EUNIC Yearbook 2012-13 PDF

Dac h z e i le
CULTURE REPORT
CULTURE REPORT
Culture is a mouthpiece and seismograph that reflects

the mood of society. When a society is driven by
political conflict, culture can create space for encounters, dialogue and understanding. The geopolitical
situation of the 21st century requires a revival of
cultural diplomacy. The international community
finds itself faced with a string of violent conflicts that
are emerging from within individual societies.
Europe has much to offer thanks to its experiences
of democracy, multilateralism and decades of
peaceful co-existence, and it should be investing
more heavily in cultural relations around the world.
It needs to share its specific experiences with
others in order to help mitigate some of these crisis
situations. How can we make the best possible use of
culture as a positive force? What external cultural
policies does Europe need to bring to the
worlds crisis zones? And what is the best way for
EUNIC the European network of national cultural
institutes to get involved?
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CULTURE REPORT EUNIC YEARBOOK 2012/2013
E U N I C Ye a r b o o k 2 012 / 2 013
E U N I C Ye a r b o o k 2 012 / 2 013
Challenges for Europes Foreign Policy
Vol.: 5
CulturE report
EUNIC YEARBOOK
2012/2013
CULTURE REPORT
EUNIC Yearbook 2012/2013
Although a painting can never stop a bullet, a painting can stop a bullet from being fired. Culture
is a central component of conflicts between different groups and ethnicities. So what could be
more appropriate than using culture as a tool for conflict resolution? After centuries of war, Europe has particular experience in how to create peaceful and cooperative ways of co-existing. What
kinds of external cultural policies does Europe need to embrace that will allow art, education and
intercultural dialogue to open doors and build trust between communities and help prevent
conflicts around the globe?
Foreword
Lifting the veil By Sebastian Krber
Chapter 1: The potential of culture

Beyond the cultural smokescreen by Jochen Hippler
More culture in global politics by Damien Helly
Signification spirals and moral imagination by Gudrun Kramer,
Thomas Ernstbrunner and Wilfried Graf
Message in a bottle by Moukhtar Kocache
The positive influence of cultural initiatives by Katrin Mader
A question of security by Mike Hardy and Aurlie Brckerhoff
Creative peoples advocates by Mary Ann DeVlieg, Victoria Ivanova,
Sidd Joag, Rosario Pavese and Ole Reitov
10
23
28
36
50
55
63
C ontent s

Chapter 2: Peacebuilding learning from local experiences
Healing from within by Michael Gleich
Fighting trauma and taboo by Martina Fischer
Afghanistan and beyond by Jemima Montagu
War begins in the minds of men by Raphael Vergin
A voice for the voiceless by Bernd Reiter
Setting the truth free by Peter Jenkinson
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77
86
92
98
107
Chapter 3: The power of the artist - the search for common ground
The political in the poetical by Yang Lian
Reconciliation is not just going through the motions by Slavenka Drakuli
Europes problem zone by Beq Cufaj
Seeing with both eyes by Salwa Bakr
Heckling from the balcony by Andrea Grill
The language of music by Vladimir Ivanoff
Art and conflict by Christian Schoen
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129
139
149
157
163
170
Chapter 4: The role of EUNIC in crisis regions

A buffer for pacifying the people by Delphine Borione
180
Far from the feasible by Gottfried Wagner
187
Beware of vaulting ambitions by Yudhishthir Raj Isar
192
Keeping doors open in difficult times by Robin Davies
201
Little strokes fell big oaks by Martin Eichtinger
206
A domain of peace by Luciano Rispoli
211
Food for the soul Ruth Ur talks to Jok Madut Jok215
EUNIC Annual Report
Editorial information
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236
Fore word
Lifting the veil

By Sebastian Krber
ulture has a vital role to play in conflict regions. It can build bridges
but it can also increase divisions.
What are the opportunities and challenges, the risks and limitations of cultural
engagement in regions beset by crisis and
conflict? This question has of course been
a central focus of international relations
for more than 20 years, but there is still
no clear answer. Former UN SecretaryGeneral Boutros Boutros-Ghali put this
item on the agenda of the United Nations
as far back as 1992. In 1993 Samuel P.
Huntingtons thesis on the Clash of Civilisations unleashed a long-lasting debate
on the geopolitical significance of culture,
and after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 it soon became clear to everyone that considering the role of culture in
international relations is not just an intellectual exercise. In parallel to this, the
limited success achieved by military interventions in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq
pose the question of whether other, softer,
approaches would be more effective. Even
international development assistance, something that as Damien Helly discusses
in this report finds itself in a state of existential crisis, is on a quest for find alternative ways of dealing with fragile states. So
it is logical that the network of European
Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) should ask what role cultural activity
can play in conflict resolution.
First the good news: the number of extremely violent conflicts has dropped by
40 percent since 1992, as the journalist Michael Gleich notes in his contribution. He
believes the fact that many people find this
surprising is down to the medias distortion of reality. It is not violence that has
increased but the reporting of violence.
The media is not interested in successful
approaches to crisis prevention and the
absence of conflict. And do academics
and researchers also suffer from this blind
spot? Gleich believes there can surely be
no more urgent topic for research. But the
quiet work being done by culture is drowned out in journals and at conferences by
as Chinese poet Yang Lian puts it the
tumult of conflict.
But when it is a question of proving
that cultural activity is an effective tool
in conflict resolution, the representatives
of cultural relations institutes also often
find themselves resorting to vague statements. So Gottfried Wagner, former Director of the European Cultural Foundation
in Amsterdam, warns against the use of
glib cultural rhetoric when it comes to conflicts. The writer Slavenka Drakuli says,
When talking about the role of culture
in the reconciliation process, we should
not ignore its capacity to produce ideology
and propaganda, and reminds us of the
writers, journalists and philologists who
became cogs in the nationalist propaganda machine during the war in the Balkans.
Political scientist Jochen Hippler concludes that if a conflict is interpreted as a clash
of cultural values, then a conflict about
Fore word
interests becomes a conflict about identity, something that is much more difficult to resolve. This culturalisation of conflicts ensures that practical interests such
as guaranteeing supplies of raw materials
and energy disappear behind a cultural
smokescreen. Hippler believes that for this
reason the job of cultural dialogue should
not be to resolve conflicts but to open up
new perspectives on the causes of conflict.
Humans always want to make sense
of things and need things to make sense.
Ongoing violence also requires a narrative
framework, says Jerusalem-based conflict
expert Gudrun Kramer, describing the
signification spiral of values, symbols,
songs, monuments and street names. So
it is a question of stopping the growth of
emotion-laden myth-building and entrenched ideologies, which simply help to escalate conflict. Curator Moukhtar Kozache
speaks of a process of unlearning and
urges us to overcome the non-creative and
catastrophic notion of a clash of civilisations and instead to accept the interwoven history and mutability of civilisations.
Robin Davies, who recently joined the
British Council from NATO headquarters,
admits that he has long underestimated the
transforming power of culture and therefore stresses all the more that we should no
longer see culture as being separate from
mainstream policies on international relations.
And EUNIC? Raj Isar, who currently holds teaching posts at universities in
Sydney and Paris, proffers a controversial
opinion. Although he values the potential of art as a vector and instrument of
conflict resolution, he recommends that
the network should of course offer moral
support but otherwise leave the complex
task of conflict resolution to the experts.
He points to concord organisations that

bring together people with fundamentally
opposing views, as is the case in divided societies, in order to initiate dialogue or offer
training in conflict management.
But this report also has its share of optimistic voices. Austrian diplomat Martin Eichtinger speaks of a noble task.
The cultural institutes should make use
of courageous and thought-provoking
programmes to prepare the ground for
breaking down stereotypes and prejudices. Little strokes fell big oaks. Echoing
Winston Churchill, he praises the culture
of listening: In a conflict, it requires courage not just to stand up and speak, but also
to sit down and listen. The current EUNIC President, Delphine Borione, points
out that the European cultural institutes
have particular credibility with regard to
the contribution of culture to economic,
social and human development because
they represent countries that have experience of conflict stretching back over
many hundreds of years.
This is the fifth edition of the Culture
Report on the progress and shortcomings
of Europes cultural relations, and it is the
second edition that also serves as the EUNIC Yearbook. I would like to thank all the
contributors, translators and editors, along
with the members of the EUNIC network,
for their valuable assistance. My special
thanks go to the Robert Bosch Foundation
for funding the Culture Report from the
very beginning. I am also delighted that
it can once again appear in several languages thanks to the support of the British
Council, the Gulbenkian Foundation and
the French Foreign Ministry.
Sebastian Krber,
Deputy General
Secretary and
Head of the Media
Department at
the Institute for
Foreign Cultural
Relations
The
Potential
of
Culture
There is no doubt that culture can help to resolve

conflicts (and can also be abused in order to fuel
them). But cultural activity cannot be a substitute
for political (and economic) initiatives for conflict
resolution. How can culture help with conflict management? How can we make the best possible use
of the positive role of culture? And what cultural
policy initiatives does Europe need to set in motion
in order to help regions beset by conflict?
Beyond the cultural smokescreen For as long as a

conflict is predominantly about differences in interests, it is often easier to find pragmatic compromises. However, if the same conflict is also
interpreted as a conflict between different cultural values, then the dispute over different interests
becomes a dispute over identity. So what could be
more obvious thanto into involve culture in conflict resolution? By Jochen Hippler
ince the 1990s, and especially since

the terror attacks of 11 September
2001, the relationship between culture and cultural factors and potential
or actual violent conflicts has attracted
an increasing amount of attention from
politicians and academics alike. This discussion actually goes back much further,
though it has not always been carried out
with the same degree of fervour. When
Samuel Huntington published his widely
acclaimed article in 1993 on the Clash of
Civilisations (followed up by a book of
the same name) it prompted intensive global discussion and was a key factor in the
decision by the United Nations, at the suggestion of Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami, to declare 2001 to be the Year
of Dialogue Among Civilisations. Ironi-
10
cally, it was in this very year that the AlQaeda attacks of 11 September took place.
Relations between Muslims and the
West were placed under considerable
strain as a result of this criminal act and
the subsequent War on Terrorism (including Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib),
as well as the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Many governments and numerous
private agencies also tried to improve Western-Islamic dialogue in an attempt to
mitigate the current conflicts and avoid
future ones. However, these efforts tended
to tail off after a few years as the dramatic pictures from 11 September started to
fade from peoples memories.
The public soon started to take an interest in another aspect of the relationship between culture and conflict. The
problem of fragile and failing states and
the limited success of attempts to bring
stability to Afghanistan (and, for some
years, Iraq), despite the deployment of
huge numbers of personnel and resources, raised the question as to whether attempts at conflict resolution based on a
security policy approach (especially military deployment) were not overrated, and
whether other, softer instruments might
T he p otent i a l of c u lt u re
not be possible and potentially more successful. This question is all the more relevant given the fact that the dynamics
of many conflict situations are bound up
with ethnic or religious and therefore
cultural issues and cannot be readily
influenced by military means. This suggests that better use could be made of culturally-oriented approaches in such cases,
which in turn would raise the profile of
European Foreign Cultural and Education Policy (FCEP), which was and still
could be an important vehicle for intercultural dialogue.
Internal or inter-societal conflicts are
mostly the result of a clash of competing
interests. When individuals or groups
are pursuing similar interests, conflicts
are much less likely. If conflicts do arise, perhaps due to a misunderstanding
or because of psychological factors, then
they tend to be short-lived and solutions
are relatively easy to find, usually through
some form of compromise. Conflicts tend
to be of a more serious nature and so harder to resolve in cases where the interests
of the parties involved are at odds with
each other. Conflicts based on a zero-sum
outcome (what one side gains, the other
loses) are usually much more problematical, and, if they revolve around vitally
important commodities or issues, they
can be particularly intractable, bitter and
difficult to resolve.
However, reference to different, contradictory or exclusive interests can lead
to the over-hasty conclusion that the resulting conflicts are somehow objective
in nature. This may well be true in certain extreme cases, if for example one side
needs a non-divisible resource for its own
survival and the other side needs it for
the same reason, but as a general rule in-
terests are not objective per se, but tend

to be socially mediated.
My interests cannot be measured by
a calculator or ruler, but are dependent
on my needs, intentions, characteristics
and other factors, which is to say they are
defined by who I am and what I consider
to be important or unimportant in life.
Whether and to what extent I consider
alcohol, art, conviviality, tranquillity, money, prestige, sports cars or other things
to be central or of lesser importance to my
life is dependent on what sort of person I
am and how I want to live my life.
The same applies to smaller or larger
groups or even whole countries. Gaining
Lebensraum in the East was a key national
interest for Germany in the 1930s and early 1940s, but in the 1960s it was no longer
an issue, and this remains the case today.
Competition between particular

political cultures
To put it another way, the interests
that play a key role in the origins and outcomes of conflicts are first and foremost
determined by social, subjective and cultural factors, but they are also changeable. We could say that interests are the
societal and cultural articulation of common, socially-negotiated goals, intentions
and needs that arise out of intra-societal
disputes and debates. They are therefore a product of the political culture of a
group or society and develop out of the
competition between the specific political
cultures of individual sub-groups.
11
There is no doubt that objective

