that is why I was to give you my belief that these initiatives, like the one from today, are helping to promote peace and pacified coexistence.

The idea is for peace culture to not be forgotten because of other world worries like the economy or climate change. At this moment, if we want to see the decisive point where respect between different civilizations and religions is at stake we have to look to the Arab Spring. And I would like to highlight the constitutional process in Tunisia as of big historical importance because of its religion and politics that are trying to understand each other. To know how to give each one its own place is maybe one of the most interesting processes of recent times. I think that the world community should support this process in a special way of what is happening in Tunisia. But not forgetting that Palestine and its aspiration for peace is still the thermometer to know if the future of understanding between cultures and civilizations is going to keep moving forward.

And let me highlight a phenomenon where our capacity of dialogue and understanding is implicit: the migratory movements. We cannot betray our compromise about Human rights when we talk about migration. This is the true test for the pluralist convictions of the advanced civilizations: migration. And I know that the religions have a strong voice around the rights of immigrants. It has been recently done by Pope Francis, and it should be a message coming from all religions. Immigrants tend to be from other cultures and civilizations and the presence of Human Rights is judged more about how we behave to others than to ourselves.

I am about to finish. The tenacity and the firmness in the defense of values is the most powerful tool that we have for peace and respectful coexistence. And the first value is the word, the direct word – clear and comprehensive. Words are the beginning and the end of everything. Not words like a nice rhetorical exercises, but words that says how we really are. What we say should look like us. And we have to say that peace is not a promise or neither a vain desire - it is a will. It is an expression of coherence and a weapon against the hegemony of superiority. Peace is always to be ready to understand other people, other cultures, other religions and other versions of history. And nothing deserves more than a policy for peace. Peace as tolerance, as respect to the diverse; this is what remains at the end of history - the rest is ephemeral. Let dialogue for peace maintain peace; to strengthen consequent behaviours and facts. Peace is the big duty of religions, cultures, civilizations, countries, and all human beings. Thank you very much.

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