The International Day of Dialogue among Civilizations is celebrated on June 10. This day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 at the initiative of several countries concerned about the rise of xenophobia, cultural intolerance, and conflicts based on religion. But what lies behind this diplomatic wording? Dialogue among civilizations is not just a polite meeting of representatives of different cultures. It is a philosophy of survival. In a world where weapons can destroy the planet several times over, and borders become more permeable to information and people, the ability to negotiate at the level of values becomes a matter of life and death. From the Clash of Civilizations to Dialogue In the 1990s, American political scientist Samuel Huntington proposed the theory of "the clash of civilizations." He predicted that after the Cold War, major conflicts would unfold not between nation-states, but between large cultural blocks — Western, Islamic, Orthodox, Confucian, and others. Critics accused him of pessimism and justifying conflicts. In response, the concept of "dialogue among civilizations" emerged, developed by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and supported by the UN. The idea is that differences should not lead to war, but can become a source of mutual enrichment. Dialogue is not an attempt to erase differences, but an attempt to learn to live with them. Not "you are the same as me," but "I respect your otherness." Philosophical Foundations: Buber, Levinas, Bakhtin Dialogue as a philosophical category was developed by many thinkers. Martin Buber in his book "I and Thou" divided relationships into "I-It" (a person perceives another as an object, a thing) and "I-Thou" (a meeting of individuals, genuine dialogue). For dialogue among civilizations, it is necessary to move from "I-It" to "I-Thou": to see the representative of another culture not as a "carrier of strange customs," but as a conversation partner. Emmanuel Levinas spoke a ... Read more