aspects can be included in this (export
needs, pastureland, relieving population pressure, etc.). Ultimately, however,
the importance of interests lies in the
fact that they are an articulation of the
perception of the objective requirements
for reproduction, rather than the requirements themselves. These requirements
are rarely direct and irrefutable, but are
mostly dependent on a particular path
chosen (if an economy becomes more reliant on its internal market, its dependence
on exports goes down; a switch from intensive animal husbandry to cultivation
reduces the need for pastureland) and are
culturally defined. As a result, the political culture of a society or group becomes a
key factor in the origins of a conflict, and
therefore also in its potential resolution.
There is a second aspect to the culturally-influenced articulation of the objective requirements for reproduction: it is
often the case that when a conflict starts it
is not only ones own interests that are articulated but also those that are bound up
with ones own identity and ones perception of others or of the opposing party.
It is no longer only what I want, but also
who I am (or who the opposing party is
or allegedly is) that becomes an integral
part of the conflict. In this way, prejudices
and distorted pictures of a group of others
can also play a significant role.
To put it another way, individuals and
groups often see challengers for power or
resources not just as competition, but also
as culturally or ethnically different, especially in heterogeneous societies. And
12
this fact of being different is often used

as a justification for conflict, even if it is
actually about tangible interests such as
land, jobs or influence. In this way, conf licts can become culturalised, which
makes them much more difficult to resolve.
For as long as a conflict is predominantly about differences in interests, it is
often easier to find pragmatic compromises, such as introducing quotas in the
civil service or the sharing of land and
resources. However, if the same conflict
is also interpreted as a conflict between
different cultural values, then the dispute over different interests becomes a
dispute over identity. And when this is
the case, finding compromises becomes
much more difficult. Groups may be able
to resolve their different interests through
compromise, but compromises are rare
when it is a matter of individual identity.
Who I am is not up for negotiation; at best
we can talk about what I want. And anybody who is prepared to limit their own
spheres of interest in order to mitigate a
conflict is unlikely to put their own identity on the line.
A third aspect of cultural influences
on conflict dynamics exists in the relationship between external demarcation
and internal mobilisation. Political culture, especially political identities, can
become resources for political actors, but
can also take on a life of their own that
The political culture of a society or group becomes a key factor

in the origins of a conflict, and
therefore also in its potential resolution.
under certain circumstances can get out

of control. Political identities, including
ethnicities in the broadest sense (taking
into account national, religious or tribal
aspects) are generally not as clearly defined, or as easy to define, as many actors
claim and many observers assume.
The very fact that they are not clearly defined makes it possible to use these
political identities as a method of demarcation and as a way of defining who is in
the in-group and who is in the out-group.
They can be used in an integrative way (all
Muslims are the same and form one large
community, even if they are from different nations and speak different languages), but also in a divisive way (Shiites are
not real Muslims but heretics). However,
this kind of demarcation is not reflected
in reality in most societies, which are normally characterised by a whole series of
overlapping identities. It is possible to be
Iraqi, Muslim, Sunni, Kurd and secular as
well as an intellectual, a man, a member of
a particular party, a musician and a father,
to name just a few possibilities. Creating
a personal identity generally consists of
bringing all these individual characteristics and part-identities together, establishing priorities, resolving or reconciling
and, if possible, integrating potential contradictions. This is a creative and cultural task carried out by individuals and
groups with varying degrees of success.
When political and social conf licts
flare up or escalate, especially if they are
violent in nature, certain aspects of identity can come under pressure, especially
those with potential or real political im-
plications. If, for example, members of

a religious, national or ethnic group are
systematically persecuted, then membership (or non-membership) of this group
and hence the corresponding part of their
identity becomes more important. In extreme cases, membership or non-membership of a particular group can become
a matter of life and death (for example,
Hutu/Tutsi, Jewish/ Aryan).
Ethnic identity becomes a matter of

personal safety
Redefining or re-evaluating group
membership can fundamentally change
the political culture of a country and is
often a key component of the dynamics of
conflicts. The importance of such factors
in the escalation of political violence is
clear for all to see in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Syria. When a certain level
of violence is exceeded in such a context,
demarcation tends to both accelerate and
deepen, and ethnic identity can quickly
turn into a matter of personal safety. The
threat of danger comes either objectively
or subjectively from another ethnic group,
and protection can only be guaranteed
through militias or other entities from
ones own group.
The justified or unjustified feeling
of being threatened by an alien group
and the possibility of being protected by
organisations within ones own group
can be the trigger for mobilising political support and inspiring activism and
recruitment by those carrying out ethnic
violence. This can lead to the division of
society into large hostile groups that constantly threaten each other, along with a
growing pressure towards conformity and
13
discipline within these groups. The political elites can use this division and confrontation externally in order to legitimise and strengthen their power internally
and to generate and manipulate activism
in society. I should add at this point that
these aspects of political culture that we
have talked about so far all exist at an individual and collective level, and so are
based on a broad understanding of the
term culture. However, these issues are
also closely bound up with what we understand by culture in the narrower sense.
Musicians, archaeologists, linguists and
other creative artists can play an important role in sharpening or even creating
ethno-national, ethno-religious or other
political identities perhaps through the
construction or standardisation of a national language, the retrospective creation
of a national history or the postulation
of a national literature, music or culture
in general.
The more that art and culture is used
to create identity, the more people have a
reason or opportunity to identify with a
large social group at an emotional level,
something that did not exist in this form
in the past, or at most to a limited extent. Depending on the context, need or
situation, historical science can therefore
carve out real historical commonalities,
systemise them ideologically and place
them in a new context, or project the national concept of the present back to the
past in order to revive old myths or create
new ones. A good example is provided by
the view of a German nation evolving seamlessly from and continuing the history of the Germanic peoples, and which
reveres the Hermann of the Battle of
the Teutoburg Forest as a quasi-German
hero. Poetry, history, painting, music and
14
architecture (Hermanns Memorial) all

played an important part in creating out
of all the many German identities a single unified identity that could be directed
against the Latins (Romans and French).
The second half of the 19th century
(and often the first decades of the following century) was an era of culturally-supported, nationalist identity-building, particularly in Central, Eastern and
Southern Europe. A similar process was
undertaken and continues to be undertaken amongst ethnic groups, religious
movements and larger tribal entities, but
this is clearly just one political-historical
option among many, as other nations
or ethnic groups have gone down a completely different path in the course of their
history. Art and culture, in the narrower
sense of the terms, can also play an increasingly important role in the strengthening or weakening of old and new political identities, as well as influencing the
dynamics of conflicts. This means that
both governmental and non-governmental cultural policies can be relevant
to conflict situations.
So far we have talked either explicitly
or implicitly of group conflicts within a
society, but culturally-charged conflicts
can arise between nations too we only
have to think of the earlier traditional
German-French enmity that was supposedly rooted in fundamental differences
of mentality, cultural systems and values.
Culturally-inf luenced conf licts can
also arise at a level that goes beyond or
is tangential to individual nation states.
This can be the case on a regional sca-
le, where, for example, specific cultural,

ethnic or other identity groups live in several neighbouring countries (for example, Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria)
where conflicts are directly or indirectly
linked and influence each other.
The conflict for potential is somewhat
different when such groups live in other,
possibly distant diaspora communities
(such as Turkish and Kurdish migrants
in Germany or North Africans in France).
When diaspora communities live under
the influence of foreign cultural and legal systems and are only involved in limited interactions with the original societies, then additional factors come into
play within the dynamics of conflict that
arise from their degree of integration or
non-integration into their new homeland.
However, we are not in a position to investigate all these issues here.
One special case in the relationship
between culture and conflict can be seen
at a very general level: that of the aforementioned Western-Islam relations. It is a
special case, firstly because the term Western cannot be positively defined and
the group of people covered by the term
is very unclear.
In addition, two groups are set against
each other that are in fact very difficult to
compare. Muslims can clearly be defined
Art and culture, in the narrower sense of the terms, can also
play an increasingly important
role in the strengthening or weakening of old or new political
identities, as well as influencing
the dynamics of conflicts.
in religious and cultural terms, but they

are not being compared to Christians (or
any other religious community, or even
atheists), but to a large group that cannot
be defined in religious (or anti-religious)
terms, but only on the basis of some vague cultural aspects. Christianity is often explicitly or implicitly attributed to
the West, but this would also mean that
Copts, Maronites and other Christians in
the Middle East as well as the many Christians in Asia, Africa and Latin America
would by definition be part of the West
due to their religious affiliation, something which makes little sense. The opposite is also true being part of the West
can also not be defined by agnostic, secular, anti-religious or atheist attitudes,
otherwise many US citizens and Europeans would be excluded.
What is also not clear in this concept
is whether the millions of Muslims living
in Europe or North America belong to the
Muslim or Western side of the equation.
Rejection of the West

Although the groups referred to in the
Western-Islam antithesis may be difficult
to define, there is no doubt that they harbour a real potential for conflict. Just as
Western policies and military interventions are not really directed against Islam
itself (although the people of the region
are often only too happy to assume this),
but rather are intended to look after specific interests, so Muslim societies are not
really permeated by a blanket rejection of
15
the West and Western culture. Antipathy

and opposition is often directed towards
the United States and the US government
and its policies, which are often perceived
as imperialist and arrogant. Indeed, this
is a view that is also shared by many (Western) Europeans, but in cultural terms
it is articulated in a different way. AntiAmericanism in Europe is rarely clothed
in religious formulas.
There appear to be a combination of
several key factors that underlie the conflict between the West and Islam:
The clear imbalance of power between North American/Western
European countries and those of the
Near and Middle East
The convergence of economic, political and cultural crises in many countries in the Near and Middle East
The contradiction between an admiration for Western achievements
(technological, economic, political
and cultural) and a desire for equality and the protection of their own
independence and identity
The experience that many dictators
and repressive regimes in the region
are or have been supported by Western governments (USA, France and
others) and that they serve the interests of these supporters more than
they do the interests of their own
people
Western governments direct or indirect support of Israels occupation of
the Palestinian territories
The foreign and military policies of
Western countries in the Near and
Middle East (and, again, especially the USA), which are perceived as
being imperialist and arrogant, as
16
symbolised for a time by the occupation of Iraq.

The Western-Muslim conflict is, therefore, essentially political, even if it is
also bound up with development crises
and deficiencies within the societies of
the Near and Middle East (corruption,
dictatorships, stagnation, etc.) and also
includes cultural components (a desire
for cultural independence and identity
that is often articulated in religious and
not just nationalistic terms).
Secular and political origins

Ultimately, the origins of the conflict
are essentially secular and political and
a reflection of differences of interest. The
relationship between the West and Islam
(more accurately the relationship between
the most important Western countries
and the Near and Middle East) revolves
around issues relating to energy supplies,
stability and security, the security of Israel, the prevention of mass migration to
Europe and the optimisation of Western
power in the region. Many of the regions
ruling elites have been keen to work closely with Western politicians, despite the
fact that large sections of their people often rejected these policies, proving once
again that the dividing line does not simply run between the West and Islam (or
the Muslims).
As with many interest-based conflicts, the conflict between the West and
Islam has also been heavily culturalised
and thus turned into ideology, making it

out to be a clash of civilisations. As a
result, Islamic and Western societies
suddenly find themselves locked in an
apparent battle that is no longer about
specific interests, but about values and
political cultural identity. This makes it
much more difficult to find a solution to
the conflict and leads to a hardening of
political and ideological stances, which
in turn are presented as a sign of cultural
self-assertion.
The idea of a clash of civilisations
becomes more plausible when it is confirmed by dramatic acts of violence (such
as the September 11 and other terrorist
attacks on Western countries, the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq and the occupation of Palestine). Interest and political
power-based conflicts give the impression
of being about values and identities, with
the result that these kinds of cultural dimensions become even more important in
reality. For example, the Islamic religion
is used, under certain circumstances, as
a kind of cultural and linguistic code to
articulate anti-Western opposition.
This is where the cultural dialogue referred to above can and should be employed. As long as it is not just empty rhetoric,
Intercultural dialogue cannot

resolve the conflict per se, because the origins of the conflict do
not lie in cultural differences or
practices. But it can play an important subsidiary role, as long
as the political conflict is also
resolved politically at the same
time.
it can be used to counter the culturalisation and manipulation for ideological

purposes of the underlying disputes and
bring the focus back to the real interests
and political structures involved. Intercultural dialogue cannot resolve the conflict per se, because the origins of the conflict do not lie in cultural differences or
practices. But it can play an important
subsidiary role, as long as the political
conflict is also resolved politically at the
same time.
If this does not happen, there is a risk
that it will just become a cultural smokescreen, designed to hide the real politics, with people talking about religion,
cultural values and commonalities, while
pursuing an uncompromising policy of
interests. However, if intercultural dialogue takes place in parallel to the political
solution of conflicts and is accompanied
by development policy measures and economic cooperation, then it can have some
real value and make an important contribution. For it to succeed, it is vital that it
is not seen as a substitute for policy, but
as just one element of an overall conflict
resolution package.
Against this background of a potential
relationship between conflicts and culture, the question remains as to whether
there is a role that Europes foreign cultural policy can and should play, and what
form this role should take. This presents
a major challenge, as the European Union
is a civilian power that is the neighbour
of an unstable crisis region. But this is an
area where it could and should be more
active, not in competition with national
17
foreign cultural policies but in a coordinating role, and the still-young European External Action Service should be set
up in such a way that it is up to the task.
It should not simply be a question of giving foreign cultural policy an important
role within European external policy, but
rather that it should be tailored more towards conflict prevention and resolution
in a wider cultural sense. There have been
some tentative steps in this direction and
these initiatives should be further encouraged and strongly reinforced.
But we should remind ourselves that
these efforts are often undertaken in difficult environments, during crises and in
conf lict zones. These difficult circumstances often lead to limited chances of
success. Potential or acute violent conflicts can have a major impact on foreign
cultural activities and to a large extent
determine their possibilities and limitations. Once a violent conflict has escalated, external cultural policy can become
unworkable because the danger to personnel becomes too acute. By then it is too
late for it to have some form of preventive
effect in the short or medium term. The
prevailing political situation often also
presents a serious obstacle. In this case,
it is a serious mistake to pay insufficient
attention to the context of the conflict or
to have unrealistically high expectations.
It is therefore critical that foreign cultural
policy takes all these aspects into consideration. However, it would be shortsighted to see the relationship between
foreign cultural policy and conflicts only
in negative terms. In many cases it can be
designed in such a way that it can make a
valuable contribution to conflict prevention or resolution. However, for this to
work, the approach needs to be specifical-
18
ly tailored to the needs of the situation,

the conflict should not have become too
advanced and it should not be burdened
by excessively high expectations.
European and national external cultural policies might then have a chance
of success and gain in importance. Ethno-cultural identities are not readily accessible to classical diplomacy, but a well
thought-out cultural policy can at least
try to help reflect the character of separate
identities, promote a pluralistic pattern of
perception and counter the culturalisation of conflicts.
Appealing to feelings
We should of course not overestimate
the importance of cultural work, but in
combination with other tools of conflict
management it can make a valuable contribution. When representatives of different identity groups come together to
work on film, theatre, dialogue processes
and joint artistic activities, this at least
provides the possibility of not only appealing to peoples sense of self-interest but
also to their feelings and identities and
encouraging them to reflect on their relationship. Films made against the background of the Palestine/Israel and India/
Pakistan conflicts are good examples of
this. The film The Heart of Jenin tells
the story of a Palestinian who donates the
organs of his dead son to Israeli children.
The short film Wagah takes a humorous
look at the border crossing between India
and Pakistan. European and German fo-
reign cultural policy has played a positive

role in promoting these two projects.
In Germany in 2001, as part of the political reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks, foreign cultural and education policies were
given a stronger and more concrete role
in conflict prevention and management.
Large sums of anti-terror funding were
fed into external cultural policy and into
initiatives such as dialogue programmes
organised by intermediary organisations.
This trend towards involving cultural policy more closely in peace and security policy initiatives was demonstrated in 2004
when the German federal government published its Civilian Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict
Peacebuilding Action Plan. This Action
Plan clearly states that crisis prevention
has an important cultural dimension and
that intercultural understanding and respect for other cultures are major prerequisites for crisis prevention. With this,
Germanys foreign cultural and education
policy opened up an important field of
activity that included dialogue and exchange, but also culturally-sensitive methods of communicating the values and
instruments of crisis prevention as well as
support for education systems that promote non-violent approaches to dealing
It should not simply be a question of giving foreign cultural

policy an important role within
European external policy, but
rather that it should be tailored
more towards conflict prevention and resolution in a wider cultural sense.
with conflicts and allow different points

of view, especially with regard to contemporary history curricula.
The paper refers to the German Foreign Offices Dialogue with Islam, its
participation in the Year of Cultural Dialogue, the activities of the Goethe-Institut
and of the Institute for Foreign Cultural
Relations. It also states: Capacity-building measures for local institutions are an
integral part of the Federal Governments
cultural relations and education policy.
The German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD), the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation and the German Rectors
Conference are engaged in peacekeeping
and crisis prevention activities in the
context of international endeavours to
promote stability in areas such as South
Eastern Europe and Afghanistan.
But since then, a certain amount of
disillusionment seems to have crept in.
It is not always clear whether fundamental statements of principle are really being
taken seriously and implemented in full.
In its new concept, announced in September 2011, entitled Foreign Cultural
and Education Policy in the Age of Globalisation, the German Foreign Office
made it clear that it was focusing on foreign cultural policy and raising the bar in
this respect. It stated that securing peace
was one of the three main aims of this
initiative and that it would contribute to
the resolution of regional and local conflicts, particularly in places where they
arise out of differences in cultural, religious or ideological views. The paper goes
on to say: Cultural dialogue and educa-
19
tional opportunities can provide a basis

for political and societal stabilisation. Our
aim is act earlier to use cultural and educational programmes to avert acute crises
in countries and territories that are prone
to conflict.
These are all worthwhile and meaningful policy objectives, but the striking
thing is that they have been turned into
a central focus of foreign cultural policy,
or at least this is the intention. It is somewhat less clear whether this intention will
become reality. This is particularly true
of the Dialogue with Islam, a programme
that is no longer being run by a special
representative appointed by the Foreign
Minister but instead has been integrated
into the normal responsibilities of the Foreign Office. Indeed, over the last few years it seems that the emphasis on conflict
management in Germanys foreign cultural policy and its efforts to initiate dialogue have dwindled rather than increased.
This is most regrettable, and is a reason
why European initiatives in this respect
are particularly desirable and beneficial.
Overall, the possibilities but also the
limitations of foreign cultural policy as
an instrument of crisis prevention and
management are very clear. It is evident
that they alone will have little chance of
resolving entrenched conflicts within or
between nations and societies, such as in
the Middle East, Afghanistan, or between
India and Pakistan. Political approaches
to resolving these conflicts are also necessary, and above all the exercise of political
pressure and influence by means of coordinated European and national endeavours. If this kind of political approach
is followed, then foreign cultural policy
can make a useful, even significant, supplementary contribution. If such political
22
solutions are lacking or not seriously pursued, then foreign cultural policy cannot
provide a replacement. Foreign cultural
policy as a European instrument of crisis
prevention and management is particularly effective in two areas. The first of
these is in intensifying and redirecting
dialogue with the Islam world to counter
the still prevalent idea of a clash of civilisations. In this respect, the Arab Spring
has opened up new opportunities but also
thrown up new exigencies. Secondly, Europe should do more to promote more
pluralistic behaviours in heterogeneous
societies and work to counter the culturalisation of conflicts. In these two areas, it
is to be hoped that Germany and Europe
can find new impetus to turn their good
intentions into reality.
Jochen Hippler is a Political Scientist and
Peace Researcher at the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the University
of Duisburg-Essen. One of his main areas of
research is the relationship between political
force, governance, political identities and
military intervention by Western nations. His
work focuses on the Middle East region, along
with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
More culture in global politics Europe needs to invest

more in cultural relations worldwide to capitalise on
its experience of peaceful coexistence, artistic sources of inspiration for governance initiatives, cultural
and multilingual dialogue and the practice of confidence-building in the EU. Europe also has experience
with intellectual freedom that could be of benefit elsewhere. These are all recipes for tackling conflicts
and, above all, for preventing them. By Damien Helly
he debate on the cultural components of the EUs external action is

expanding. While less than a decade
ago, the relevance of cultural relations in
EUs diplomacy was still being questioned,
today it is almost taken for granted. Diplomats now see that Europe, beyond nation
branding, needs to develop a proper cultural diplomacy as a block in an increasingly
multipolar, if not interpolar, world. The military found itself dramatically exposed in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Africa and had to learn the value of culturally-sensitive approaches to crisis management. The development aid community is
currently experiencing an existential crisis
and looking for alternative approaches to
international cooperation. National cultural diplomacies are at risk of being diluted
in a globalised world where transnational

communities have now learned how to develop their own multicultural initiatives.
Networks that have understood that
their ideals of equality, common humanity and imagination could potentially lead
to multi-dimensional and multi-lingual dialogues and conversations have finally recognised that, in this environment, cultural relations are suited to playing a central
role. From NGOs and lobbying networks
to supranational institutions, from cultural
institutes to the European Parliament, experts in international affairs are recognising
that culture really matters and are asking
for more culture in global politics.
At last, some decision makers, politicians and donors are now convinced that,
in the interests of all Europeans, cultural
relations require sound, smart and ambitious policies in every corner of the globe.
Policy-making is a dangerous pastime and
a double-edged sword too much strategy,
too many concepts and too much bureaucracy simply get in the way of action. Artists, curators, cultural activists, citizens,
journalists and computer geeks have not
been waiting around for the USA and the
23
EU to do what others are now preaching:

doing culture tous azimut, tutti frutti and at
all levels of globalisation. They know what
they need to do to develop their projects
and realise their ideas, and its time that we
listened to them.
Conflict prevention is just one of many
tools used by the EU in its external action.
Prevention is one example of an area where a
great deal can be done. It constitutes a wide
range of actions in a familiar cycle, moving
from crisis prevention, crisis management,
post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding to peaceful coexistence. I would now
like to give a definition of cultural relations
as a preventive tool.
As a preventive tool, cultural relations
are about creating, sharing and performing
metaphors for conflicts. It implies a degree
of questioning; the identification of the tensions and violence that are to be prevented;
an effort of reformulation, translation and
transposition, in order to achieve a result
that is a kind of cultural production characterised by its aesthetical strength and
complex meaning. It does not necessarily
have to be linked to the arts to be aesthetically strong: learning a language or new
skills also has its own beauty. (For another definition, see Helmut Anheier and
Yudhishtir Raj Isar, Conflicts and Tensions, The Cultures and Globalization Series, page 281.)
Early warning and early action

Cultural early warning is about putting
conflict and violence on the stage before
24
it erupts into reality. This can take many

different forms. The concept of cultural
rapid reaction intervention groups, suggested by Ferdinand Richard on the basis
of his experience of working in Marseille
with young hip-hop professionals, could
inspire the creation of European cultural
early warning and early response teams,
on the model of existing CRTs (Crisis Response Teams). Deploying cultural professionals in conflict-prone areas to assess
cultural prevention needs could be one
way forward. This could initially be done
via pilot projects in urban areas that studies have shown may be melting pots for
social, political, environment and security-related tensions in the future.
The work of detecting risks of violence and crisis is known as early warning. Which members of society are better placed to have a sense of when things
are going wrong than artists and cultural
workers? Who creates the link between
cultural production and social emergencies? And who better to deal with
the surrounding issues than those who
are sensitive to multi-layered identities,
to misperceptions, miscommunications
and multicultural tensions? One recent
example of the prevention of cultural conflict within Europe is the Art as LGBTQ
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) Activism: from Britain to Belarus initiative which ran as part of the Transeuropa
Festival 2011. It surveyed performance
campaigns for lesbian and gay visibility
across Europe and showed the burning
issues of anti-gay violence in Belgrade,
Zagreb and Minsk.
When things go well, the media dont

bother to report it. Nor do they acknowledge that some people are working to
make things go well. Cultural relations
and social relations are a garden that has
to be cultivated, cared for and watered.
Cultural relations provide the means to
help us live together, despite all the economic hardships. Take them away, and
relations soon start to fall apart. The destruction of symbols engenders hatred.
The part played by a TV series depicting
the peaceful co-existence of communities
that was developed by the NGO Search for
Common Ground in Macedonia and Sierra
Leone is a good example of the preventive
work that can be done using traditional
media. There are many other examples
around the globe, such as in Sri Lanka,
where theatre has been used to address
inter-community violence, (for more on
this see Helmut Anheier and Yudhishtir
Raj Isar, Conflicts and Tensions, pages
296-305. This same book also includes a
chapter on radio stations in Colombia and
Afro-Reggae in Brazil).
Culture is the hope that, like flowers
and trees, grows from seeds planted in the
ruins. Rainfall and oxygen are all that is
needed to make human ecosystems fresh
and fertile once again. Likewise, culture
can restore hope to destroyed psyches and
The work of detecting risks of

violence and crisis is known as
early warning. Which members
of society are better placed to
feel when things are going wrong
than artists and cultural workers?
communities and help them move beyond

nightmares, grievances and revenge. It is
not justice, but it voices it and spells out
new possibilities for the future.
A worthwhile investment
Cultural activism in post-conflict settings is a worthwhile investment: it can go
from clowning performances by soldiers
in the wake of a battle (as in the case of
Brazilian troops in the shanty town of
Cit Soleil in Haiti in 2007) to the revival
of cultural infrastructures after a conflict
and the relaunch of cultural initiatives
that were brought to a halt by conflict.
Other initiatives related to transitional justice and mediation may also entail strong
cultural components, such as the Gacaca
system in Rwanda, (for more on this see
Helmut Anheier and Yudhishtir Raj Isar,
Conflicts and Tensions, pages 306-312).
When people have stopped believing
in the outdated ambitions of their elders
and the past, then it is time for new generations and for those artists who have
remained young at heart to reinvent their
heritage beyond their all-too-familiar horizons. When Europe is suffering political
decline, when those who represent our
democracies cease to fight for them, then
it is time for cultural relations to take to
the streets, change its face, compose new
songs and write new plays.
How is it possible to ensure peaceful
co-existence without becoming an empire or returning to the nationalism of
the 1930s? The European renaissance
25
is a scenario that has begun to be written in blogs, music scores and European
films both long and short. It is the fresh
and aromatic surf on the new waves that
lap the hospitable shores of Asia, Africa and America, driven onward by the
movements of a new Europe riding her
mythological bull. Films by Fatih Akin
such as Gegen Die Wand are metaphors
of contemporary Germany and Turkey,
where language, migration and contemporary mental nomadism represent the
complexity of European culture, and how
individuals are experimenting with it. It
links people with our societies and with
the collective concerns we have about
peace. However, the establishment of
spaces for cultural relations should not
be a goal in itself unless it is backed up by
a strong collective consensus on method
and values. Europeans still need to reach
this consensus by holding thorough debates on controversial topics.
Preventive power or an instrument

of hegemony?
The first of these is the relationship
between cultural relations and the use of
force: is the military justified in carrying
out cultural work or even being associated
with preventive cultural initiatives? Isnt
the military and cultural prevention
a contradiction in terms? Or should we
try to think of ways in which the role of
the military is acceptable in the field of
cultural relations?
26
The second issue that Europeans need

to debate is the link between cultural relations and international political domination. In other words, under which conditions is European soft power a force for
prevention rather than a tool for hegemony, neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism?
Can hegemons claim that their cultural
diplomacy is based on the principle of a
partnership of equals?
The third challenge for Europes external cultural preventive action is to combine cultural relations and social class disparities. This dilemma is not a new one
for cultural policies, but it still applies in
the case of cultural diplomacy: are cultural relations the preserve of the elite? How
should cultural relations deal with social
inequalities and class warfare?
Finally, it is important to discuss the
question of compliance with a set of values relating to the protection of human
rights, and these values must be established before the launch of any new initiatives. Cultural relations cannot afford to be
accused of breaches of human rights and
compromises are not acceptable. But to
what extent is this really possible in every context, when the boundaries between
effectiveness, interests and values become
blurred and when culture is used as a temporary and by-default mediation tool to
promote (legitimate) change?
To cut a long story short: Europe needs
to invest more in cultural relations world-
Culture can restore hope to

destroyed psyches and communities and help them move
beyond nightmares, grievances
and revenge.
wide in order to capitalise on its existing

experience of peaceful coexistence, of
artistic sources of inspiration for governance initiatives, of cultural and multilingual dialogue and the practice of confidence-building, of intellectual freedom
as a multiplier of utopian projects. This is
a recipe for tackling conflicts and, above all, preventing them. The European
Parliaments 2011 report on the cultural
components of the EUs external action
has harnessed most of what needs to be
done in terms of policy: it needs the kind
of intelligent, assiduous and thorough attention to detail that our institutions are
well placed to execute. It is time to act
and to implement these recommendations, working closely with the cultural
relations institutions and organisations
around the world that are already representing Europe but still desperately lack
support from those who have democratic power and money.
Europe should no longer be a goal per
se, provided, as Javier Solana once said,
that the spirit of the treaties is implemented whole-heartedly. In a way, our
goal has already been reached with the latest treaties and the creation of the Union.
It is now time for Europe to be more creative in the way it expresses itself. The temple has been built, now it just needs some
performances and ceremonies It needs its
own metaphor. It needs its own mythology, its own sacrifices, its own symbols.
Spreading these freely-accessible European temples of culture across the globe
and in the process creating and supporting spaces for cultural relations (such as
museums, theatres, houses of creativity

where cultural relations can develop) will
provide the basis for the establishment
of spaces for the prevention of cultural
conflict.
Damien Helly has worked for the EU think

tank, the EUISS (European Union Institute for
Strategic Studies) since 2008. His main areas
of focus are Sub-Saharan Africa, EuropeanAfrican relations and the Common Security
and Defence Policy (CSDP). He has carried out
research into conflict prevention and conflict
management. Before joining the EUISS, he
was head of the Port-au-Prince, Haiti, office
of the NGO, International Crisis Group. From
2005-2006 Helly was head of an EU branch of
the British NGO Saferworld in Brussels.
27
Signification spirals and moral imagination Culture

can be the missing link between the adversaries of
structure and the power to act. It is one dimension of
social reality that enables us to understand the why
and how of human conduct. It is a weighty element
of social practices, which are in fact always coloured
by culture. It is important that this potential is used
in conflict management. By Gudrun Kramer, Thomas
Ernstbrunner and Wilfried Graf
the Moral Imagination is a major work

on conf lict transformation. Its author,
the American conf lict researcher John
paul lederach, is at pains to demonstrate a deplorable gap in current efforts
to transform violent conflicts into drivers of peaceful social change. our mind,
our cognition, our rational perception
are blank and blurred when thinking
about ways of tackling deadly local and
international conflicts. lederach calls on
us to fill the gap with human imagination and our ability to create. he calls for
serendipity allowing moments of epi-
28
phany and chance discoveries to occur.

he calls for morality as an impetus and
innovation as a tool. In a word, he calls
for creativity.
lederach wants to change the ways
in which people and societies respond
to challenges by making use of facets
of human nature that are normally not
considered as integral, necessary or even
desirable components of initiatives for
conflict transformation. In this way, he
involves the artistic, cultural and creative dimension of human beings in the
process. But he also asks how best we
should do this. how can we translate
this inspiring call for more imagination
into practical conf lict transformation?
What does engaging in culture mean in
this context?
In this complex and chaotic world,
myriad events, actions, phenomena, causalities and underlying interdependences
interact in a chaotic quagmire. It is amazing that people can even begin to get
their bearings in this muddle, that they
manage to act without being constantly
overwhelmed and paralysed. Amongst
other things, culture provides such be-
arings. It gives people tools that enable

them to do things but that also limit them
and in this way reduce the randomness
and complexity of existence. These tools
are assumptions, norms, values and customs. For the sake of interaction, we
proceed from this basic foundation of
common values and norms and frame
expectations. Having said that, culture
is a guiding framework that is normatively charged and deeply integrated. In
this way, we tacitly know, or rather feel,
what is good, beautiful or the right thing
to do. This includes that we also tacitly
know, or feel, what is the bad, ugly or
wrong thing to do. It is a normative framework that is deeply internalised and
gives us a shared system of rules.
When considered in this way, culture
denotes a specific way of living that is
inextricably intertwined with a (moral)
evaluation. To a certain extent, it shows
a way of living that is worth striving for
and that is valid for every member of society. There is no space for the plural
cultures but instead it is predominantly used in its singular form and appears
to be a doxa. However, its normative basis and symbolic force or power is mostly denied. It taps into our internalised
shared understanding of what the world
should and should not look like in order
to naturally impose norms and values
on all members of society. In this way it
creates boundaries, distinctions and in
the end a We that is in the possession of

the right way (of life). Conceived in this
way, culture is an ultimate argument,
unchangeable, monolithic in its impact,
and strongly excluding, degrading and
derogative.
A culture of misunderstanding
Since Samuel Huntingtons theses on
the clash of civilisations, we can detect an increasing orientation towards
cultural aspects. It is a prominent example of social sciences embarking on
the unchangeable nature of culture that
ultimately is destined to steer individuals
within its orbit dazzling and deceiving
towards a battle of good against evil.
In Germany, Thilo Sarrazin stirred up
a similar debate, arguing that Germany
has an integration problem due to cultural differences. According to Sarrazin,
Turkish and Arab immigrants are unwilling to integrate for cultural reasons.
His stance on integration revealed a culture of misunderstanding and promoted
a deep, underlying view that immigrants
are unteachable and incapable of change.
In this way, Sarrazin reduced social, political and economic problems and shortcomings to cultural differences.
In this complex and chaotic

world, myriad events, actions,
phenomena, causalities and underlying interdependences interact in a chaotic quagmire.
29
Not least because of this constant tendency to simplify, reduce and ultimately
culturalise, social scientists and conflict
researchers have tended to deny this level
of social reality or have simply refused
to engage in it. It cannot be emphasised
strongly enough that we totally reject this
idea of culture. Culture is just one dimension of social reality that is still extremely worthwhile in its own right. When
reflecting on culture, one needs to set it
in relation to the social structures manifested by both society and individuals.
In fact, these poles can be seen as the
points of a triangle. The first point is
structures, institutionalised relations
within and between societies that enable actors to operate, but that influence
the behaviour of those actors. This is the
realm of the outside world.
The second point of the triangle is
culture as the shared world of societies
and collectivities. These are the shared
patterns of assumptions, attitudes and
meanings, including the collective psychology of groups; this is the shared inner world.
The third point is human (inter)action, dealing primarily with the actors
as individuals and groups who act out
conflicts in the social world and are endowed with a certain amount of power to
act, and with their behaviour. Here, the
inner and the outer worlds meet, shaping
30
and influencing the behaviour of the actors as individuals and groups.

At this stage, we can already see the
implications for conf lict transformation. It is important to understand that
culture is just one dimension of social
reality. In this sense, the surrounding
culture informs, frames and structures
individual behaviour. But this perspective does not do justice to individuals
and social structures. People are not just
cultural dopes. They have the potential
to be creative, independent of socio-cultural influences. Social interaction can
therefore also be creative and transformative. Social structures are laden with
culture, giving us an impression of how
modes of domination are signified and
symbolised. However, this falls short, of
a more structural account of how power
or domination is typically established
(in terms of possession or exclusion). It
is therefore pivotal to take into account
the social dimension and social structures, especially when engaging in conflict transformation. To put it bluntly, it
is counterproductive to gear initiatives
towards cultural change without considering or addressing structural power asymmetries. Such a transformation would result in the pacification of
groups without social justice.
Culture as the missing link

In this relational context, culture has
much to offer, with insightful potential
that should not be thrown out with the

culturalism bath water. Our understanding of culture defines it as the totality
of internalised norms and values, of the
knowledge and practices required for
meaningful membership of groups and
intersubjective actions. Thus, culture can
be the missing link, the mediator between the adversaries of structure and the
power to act. It is one dimension of social
reality that enables us to understand the
why and how of human conduct. Culture, in this concept of it, is a weighty element of social practices, which are in fact
always coloured by culture. Internalised
shared meanings and practices impinge
on our behaviour they inspire and encourage certain forms of behaviour as
much as they dishearten or discourage
others. The tacit, bodily knowledge of
this normative structure binds us together in groups and communities. They
mark boundaries geographically as
well as emotionally. In this way, culture
creates a We, a cultural, social identity
that connects us to our community and
its history. Culture enables the lived internalisation of and identification with
emotionally-laden events in history, adopting it through shared symbols, rituals
or other cultural tokens.
It is counterproductive to
gear initiatives towards cultural change without considering
or addressing structural power
asymmetries.
We rarely, indeed hardly ever, question the governing and guiding aspects
of our culture; not to mention assessing
their destructive, malignant or even violent elements. Because these principles are so deeply-rooted within us, often
unconsciously, these sensuous cultural
guidelines can at times be tapped into
or instrumentalised. They provide the
raw materials for the dynamics of conflict escalation, polarisation and ultimately the dehumanisation of others, which
in turn are exacerbated by populist and
fundamentalist policies.
Particularly in times of crisis, when a
group is faced with a complex situation
yet needs to maintain consensus in order
to (re)act effectively, culture is steered
towards creating emotional social cohesion, which no longer allows pluralistic views. Anyone who is not with the
group is automatically perceived as being
against it. Culture is misused to create
enemy images and to portray others as
non-human. Dehumanisation is, in fact,
a socio-cultural frame of perception that
on the one hand creates images of people
who we mourn, and on the other hand,
images of people who cannot be mourned as their very existence as a human
being is denied in the first place.
Legitimising violence
When individuals or parties are
dragged by personal and situational
dynamics into a vicious cycle of violent
31
conf lict, they can advance to a point

where the other is no longer perceived
as human. Violence is legitimised in this
context and directly centred on the human condition, shattering social ties and
divesting individuals or groups of their
humanness. Yet, de-humanisation is just
one of several extreme forms of moral exclusion. Psychological distance (perceiving others as objects, as non-existent),
condescension (patronising others as
inferior or irrational), and so on all hamper genuine human relations.
It is already almost a truism that largescale violence affects collectives as much
as individuals. But despite all the similarities, we have to imagine the different
effects. We cannot put individual trauma
on the same level as collective trauma.
Individual trauma responds to therapy.
We cannot simply put groups, communities or societies on the couch and treat
them with a talking cure, as it does not
work at a collective level. Communities
try to cope with collective traumas in a
different way. Culture is in fact one of the
coping mechanisms used by groups for
dealing with traumatic events.
In desperate times, people struggle to
make sense of their situation. Humans
always want to make sense of things
and need things to make sense. Lack of
meaning is the arch-enemy of human
existence. It is an existential fear that
32
generates a stampede towards a formula for meaning that provides us with values and a blueprint for life. Values tell us
not only why we live but also how to live.
Ongoing violence also requires a narrative framework and meaning. Individuals and societies need to find sense
in the violence that answers the question why and tells them how to deal with
the ongoing violence and its effects. As
it progresses, groups and communities
develop certain beliefs that enable them
to cope with it and give meaning to their
senseless suffering.
So the narrative of where we come
from, where we are now and where we
are going is damaged by the experience of
large-scale violence and collective trauma. This damaged narrative is passed on
from one generation to the next through
norms, values, symbols, myths, songs,
poems, monuments, street names, etc.
The narrative of the victim is coloured
by the longing for revenge and the narrative of the perpetrator is coloured by the
desire for victory and glory. The narratives are kept alive by the media or other
representatives of the collective who take
the narrative and modify it through a signification spiral. In this way, the coping
mechanism for past collective trauma becomes the basis for legitimising violence
in the present.
Culture can not only pose a considerable obstacle to efforts at conf lict
transformation, but it also can be a vital
We cannot simply put groups,

communities or societies on the
couch and treat them with a talking cure.
resource. As such, societal beliefs, narratives and values are a helpful signpost in
navigating the respective cultural fields.
Norms and values need to be fostered
to enable an environment or culture of
responsiveness. If this goal is to be achieved, then pathological cultural adaptations need to be addressed and transformed. Change and transformation is
not intended to be exclusively externally
triggered or co-opted. Local culture can
present as many obstacles as solutions.
Therefore it is important to work together to foster and fortify peacebuilding
cultural resources that are capable of
overcoming persistent obstacles such as
de-humanisation.
One way that conf lict transformation can engage in the cultural field is to
facilitate the reframing and renegotiation of those perceptual frames. Here,
rehumanisation is the reversal of the destructive dynamics of conflict and violence towards fostering the right values
and attitudes towards others. The key to
conflict transformation is therefore fostering a culture of rehumanisation and
responsiveness. Alongside this relational
idea of reframing and dismantling enemy images, rehumanisation also includes our role as victims or perpetrators.
In violent conflicts, we can lose our
inner link to our humanity. Above all,
sexual violence such as that practised in
patriarchal societies cuts deep into the

social fabric, leaving behind stigmatised
victims. These victims and victims in
general often find themselves ostracised, marginalised and excluded, made
even worse by their loss of honour, fertility and fears of contamination. In protracted conflicts, perpetrators also lose
some part of their humanity in the haze
of atrocities and so feel the psychological need to restore their self-image as a
moral person. Feelings of guilt due to
the breach of shared values and norms
place perpetrators outside the cultural community and they may also find
themselves excluded, marginalised or
suppressed.
Having said this, it is vital to integrate the backdrop to the ultimately different experiences of victims and perpetrators in violent conflicts. Whatever
perpetrators may have gone through, it
is the result of destructive actions and
strategies against their victims, and as
such we must reject premature efforts
to integrate perpetrators. These normally arise when social structures remain untransformed and there is still
an imbalance of power. For that matter,
the importance of a culture of responsiveness has gained ground over the last
decades as the focus has turned more to
the bolstering or weakening effects of the
political and socio-cultural environment
on traumatised victims. It is now clear
that social and collective support helps
the individual in coping with potentially
traumatic events.
33
Academics and experts in transitional

justice have highlighted the positive impact of acknowledgement, reparations,
truth commissions and war tribunals in
this context. Fostering a culture of responsiveness is therefore a vital part of
conflict transformation. As such, it includes rethinking concepts of the enemy
as part of paving the way for a culture
of responsiveness (by acknowledging
the suffering inf licted on victims) and
reintegrating victims and perpetrators
into the moral community by coming
to terms with the past.
Acknowledging suffering
Cultural activities and events can
provide the ref lective social space that
is needed for transforming norms and
values. An example is the establishment
of the Cultural Resource Center in the
Palestinian refugee camp Talbiyeh in Jordan, supported by the Gesellschaft fr
Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The Cultural Resource Center conducts art workshops on topics such as
photography, film, animation and social
media, and organises public lectures and
video screenings. These art workshops
34
give young people an opportunity to express their creativity, while also finding
a constructive way of questioning norms
and values that have become set in stone
within the diaspora but no longer fit in
with present-day society. Through public
installations, the people of the camp are
invited to join a public debate about contemporary identity.
Young people dealt with the issue of
collective trauma by interviewing and
filming survivors of the Nakba (the displacement of Palestinians that followed
the Israeli Declaration of Independence
1948) in the camp. In future, these historical archives might become a source
for healing the damaged Palestinian
narrative. At the same time, engaging
with contemporary Palestinian culture
and art is reviving the camps cultural
life, which had degenerated into nothing
more than folklore.
In this way, the Cultural Resource
Center supports the transformation of
norms, values and social practices (culture). However, it also addresses the
transformation of institutionalised relationships (social structure). The Center
is run by women and for the first time
girls and boys are learning together.
The establishment of the Cultural
Resource Center in Talbiyeh shows that
development cooperation does not have
to be restricted to fulfilling basic mate-
rial needs. It can also fulfil immaterial needs such as identity. Socio-cultural
empowerment fosters creativity and thus
supports the critical factor in conf lict
transformation what John Paul Lederach calls the moral imagination.
Gudrun Kramer is head of the Regional

Social and Cultural Fund for Palestinian Refugees and Gaza Population run by the Gesellschaft fr Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ) in Jerusalem. The aim is to help improve
the way the population of Gaza and Palestinian refugees in the region are able to deal
with the ongoing conflict and to develop
new long-term prospects for themselves and
the community. Thomas Ernstbrunner is a
freelance research assistant at the Herbert C.
Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding (IICP) in Vienna.
Wilfried Graf is active as a researcher, adviser
and trainer in conflict regions and post-conflict societies (Sri Lanka, Central Asia, and currently predominantly in Israel/Palestine). He is
co-founder of the Herbert C. Kelman Institute
for Interactive Conflict Transformation and
Peacebuilding (IICP) in Vienna.
35
Message in a bottle The Mediterranean is a cultural

melting pot that people have always wanted to claim,
possess and control. Are the basic premises of diplomacy still relevant today? Or should the more popular
soft power strategies be exchanged for more nuanced,
horizontal and sincere strategies?
By Moukhtar Kocache
ver the last fifteen years, exchange,

interaction and support within
the culture sector has been at
the heart of a significant number of programmes, resources and meetings between
Europe and its Southern Mediterranean
neighbours. This has given rise to both
a significant amount of debate and some
criticism, but it has also provided thousands of citizens on both sides of the sea
the opportunity to learn something new.
The fact remains however, that cultural
development, dialogue and partnership
policies and programmes are generally
36
unwieldy and tend to go in one direction

only, from North to South. The fragile nature of political, civic and public spheres
in the Southern Mediterranean states is
no doubt partly to blame for this situation.
There seems to be consensus, in the South
at least, that in spite of the large number of
initiatives that have been undertaken, few
schemes have been able to create the kind
of familiarity and closeness that can arise
in certain disciplines and communities out
of a genuine sense of curiosity or intellectual exchange. The majority of initiatives
are dominated by the large number of formal, institutional and public programmes
and projects that naturally tend to convey
and reinforce European political thinking
and ideology.
Since 2000, culture seems to have resurfaced as an essential component of successful diplomatic relations between Europe
and its Mediterranean neighbours to the
south. Over the last few years, the European Commission has repeatedly reminded
us of the key role that culture has to play
in building international and external relations. Several states have also adopted an
official or even unofficial policy of integrating culture into their diplomatic efforts.
Many national cultural institutions have
expanded their activities and sought to create meaningful programmes and services
at their centres of operation in the South.
What is perhaps not clear is what they are

actually hoping to achieve and whether
they have been successful. Just how successful is traditional and modernist diplomacy in this day and age? Are its premises
and assumptions still viable for our contemporary world and the one we seek to
build in the future? It seems that outdated
strategies of soft power and binary, oppositional dialectics need to be replaced
with more nuanced, horizontal and sincere strategies that move away from notions
of conflict management towards genuine
needs and values based on mutuality, sharing and commonality.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the
More Europe initiative, a new cultural
civic initiative that seeks to highlight and
reinforce the role of culture in the EUs external relations. It calls on Member States,
civil society and EU institutions to work
together in order to pursue a common vision, pool resources, and coordinate activities. More Europe is, however, only
supposed to be a temporary platform, whereas this type of work needs sustained and
long-term effort and commitment.
Psychogeography
of the Mediterranean
Over time, the psychogeography of the
Mediterranean has tended to fluctuate
between division and commonality. Some
have seen it as a bridge between peoples,
others as a gulf. Throughout history it has
always been a place that awakened a sense
of longing or fascination, a place that either had to be feared or defended against.

Nevertheless, the Mediterranean has
always been and continues to be a transitional space, a place of cultural fusion,
a space to claim, own and manage. There
is no doubt that controlling it has been at
the heart of various civilisations. It is perhaps no coincidence that arguably one of
Europes first nationalist empires not only
claimed it, but gave it the name mare nostrum, our sea. It is no surprise that the
concept of the Mediterranean was created
in Europe with the advent of colonialism
and the solidification of yet another concept, that of the nation state.
The Northern discourse that has shaped
its political, geographic and historical classification seems to have constrained the
cultures and peoples of the Mediterranean
and prevented overlapping and complimentary historiographies, identities, narratives and opportunities from emerging
ever since. The rich and enriching organic
linguistic, literary, musical, culinary and
intellectual development and joy of creation of the past seem to have lost their way,
both in form and function, with the solidification of nationalist, modernist and totalitarian modes of governance and hegemonic ideologies. The people that inhabit the
coast of the Mediterranean today deserve
better opportunities for creativity when it
comes to highlighting their common heritage, pursuing forms of cultural fusion and
creating new Mediterranean platforms and
modes of belonging that will allow them
to better project themselves in the world.
37
Historical, philosophical and theoretical studies of the peoples and cultures of

the Mediterranean should, in my opinion,
accompany our exploration, analysis and
development of systems and structures of
exchange, partnership and dialogue that
seek to foster the wellbeing of communities in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean. The cultural realm, with artists,
intellectuals, cultural critics, theoreticians
and philosophers at its helm, seems to me
to be the ideal vehicle to take us on a voyage
of rediscovery into our common past. We
need to start a process of deconstruction,
re-imagination and transformation of the
ideological, institutional, governance and
political frameworks that determine the
relationships between Europe and the Mediterranean. This will be a delicate, complicated and not particularly reassuring
journey, because a process of generous and
serious reaching out towards the other
will also require the need to revisit and rewrite ones own narratives, which in most
instances have been created in direct opposition to that very same other.
The history of exchanges between Europe and the Southern Mediterranean is
rich but also chaotic. There are a whole
range of formal initiatives that we can scrutinise and learn from. These include the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and its
Euro-Mediterranean Strategy on Culture,
the Euromed Heritage and Euromed Audiovisual programmes, the Anna Lindh
Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures in the Mediterranean, the European Neighbourhood Policy, the efforts of
38
the Union for the Mediterranean and the

Council of Europe as well as a cluster of
civic and non-governmental programmes
and initiatives. The intelligent work of the
European Culture Foundation is particularly worth noting in this connection. Given such a wide range of sometimes contradictory programmes, there has been very
little in the way of coordination between
civic, private and public initiatives and a
great deal of confusion on the ground in
the cultural sector that these programmes
are meant to serve. Despite the fact that a
great deal has happened and that there is a
much more lively exchange between North
and South these days, there is still much
to be done. Too often, Southern partners
feel frustrated and left out of the creative
and analytical process.
There are many ways to help diffuse
and improve this situation. There is often
an assumption that Southern partners and
societies need to embark on a learning
process. In many respects this is either
doubtful or even completely untrue. I believe it is just as important, however, for
European structures and societies to also
The people that inhabit the

coast of the Mediterranean today
deserve better opportunities for
creativity when it comes to highlighting their common heritage,
pursuing forms of cultural fusion and creating new Mediterranean platforms and modes of
belonging that will allow them to
better project themselves in the
world.
evaluate whether embarking on a process

of unlearning might not also help them
to put divergences into perspective, to reevaluate their modus operandi and bring
radical creativity into their processes. Without that willingness, Northern partners
can be left with a reductive, limited and
perhaps even dishonest notion of their actual and potential partners, who tend to
have to start culture and policy work from
the ground up because they lack the necessary framework or background. With
much behind us in terms of accomplishments and lessons, the coming period calls
for in-depth reflection, synthesis, learning,
humility, honesty and radical creativity in
terms of self examination and the envisioning of a better common future for all.
In October 2011, the Young Arab Theatre Fund (www.yatfund.org) organised
its fourth meeting of cultural spaces in
the Arab region. This latest meeting was
organised in partnership with Marseilles
as 2013 European Capital of Culture. One
of the goals of the meeting was to engage
the fifty or so representatives of independent cultural organisations from the Arab
world in an informal process of reflection
on the cultural relations between Europe and the Arab world and to gather their
impressions. What follows is a personal
summing up not an official declaration
of the salient issues and ideas discussed
by the group. These examples can serve
as benchmarks, points of discourse and
insights into the nature of this complex
relationship from a Southern perspective
and allow the message in the bottle to fi-
nally land on the Northern shore of the

Mediterranean.
Celebrating interwoven histories

The current frameworks that have helped shape and govern relationships between Europe and its Southern Mediterranean neighbours are modernist in nature
and fail to grasp the desires and needs of
the people and cultures of the individual
regions. Rather than having a geometrically induced logic of boundaries, barriers
and differences, what is urgently needed
is a framework that acknowledges and celebrates overlapping practices and interwoven histories. This would favour less
rigidity, more visceral and practical comprehension and a respect for the multiplicities and complexities of the relationships
and dynamics.
I believe that all efforts since the 19th
century to separate and regiment the
cultures and peoples of Europe and the
Southern Mediterranean ideologically, intellectually and legislatively have played an
implicit role in bringing us obliquely into
the current depressing, non-creative and
catastrophic notion of a clash of civilisations. What the North and South or the
Orient and Occident urgently need is an
acknowledgement, promotion and celebration of the mutability, layering and fusion
of the cultures of the extended Mediterranean. This would allow for hidden narratives, suppressed identities and alternate
historiographies to emerge. This would
39
complicate, but also support the process

of breaking down differences between the
peoples of this region.
The modernist paradigm that has characterised itself in the universal right and
freedom to travel and migrate in our contemporary world translates into a gross
lack of freedom and inequity in terms of
access and opportunity. Strangely enough,
market forces and economic policies cloaked with notions of freedom do not run
into the same obstacles and limitations
and are increasingly creating challenges
for both Europe and the Southern Mediterranean that threaten fundamental rights
and freedoms in the areas of health, education and food.
An acute sense of inclusion and exclusion

The nationalism of the 19th and 20th
centuries has taught us how crucial it is to
identify the other in order to create homogeneity within specific political, civic and
cultural boundaries, or at least a semblance
of it. In recent decades, the same principles have applied in newer forms of societal
consolidation such as the European Union. Never before has there been such an
acute sense of inclusion and exclusion in
the relationship between Europe and the
Southern Mediterranean. This is perhaps
emblematised most strongly in the ability
of Europeans to travel to Southern Mediterranean countries freely and without the
need for prior approval, whereas Southern
42
Mediterranean citizens not only need to

go through a convoluted, humiliating and
expensive process to receive permission
to travel to Europe, but also have to go
through the same process if they just want
to transit through Europe on their way to
another destination like Asia or America.
The presence of the other is not tolerated
and differences are even reinforced between two gates of Europes international
airports.
At risk of sounding polemical, Europeans need to urgently work through a
conscious and unconscious past in which
colonialism and empire have helped crystallise notions of identity, culture, race
and progress. The current European crisis,
which is clearly not just economic in scope,
provides Europeans with an opportunity
to deconstruct appropriated and imagined
histories and explore alternatives to Cartesian nationalism and rationalism. They
can reshuffle notions of otherness where
the self is not constructed, valued and defended in opposition to the other.
In many ways, the crisis in Europe today
stems from a mismatch between politics,
philosophy and culture. The European
Union project, which calls for increased
federalism, is currently threatening the notion of the nation state that has in great part
been responsible for the construction of
European identities. However, federalism
would eventually mean decentralisation
and local governance. Local governance
endangers the nation state not only because it shifts decision-making processes away
from a centralised system but also becau-
se it celebrates local identities, ethnicities,

languages and practices. However, there
will be no escaping regionalism as Europe heads towards a more federal structure.
Too much hesitation in this in-between
stage will be dangerous and disruptive.
I imagine that a truly federated Europe would encourage the re-emergence of
local narratives and associations, allowing communities to develop more genuine
exchanges and alliances with other communities.
Europe has been a bastion of radical,
creative, discursive, political, philosophical and theoretical thinking and this coming period will require unconventional
leadership and bravery to propose new
ideas, structures and governances for communities and cultures to live and prosper
together.
What might be required is not just a
healthy critique of the ills of colonialism
and a sense of guilt, remorse or shame on
the part of Europeans towards a 19th century that was rife with expansionist, racist
and reductive ideologies, systems and beliefs. What is primordial at this point and
perhaps also timely, is to investigate and
alter how historical, cultural and political structures of the past continue to frame and propagate inequity, injustice and
institutional power while simultaneously
brandishing civilising notions of democracy, universal human rights, liberty and
freedom.
Never before has there been

such an acute sense of inclusion and exclusion in the relationship between Europe and the
Southern Mediterranean.
This in no way seeks to discredit the

rich heritage and principles propagated
from and since the Enlightenment, culminating in Western modernity. Rather it is a
call to excavate, to expose the ambiguities,
incoherencies and relentless logic of this
heritage as it impacts a European world
view at a time when the Western template
is being increasingly challenged. Can this
materialise without a sense of fear, threat
or conflict and a feeling that these new
realities are being imposed? Owning this
process and determining the modalities of
its operation clearly seems to be the wisest
way of engaging with these shifting landscapes and a new world that will require the
inclusion of multiple, diverse and divergent values, perspectives and paradigms.
Using existing and failing parameters
of knowledge and analytical frames could
then limit the realms of thought and creative problem-solving. New geographies
of association and representation as well
as new historiographies are necessary in
order to allow for new configurations and
possible systems to emerge in the future.
But how can all this be implemented in
practical terms?
The almost complete absence of European philanthropy in this field is remarkable. Creative and sustained efforts must be
made to encourage European foundations
and the emerging philanthropic sector in
the South to engage in and with this topic. There is an urgent need to diversify
the actors involved and the supporters of
European and Southern Mediterranean relations. This will not only help reduce the
43
burden on and expectations of official European institutions and structures, but will
help foster a diversity of projects that are
more personal, including community- and
affinity-based collaborations and support.
Very often, the assumption in Europe is that working with communities and
organisations from the South will help to
reach immigrant communities in Europe
or help in addressing some of the social
problems they are facing in Europe. This
premise may at times make sense, however it must be understood that these are
primarily European-based incentives and
concerns that in most cases do not reflect
the concerns of people on the Southern
shores of the Mediterranean even if this
where most migrants have come from over
the last 100 years. In many instances, European immigrants are working class, may
have left their homes in the South many
years ago or even several generations ago.
They could perhaps be more traditional or
even nostalgic in their tastes and morals
and may not be drawn to or appreciate the
contemporary culture being produced today in the South. Europe needs to have a
better understanding of these differences
and realities.
towards their own institutional development, aims and constituencies. As such,

there is much work to be done by Northern partners to gain deeper knowledge of
the organisations, individuals, infrastructure and the context in which the Southern
partners function.
Northern partners need to take into account the lack of cohesion in the cultural
landscape of the Southern nations where
a significant rift exists between official
and independent cultural structures. In
a sense, there are disparate cultural policies at stake and being promulgated. This
will remain the case until governments in
the South become truly representative and
democratic and ministries and official instruments of culture organise themselves
in the service of their citizens. As such,
Northern partners should be cognizant
of this when envisaging programmes with
multiple players in the South or within the
same cultural landscape and nation.
Although limitations exist administratively, financially and politically, European
institutions should strive to develop policies and programmes that are flexible
and tailored to each context and not just
Lack of cohesion
Europe has been a bastion of

radical, creative, discursive, political, philosophical and theoretical thinking and this coming period will require unconventional
leadership and bravery to propose new ideas, structures and
governances for communities
and cultures to live and prosper
together.
Northern partners should also understand that partnerships and projects that
are initiated in the North may interfere
with the needs, responsibilities and commitments that Southern partners have
44
created in blanket fashion for the entire

Southern region.
Clearly, the greater the differentiation
and contextualisation, the more nuanced,
deeper and more sustainable the results
of the partnerships will be. Despite various mobility programmes between Europe
and the Southern Mediterranean over the
past decade, the mobility of cultural workers remains weak and the institutions that
support them continue to struggle with
basic funding and sustainability. There is
absolutely no excuse for the lack of strong,
sustained and well-funded mobility platforms. European funders and donors need
to make this a priority. The strange fact is
that mobility is relatively inexpensive to
support! Mobility for independent culture
professionals and groups also needs to be
accompanied by the need to expand professional networking between North and
South and to create frameworks of longterm knowledge-building and sharing and
the creation of affinities between people.
Equally, culture professionals in the
South need to urgently embark on a deeper learning and understanding of the various structures and contexts emanating
from Europe. The Southern cultural sector
needs to become more informed, educated
and nuanced about the opportunities, funding, services and partnerships that are at
their disposal from the North so they can
be better prepared, proceed more selectively and have appropriate expectations
of their partnerships with Europe. Everyone who is interested in Mediterranean
cooperation needs to learn from the good
models and initiatives launched by European cultural institutes in the South. A

compendium of case studies is overdue.
This work would help identify best practices but also offer insight into the type of
programmes needed in the future.
A new institution in Europe

I have a vision for a new, ongoing, focused Secretariat, a new institution in Europe that would help coordinate, inform,
study and mobilise actors and policy-makers around cultural, educational and intellectual cooperation between Europe and
the Southern Mediterranean. It is an urgent necessity to create an independent
organisation that will monitor, assist, interpret, translate and speak up for clarity
and quality in initiatives that already exist
or that will be created to govern cultural relations between Europe and the Southern
Mediterranean. This body would use public, international, private and civic initiatives to fill the vacuum between these spheres and help create a more holistic
scope of intervention. Such an institution
could produce more ongoing and intensive
research and seek to simplify the presentation of the results so that they are accessible
to a wider and more diverse set of players.
There is no doubt that at present there
is a great range of ideas, programmes, policies, reflections and experiments that can
all help us to better understand and develop future initiatives for promoting collaborations, partnerships and joint projects
45
between Europe and the Southern Mediterranean region.

In order to define the process going forward, or at least to serve as an ultimate goal,
we need to come together to tackle the issues, events and opportunities that impact
the peoples of the North and South. Only
then can we move from mere binary interactions towards a shared sense of common destiny. In a sense, we need to strive
to go further than traditional notions of
dialogue, understanding, cooperation and
assistance. Building a process with shared
interests, responsibilities and participation
will be essential not only at the level of institutions but also and specifically amongst
the communities and people who live in
this region. As we seek a future with more
exchange, creativity, respect, harmony and
equity between various peoples, we currently seem to have in place outdated and
perhaps also counterproductive instruments and institutions that are charged
with the mission of helping to facilitate this
goal. Vision and courage will be needed
to re-imagine and redesign our existing
structures, systems and world views, given
that our future is inscribed in the political,
cultural and social apparatus and foundations that govern our present.
Moukhtar Kochache is a curator and artistic manager. Until 2012, he was at the Ford
Foundation in Cairo, where he worked on the
development, sustainability, networking and
infrastructure of art and artistic spaces. Prior to
this, he was Programm Director for the Lower
Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), where he
devised and organised exhibitions, and he was
also an advisor and university lecturer.
46
Self-confidence based
on mutual respect
How can cultural organisations on both sides of the Mediterranean work more
closely together? What is required? For the North it would be better to promote
the arts for the sake of cultural production rather than using it as a socio-political
instrument. This was one of the ideas that emerged from the fourth conference
on cultural spaces in the Arab region, organised by the Young Arab Theatre Fund.
The mutual connection between

Europe and the Arab world exists
across geographical, geopolitical,
historical and postcolonial boundaries. This was the conclusion of the
participants at the fourth meeting
on cultural spaces in the Arab Region in October 2011, organised by
the Young Arab Theatre fund.
They acknowledged that a postcolonial Europe is struggling to produce new relations with its former
colonies and to turn existing relations into productive ones of mutual respect. It was recognised that
this is also affected by political and
economic imperatives that are not
at all related to culture. The recent
rise in right-wing populism and
anti-Arab racism in Europe has emphasised the importance of cultural
collaboration as a project for Europe. Europes economic ability to act
on these desires is a considerable
source of arts funding for the Arab
world. This may be changing due to
the current economic climate. The
Gulf States have the economic ability to support NGOs and art markets
in both Europe and the Arab world,
but the political reality of the Gulf
region makes it an improbable
partner for moral, ideological and
ethical reasons.
The conference participants emphasised that Europe is a space for
the intense, discursive, practicebased, and profitable circulation of
art. Arab cultural actors and artist
want to be more involved in this

flow in order to open doors to a
global career that would otherwise
remain closed.
The promising but rocky road to a
partnership of equals is hindered by
the fact that Arab artists lag behind
their European partners and do not
have access to the same privileges
of address, collaboration, authorship, remuneration and mobility.
Relations between the Arab world
and Europe are currently limited to
a binary perception of two homogenous spaces. There is a lack of capacity on both sides that hinder the
development of trusting cultural
relations in interactions at all levels.
EU initiatives are too event-led

The predominant experience of
Arab cultural organisations has
been that EU-funded cultural initiatives are led too much by events,
policies or objectives rather than by
context and artistic expression. This
has led to Arab artists and cultural
actors feeling manipulated, particularly with regard to EU objectives
on development, the promotion of
democracy or even the prevention
of emigration to Europe.
To cultural workers on the ground,

these factors seem artificial and
marginal. It would be beneficial for
the North to encourage equity in
terms of the status of artists and the
arts for cultural production rather
than as a socio-political instrument.
There is also a feeling that the EUs
evaluation and monitoring procedures reflect a myopic, positivistic
impulse, requiring as they do unrealistically fast, quantifiable results. It
is important that European partners
recognise that cultural expression
is a long-term and often unquantifiable end in itself, rather than an
immediate service provider.
Conditions of partnership are frequently imposed from above rather
than as a result of dialogue. This can
also apply to the cultural initiatives
of European Member States. Groups
in the South want partnerships to
spring from mutual recognition and
interest rather than from top-down
visions.
Southern organisations with small
capacity find the process of applying for EU funding unnecessarily
arduous and almost designed to
filter them out. Southern partners
identify a conscious bureaucratisation by European institutions geared
towards making them work harder
for equal and similar recognition.
Lack of trust is felt across many
levels. Additionally, Arab organisations applying for certain European funding resent having to state
their non-affiliation with terrorism
in their applications, and perceive
hypocrisy when the same European
policies and funds either directly or
indirectly support corrupt regimes
and radical groups and institutions
on the ground.
There is also criticism that Europe
has tended to continue funding
the usual suspects of trusted Arab
partners, but mistrusts emerging
organisations, resulting in a lack of
47
risk-taking and investment and opportunities for innovation and the

development of new leadership.
Southern groups call for an attitude
of trust, respect and risk-taking
in partnering with existing and
emerging ventures.
Inexperienced European actors (organisations, Member State cultural
diplomats) lack the insight to know
what is credible within specific Arab
contexts. This can result in support
for projects that are locally considered irrelevant and so do not contribute to artistic discourse. Worse,
less determined Arab artists may
begin to perceive an ideological
market and bend their practice falsely towards funding opportunities.
Clear communication is needed

The conference attendees expressed the hope that Arab and
European actors should approach
each other with clear communication and professional confidence
based on mutual appreciation and
common goals. Ideally, this appreciation would be fostered through
the existence of long-term contact
and face-to-face peer interest and
recognition, rather than being
triggered by sudden opportunities for funding. This would help
ensure that cultural productions
emerging from such partnerships
are regarded by their audiences in
all contexts as worthwhile, credible
and relevant.
It is important for European cultural
and civil society organisations to
develop long-term research activities and relations with Southern
organisations and artists that clearly share an affinity with their goals,
rather than simply responding
opportunistically and in the shortterm to funding patterns. Partnerships should always retain a focus
48
on cultural and artistic quality and

excellence.
European cultural organisations
struggle to take into account the
impact of structural imbalances
such as workload, risk, costs and
visa procedures for Arab organisations and artists. Equal fundraising
targets are often proposed in collaborations, representing a grossly
disproportionate burden on their
Arab partners. Another issue that
has to be considered is the difference in currency value that makes
travel to Europe disproportionately
expensive for Arab partners. Collaborations can only truly be equal
when they take into account the
practical burdens of infrastructural
imbalances affecting Arab organisations and artists. The conference
also spoke up in favour of the allocation of funding to build the capacity of professional arts workers in
the Arab world. This would allow
a more realistic sense of institutional parity and respect, as well as
diminishing the need for European
experts (such as choreographers,
projectionists, managers and designers) to be flown in at great expense. In order to specifically build the
capacity of artists and managers,
normal concepts of training and
professional development should
be expanded in terms of time and
content and should not only function in a short-term manner.
Advantages of a cultural visa

Particular administrative and financial support and tailored scheduling should be undertaken in light
of the visa restrictions imposed
upon visiting Arab artists. These
should be considered as shared
burdens and not private problems.
The responsibility for setting timeframes, budgets, drafting contingency plans and administrative
support for the visa applications
of Arab artists should be borne
equally. One possibility would be
to create a cultural visa instead of
the Schengen system or to urgently
come up with a parallel administrative system to process visas for
artists and cultural workers.
European institutions should allow
for more feedback and decisionmaking to take place on the ground
in the South. For instance, cultural
attachs should be given greater
freedom to research civil society
and new local organisations and
put them on the cultural map. European staff on the ground could
have greater autonomy in defining
and building effective programmes
and collaborations. This might help
to introduce greater understanding,
buy-in, transparency and responsiveness into the processes (qualities that many Southern actors feel
are currently lacking), in order to
move the relationship from funder to partner. Opportunities for
learning from the Arab region have
been under-explored. Arab cultural organisations have developed
immense capacity to handle issues
within the local context and could
serve as a bridge for their partners.
The conference participants
stressed how members of the Arab
diaspora in Europe and elsewhere
have a unique experience that not
only provides insight in terms of
diverse cultural insight but can also
confound the logic of a cultural binary system and thus expand our
notion of local versus foreign identities. For this reason, they could
be extremely relevant and exciting
sources for building relations. European governments and embassies
could seek out and employ qualified members of this community
when filling intermediary posts
such as cultural attachs, programme organisers, curators, etc.
European partners should also pay
more attention to the need to develop and participate in funding and
creating better infrastructures and
to generally develop a healthier
ecology in the Arab arts and culture
sector. This in turn would improve
the nature, scope and quality of exchange programmes.
There has also been loud criticism
by European players with respect
to the Arab Spring. When engaging
with this topic, they tend to follow
the long-established pattern of art
in the service of democracy rather
than in the service of its own freedom of expression.
In the meantime, it is felt by many
Arab organisations that it is too
soon to draw generalised conclusions from this period, and that most
modes of representation cannot
encapsulate the ever-changing and
mercurial nature of the Arab Spring.
While there are enormous possibilities for renewed terms of engagement with Arab artists, they fear
the focus shifting from one set of
clichs and discursive expectations
to another.
Art as a revolutionary space

The feeling of the conference was
that there is a need for art to be recognised as a revolutionary space in
and of itself, rather than being consigned merely to being the conduit
for representations of revolutionary-themed content. It is important
that this changing reality and the
next phase should be recognised as an unpredictable paradigm
shift in relations, rather than as the
expected step forward that anticipates Western hopes or fears. This
also applies to notions of democratic governance that may differ in
terms of structure and implementation between North and South.
The conference recommended that
organisations in Southern Mediterranean countries should continue
to strengthen their independent
cultural coalitions in order to consolidate the position of culture within
their local context, and work on developing policy recommendations
that are then communicated to large sections of the population. Such
work would help them to build a
position of strength in order to be
able to deal with other European
NGOs as equal partners rather than
as supplicants.
The cultural civil society sector in
the South needs to actively seek
and develop alternative routes of
funding beyond EU and EU Member
States, in order for collaboration decisions to be rooted not in funding
necessity but genuinely in the goals
and interests of specific organisations. Local organisations should
aim to stick to their own strategies
and resist the urge to react to funding opportunities. They should
aim to retain artistic integrity and
honesty in the face of the implied
values, styles and expectations
of badly-informed joint projects
and opportunities. Arab NGOS and
organisations should use their programmes and position to build the

familiarity and trust of their communities for the contemporary,
to provide a better conduit for the
flow of ideas from outside and from
around the region and to reduce
resistance to them.
Finally, the Southern cultural sector
should build bilateral alliances with
civil society and lobbying groups in
both Europe and the countries bordering the southern Mediterranean,
in order to lobby policymakers on
both sides at both macro and grassroots level.
Mia Jankowicz, Artistic Director of
the Contemporary Image Collective
in Cairo, is responsible for collating
and editing the reports and contributions from the conference.
49
The positive influence of cultural initiatives Where

political conflicts create division, culture can create
space for encounters, dialogue and understanding.
From organising a puppet theatre in Afghanistan to
assisting young activists in Egypt the members of
the European National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) network are increasing their focus on post-conflict regions and countries that are in transition.
By Katrin Mader
or many years now, peace and security policies have focused on civil society processes and their importance
for political stabilisation in crisis zones.
But to date there has been relatively little
collaboration and cooperation between
cultural institutes and the conflict management sector. Is this because culture
is not yet fully acknowledged as a credible component of peace and security policy and the work of cultural institutes is
still not considered sufficiently valid in
this respect?
One thing is clear: if cultural and educational work is to be applied effectively
in the field of conflict management, then
cultural institutes and networks such as
EUNIC must make their activities more
transparent. They also have to prove that
50
cultural activity can have a positive effect

on conflict transformation. It is only in this
way that groups can work together more
effectively to achieve their goals of resolving cultural, social and political conflict
and securing peace.
The European Parliament stated in a
March 2011 report that culture should
become a more integral part of European
external relations. The report is part of a
broader recognition of the importance of
culture in foreign policy, a recognition that
has helped to focus attention on the role of
cultural initiatives in conflict prevention,
peacebuilding and democratic transformation within the EU. Calling for a role
for culture in civil conflict management,
the report also placed renewed focus on
the potential role of EUNIC in this respect.
EUNIC has confirmed that one of its
strategic priorities is the development and
enhancement of resources for cultural initiatives in countries that are undergoing
transition and instability. Through its cultural activities, the network is keen to place
more emphasis on peacebuilding. But it
continues to be faced with the problem that
despite all the EUs efforts the positive influence of cultural and educational
work on conflict transformation remains
insufficiently recognised or proven. It is
important is to start finding evidence and
arguments to prove to both national and
EU policymakers that cultural and educational programmes can contribute to conflict resolution.
Airy formulations
In assessing the effects and risks of cultural and educational work in conflict intervention, it appears that cultural institutes often engage in educated guesswork
more than rigorous measurement. Outside the cultural sector, it is hard to find
voices that recognise the value of cultural
initiatives in conflict settings. As Rainer
Nolte, head of the Dialogue Programme of
Germanys Institute for Cultural Foreign
Relations (ifa) stated last year in the magazine Politik und Kultur: The role that
can be played by aesthetic production as
the goal of a cultural programme within
a systematic framework of actions [of civil
conflict management], has so far been left
undefined.
What seems to be missing is an overarching strategy for demonstrating the
effectiveness of cultural programmes in
What seems to be missing is

an over-arching strategy for
demonstrating the effectiveness of cultural programmes in
peacebuilding processes and an
answer to the question whether
the positive influence of cultural
organisations is just an illusion
or whether it does in fact have an
effect on conflict transformation.
peacebuilding processes and an answer to

the question whether the positive influence of cultural organisations is just an
illusion or whether it does in fact have an
effect on conflict transformation. Does the
culture sector base its actions on concrete
knowledge or simply on long-held beliefs
and hopes?
It is time to start finding answers to this
crucial question and to close the gap between theory and practice. There is a need
to build a stronger, evidence-based case for
the importance of cultural initiatives in
fragile countries. The field of civil conflict
management has made progress in measuring its accomplishments. An exchange
of knowledge could be a starting point in
better measuring the achievements of cultural groups in peacebuilding.
The nature of global conflict has changed in recent decades, from a bi-polar clash
of ideology during the Cold War to a series of smaller intra-state and inter-state
conflicts today, triggered by causes ranging from dwindling natural resources to
cultural, religious and ethnic differences.
The mainstay of peacebuilding once
focused mainly on political, economical
and security assistance. However, with no
significant decrease in civil conflicts and
the number of failed and failing states since the 1990s, a new framework has emerged that focuses on crisis prevention and
peacebuilding as means of avoiding wars
and de-escalating conflicts. In this way, it
is hoped that the causes and consequences
of conflicts can be overcome. Work in the
area of crisis and conflict increasingly
takes the form of long-term projects designed to lead to lasting peace processes.
Currently most of the EUs actions still
remain focused on improving state organs
such as police departments or bureaucra-
51
tic infrastructure. However, in recent years the EU has started to focus more on
peacebuilding and conflict prevention. In
2007, the EU created the Instrument for
Stability (IfS) a fund dedicated to building
the capacities of relevant organisations and
services that contribute to preventing or
mitigating conflicts in crisis zones. Here
the recognised concept of soft power also
plays its part the use of influence, persuasion and consensus-building to bring
about changes in other countries and as a
tool for conflict resolution. This is where
European cultural institutes can expand
their activities.
In Germany, this process began fairly
early on. The federal governments Konzeption 2000 strategy paper that was first
published 12 years ago stressed how foreign
cultural policy is an integral part of foreign
policy. Foreign cultural policy is aligned
with the general goals and interests of German foreign policy in terms of stabilising
peace, resolving conflicts and exercising a
positive influence on the maintenance of
human rights. This can be achieved equally effectively by supporting local cultural
organisations as through PR and educational work.
A recently-published paper by the UKs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office on
Building Stability Overseas (2011) states
that soft power will play an important
role in supporting the UKs efforts to create stability. The paper confirms that the
work of the British Council is becoming
more significant through its efforts to create transparency and promote acceptance
of different systems of cultural values, thus
building mutual understanding. The Stability Pact for Afghanistan has also described one of its objectives as being to shape
identity through cultural activities and
52
creating opportunities for the potential

involvement of foreign cultural institutes
in the country.
This new role for external cultural policy was articulated by Hans-Georg Knopp,
Secretary-General of the Goethe Institute,
at a December 2009 conference in Tokyo:
Culture, not just in the narrow sense
which limits it to the arts, but also in a
more general sense that includes, for instance, sports or popular arts and crafts,
helps to overcome the traumatic consequences of conflict and to promote the idea
of co-existence in peace and security.
Clear guidelines and responsibilities

The EUNIC network can play a substantial role in developing a joint framework
for the participation of cultural institutes
in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Some national cultural institutes are already running a range of programmes in
conflict zones, so only a coordinated approach can guarantee the effective use of
resources and skills by bringing together
knowledge and perspectives learned from
past projects. Fragmented national cultural policies should be integrated and coexist in a European strategy that outlines
concrete, clear policies and responsibilities
in order to improve individual projects and
make them more effective.
One possible action would be the development of a joint European action plan
along the lines of Germanys Konzeption
2000. Another starting point could be to
take an inventory of those projects that
have successfully used the medium of culture to contribute to conflict transformation. All future projects could benefit from
gathering together the experiences of eve-
ryone involved in these successful projects.

Coordination is crucial. The multiplicity of governmental and non-governmental actors in civil conflict management
(who are all competing for funding and
as a result have little motivation to work
together) presents a further obstacle for
cultural actors. What is necessary is a national or European framework for integrating themselves in a coherent civil conflict
management system. Projects need to be
designed with this in mind and have specific goals. This is vital if cultural actors are
to become credible partners. There needs
to be a clear set of parameters and standards to show the success and impact of
cultural activities on ending conflict, even
though it may take generations for changes
to become visible.
How can we possibly know whether
watching a play promoting tolerance and
mutual acceptance at a puppet theatre in
Afghanistan will deter a child from becoming an insurgent? As the German peace
activist and confict expert, Dr. Jochen Hippler, recently observed at an ifa conference:
When security and development cooperation fail to enforce peace, we should be
realistic enough to see that artists cant necessarily do that either. Or as Fareed C.
Majari, director of the Goethe Institute in
Ramallah, stated at a conference in Tokyo
2009: Would you invite a burglar who just
How can we possibly know

whether watching a play promoting tolerance and mutual acceptance at a puppet theatre in Afghanistan will deter a child from
becoming an insurgent?
broke into your home and is pointing a gun

at you while he steals your belongings to
sing a song with you?
It is clear that culture cannot solve conflict, but it can contribute to peace processes. However, as Jochen Hippler points
out, cultural dialogue and bringing people
together do not always bring positive results. For example, after the Iran Conference in 2000 organised by the Heinrich
Bll Foundation, some Iranian participants were subsequently handed out lengthy prison sentences. This is why a dialogue process has to happen at the right time
and be carefully planned and monitored.
It must be clear what such programmes
can achieve and how effective they are.
This is the only way that artists and artistic exchanges can make a worthwhile
contribution.
Project funding is also a problem. Cultural institutes often feel their work is inhibited by meagre budgets and the need to
find potential sponsors. This does, however, force them to set long-term goals and
develop procedures for evaluating their
work.
Peacebuilding organisations are facing similar challenges; How do we
know when a peacebuilding project has
actually built peace? What indicators are
most appropriate? What evaluation tools
are most useful in assessing the theories
of peace building on which projects are
based? asks Ken Menkhaus in his publication Impact Assessment in Post- Conflict Peace Building (2004) for the Swiss
organisation Interpeace. However, peacebuilding organisations are now investing
much more time and effort in analysing
and assessing their work in order to find
answers to these crucial questions.
Raj Isar, an independent cultural ex-
53
pert and scholar, argues that established

instruments could be useful for evaluating the impact of cultural work in conflict
settings. His paper Artistic activism in
situations of extreme conflict the challenge of evaluation makes the case for
applying methodologies from the humanitarian aid field to culture projects. Peacebuilding evaluation processes such as
Peace Impact Assessment, Do No Harm
or Conflict Sensitivity Approach should
be used to ensure the balanced development of criteria and indicators for assessing the impact, results and relevance of a
project. The American peacebuilding organisation Search for Common Ground,
for example, has compiled a Training Manual for Participatory Theatre in conflict
transformation, providing clear guidelines
of how to use theatre as a healing process
in a specific conflict setting.
Given the complex nature of conflict
management, there is a need for an exchange of knowledge across disciplines
in order to increase capacities, overcome
weaknesses and make use of strengths. The
recent ifa and EUNIC roundtable discussion on Culture and Conflict in Brussels
in December 2011 brought together experts from the fields of cultural relations,
conflict management and EU foreign and
security policy to share their knowledge
and learn from each others experiences.
The follow-up initiative of setting up a
Culture and Conflict working group led
by zivik, ifas civil conflict resolution funding programme, could be another good
starting point.
From all this, we can draw the following conclusions:
The emergence of civil conflict prevention and peacebuilding has created
new opportunities for European cul-
54
tural institutes.
European cultural institutes can help
peace processes in crisis regions.
A unified strategy needs to be developed in this respect.
Institutes need to be realistic about
what they can achieve and what risks
their projects entail.
This process could be facilitated by
sharing knowledge with established
civil conflict management organisations on how to evaluate the impact,
results and effectiveness of projects.
A good starting point could be to
make an inventory of lessons learned
from successful programmes and
gather possible methods of evaluating the effectiveness of cultural programmes.
EUNIC can play a key role in this
process. As a network-based organisation it offers a platform for knowledge
exchange and for building strategic
partnerships with experts from outside the cultural sector.
Katrin Mader was a scholarship holder at the
Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa),
working on the Culture and Foreign Policy
research programme from July to December
2011. Prior to this, she worked in the area of
culture and conflict, including time spent at
the UNESCO offices in Kathmandu (Nepal) and
Hanoi (Vietnam). She is also involved with the
London-based project Culture and Conflict.
A question of security It is vital that cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue be moved up the international agenda for the sake of human security. For
one of the biggest challenges of all in todays world is
the challenge to traditional notions of trust. The trust
that helps people cope with diversity in their social
relations. How can this trust be created?
By Mike Hardy and Aurlie Brckerhoff
ore than ever before, this is a

challenging time for culture.
It feels that peoples are being
thrown together for political, economic
or just expedient reasons, and relationships within the resulting diverse neighbourhoods can be uncomfortable and tense. Much seems to depend on the match
between the nature and pace of change,
at a global level, and the local behaviours
arising from peoples choices about how
they adapt to the changes.
Cultural diversity and the issues this
brings to identity and to our immediate
social relationships is probably the most
significant contemporary influence on us
as individuals and on our communities.
For many, this places cultural diversity
as one of the prime responsibilities of our
times, and on a par with the fight against

poverty and the mitigations and adaptations to changes in climate. These, then,
might be the three big issues which we
should all be in together!
Our world and its communities is
characterised by continuous change and
by permanent diversity, and the challenge
is that people-to-people encounters and
engagement within these diverse communities bring either enriching benefits
or sustained insecurity. The great Mahatma Gandhi once said that Honest
differences are often a healthy sign of
progress. But when such differences are
expressed through violence, the carefully
negotiated social balance in communities and human development generally
is placed at risk.
The social upheavals and disturbances
in our cities that have dominated national

I do not want my house to be

walled in on all sides and my
windows to be stuffed. I want
the cultures of all the lands to
be blown about my house as
freely as possible. But I refuse to
be blown off my feet by any.
[Mahatma Gandhi]
55
and international news serve to underline the fact that in todays multi-polar,
multilateral world, uneasy social relationships are the result of a complex interplay of structures and agents within and
between societies that goes beyond local
communities.
We have more transient communities
as well; the churning within global and
regional populations that has been experienced over the last decade has introduced new types of interactions, some more
dynamic and some more short-lived. We
now live in a world where thousands of
unexpected guests can show up to a birthday party, or where one communitys
revolution becomes anothers act of terror,
mobilised, facilitated or shared across the
globe by social media.
The biggest challenge of all in the contemporary world is the challenge to traditional notions of trust. This is the trust
that helps people cope with diversity in
their social relations.
We cannot rest on our laurels

As social relations are negotiated and
renegotiated amidst global f lows and
changes, we have learnt that we cannot
rest on our intercultural laurels. Natural
disasters, the rise of populism, economic
downturns, food shortages, unemployment, poverty. all of these put a strain
on relations within and between our communities. The way in which we respond
to these challenges may vary greatly, not
56
only from person to person, but also as a

result of differences in cultural values. A
research project at Yale Law School has
analysed how cultural values determine
the risks we see in our public environment
and how this translates into our belief in
the right policies. In a survey, researchers found that it is our cultural values
more than any other individual characteristic that help predict peoples public risk
perceptions, suggesting that culture and
cultural issues may lie at the heart of our
sense of human security.
Among all the distracting discussions
and disagreements about whether multiculturalism is good, bad or indifferent,
or about whether interculturalist approaches would be better or more helpful for communities; about central or
local policies for integration or assimilation lies the essentialism of unavoidable
and important social relations which, in
a society committed to universal standards and rights, must be relations that
provide security.
Co-existence and collaboration are not
the same thing; living with similar people and full integration into communities
are not the same thing; none of these are
really problematic per se provided that
human security is given priority.
Human security is a people-centred
concept that focuses on the most critical
and pervasive risks to peoples survival,
The challenges presented by

dealing with differences diminish over time, and anxiety is
replaced with a feel-good factor
that can serve to strengthen diverse neighbourhoods.
livelihoods and dignity. The threats include natural disasters and disasters caused
by humans conf licts and violence in
families or in societies massive displacements, health-related risks, human
trafficking and war, as well as the sudden
economic and financial downturns characteristic of contemporary capitalism.
All these risks and threats are more serious in a 21st century where there are
unprecedented levels of change. A 21st
century in which successful and peaceful
relations depend more than ever before on
peoples abilities to share space, resources
and understanding; when social relations
are subject to multiple influences, complex identities, growing inequality and a
total interdependence.
Viewed in the context of the European project, the real paradox may be that
throughout Europes journey, public policy has been simultaneously encouraging
and enabling national and economic identities. And these are essentially and meaningfully at odds with each other.
This has created new kinds of social
relations within what has helpfully been
referred to as post-immigration multiculturalism. Therefore, we may worry
about being British or French, or about
our heritage as Lithuanians or Dutch, and
we cherish our history, culture and language. We may be anxious about assimilation and our rights and so seek out best
practice and experience when it comes to
integration both for migrants joining
neighbourhoods and for hosts receiving
new neighbours.
Because we worry about newcomers

and the demands placed on us by the associated new social relationships that follow,
we can decide whether immigration policies and the concepts of exclusion through
gated communities for long-standing residents should prevail.
The fact is that new European neighbourhoods are no longer predictable; a
potential mobile population of some 270
million work-age Europeans can effectively redefine the migration plans or political manifesto aspirations of politicians
in Europes member states. If restricting
or slowing down the emergence or consolidation of multicultural neighbourhoods
meets the political aspirations (and demands of voters) across Europe, this is
simply not recognised as reality in the
European Union. So there is a significant
disconnect between what so-called democratic voices are saying and what is actually and unavoidably happening.
New cultural interfaces

Be that as it may, the new neighbourhoods in the cities of the 21st century
world will encourage and create communities with differences. We are now
seeing neighbourhoods characterised by
new social relationships, new cultural interfaces, expectations and consequences.
According to historians and sociologists
specialising in contact theory, the challenges presented by dealing with differences actually diminish over time, and
57
anxiety is replaced with a feel-good factor

that can serve to strengthen diverse neighbourhoods. Barely a day passes without
us being reminded of the responsibility
that we all have to deal with cultural differences and create the conditions for
peaceful relations.
This is what makes culture so important in meeting contemporary challenges.
Many believe that complex, diverse and
ever-changing societies are creating social relationships in contemporary Europe that may not come naturally to people
and need to be worked on. The standard
analysis therefore juxtaposes the economic inevitability of mobile labour in the
economic union of the European project
with a social inevitability of threats and
risks arising from the confusing identities
of new neighbourhoods.
Most studies point to a preference on
our part as humans to coexist with people
like ourselves, so we have to work at relationships with others. Yet, as we are aware, in the 21st century it is social relations
with others that are often more common,
partly because of new and ever-increasing
mobility, and partly as a consequence of
the choices that we are now more able and
more likely to make.
Focusing on our cultural values in
our approach to social relationships will
still be necessary in these new neighbourhoods. Not just because we worry
about living with what is different, but
also because of cultures prominent role
in developing sustainable communities.
But we must continue to ask questions
of ourselves so that we can do this more

successfully. In the myth of Icarus, the
father builds wings that will allow his son
to escape from exile in Crete. It was not
Icarus lack of ability to fly that led to his
fall, nor the construction of the wings per
se, but rather his desire to fly higher and
higher when the materials his wings were
made from were not able to withstand the
heat of the sun.
A world of differences
In recent years, human security has
emerged as a new approach to the way in
which we evaluate human development.
Within this paradigm, it is the individual
and their environment, rather than systems and communities, which become the
main protagonists in assessing the impact
of globalisation. It takes community dynamics as its starting point as there is a
potential for disorder, threats to peace and
stability and raised levels of fear. Our social relationships become the thermostat
for our risks and vulnerabilities. And they
also embody our ability and potential to
build stable communities.
A part of the challenge is to recognise
the world we live in and to take it seriously. Of course we live in a world of differences a world in which increasingly
sophisticated communications and transport systems create new and impelling
neighbours and neighbourhoods.
New neighbourhoods can, it would
seem, create new challenges and totally
Todays leaders need to work

together to develop a new social
contract for diversity.
58
new risks, and we are tempted to suppose

that this new context is just too hard, too
difficult and much more likely to end in
tears than to yield positive benefits. These
conditions demand a new and more sophisticated type of leadership to work to
bring the global family together and not
drive it further apart.
A new social contract

Todays leaders need to work together
to develop a new social contract for diversity. And we must do so with conviction
and dedication, trying to find a consensus between conflicting interests. Moving
cultural diversity further up the agenda
on social relations and treating it as just
as serious and important an issue as poverty and climate change would be a key
requirement of such a new and contemporary social contract. John Stuart Mill
in his famous deliberation On Liberty
says: men and governments must act to
the best of their ability. There is no such
thing as absolute certainty, but there is
assurance sufficient for the purposes of
human life. But on every subject on which
difference of opinion is possible, the truth
depends on a balance to be struck between
two conflicting reasons.
So although we may feel incapable of
building wings that wont be soaked up
by the sea or melted by the sun, we can
get closer to fulfilling the needs and purposes of human life by working together.
The social contract for diversity does not
spring from a Hobbesian view of the state

of nature, nor from Lockes belief that
people living in this 21st century would
willingly come together. Great leadership
does not manifest itself in knowing all the
right answers but starts with asking the
right questions. How do we understand
the effects of risks and threats in relation
to peoples vulnerabilities? How do we
plan, develop and mobilise peoples capacities to respond to risks and threats
in an effective, efficient and sustainable
way? How does this build resilience? How
can we facilitate the use and development
of capabilities by utilising new opportunities arising from innovation and development? How can we reduce peoples
vulnerabilities by mobilising their own
capacities? Seeking these answers could
provide the great leadership that Rousseau saw as critical to the success of any
social contract.
Dialogue between and within cultures
is critical if these challenges are to be met.
It helps acknowledge that differences
exist and addresses the need to encourage mutual trust and understanding between diverse people. The environment in
which such dialogue takes place is marked
by difference, proximity and interconnectedness.
Placing cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue higher on the international agenda is critical for human security
and a prime responsibility of our time as
it will promote an understanding of the
most critical and pervasive risks that seriously threaten the survival, livelihood
59
and dignity of individuals. When the Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden visited
the Muse des Beaux Arts in Brussels, he
felt so moved by the painting Landscape
with the Fall of Icarus that he wrote a
poem about the experience. The painting,
often attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, depicts an everyday scene of rural
life. While in the foreground the world
goes about their business, one can see a
young Icarus creating a splash as he falls
into the sea, unnoticed by those around
him. In his poem, Auden expresses how
we often dont notice the big moments in
time the expensive delicate ship that
must have seen something amazing, a boy
falling out of the sky, had somewhere to
get to and sailed calmly on. Let us not,
like the people of Bruegels painting and
Audens poem turn(s) away quite leisurely from the disaster, but let us have the
courage to face our challenges together,
head on.
Mike Hardy is Professor of Human Security,
Social and Intercultural Relations at Coventry University, where he is also Director of an
Applied Research Centre on Social Relations
research.
Aurlie Brckerhoff is a researcher and PhD
student in human security, social and intercultural relations at Coventry University.
62
Creative peoples advocates When the rule of law has

been eroded, when social services are lacking and there is no free press, the artist often takes on the role
of government critic, peoples advocate, community
organiser, human rights defender or even movement
leaders. But more importantly, they can create spaces
for encounters. By Mary Ann DeVlieg,
Victoria Ivanova, Rosario Pavese and Ole Reitov
t may be a truism to state that conflict

is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. however, there is a tendency to
summarily define contemporary conflicts
using binary logic as either modern struggles for resources, primordial tribal antagonisms or epic confrontations between
the civilised and the uncivilised. As a result, policy is often informed by simplistic
assumptions, bolstered by historical amnesia and the inability to grapple with the
contextual nuances of contention.
these faux-pas lead to embarrassing situations (to put it mildly) where European
states are found to be supporting oppressive regimes, trading financial aid for political leverage, and shielding people from
responsibility within their own jurisdictions when they are directly or indirectly
perpetrating violence elsewhere.
International criminal justice can also

be seen in a critical light. the recent push
to selectively tear certain violent acts from
their contexts and bring them before the
International Criminal Court in the hague only succeeds in superficially demonising the perpetrators while leaving the
victims with little more than their victimhood. this is not to say that the juridical
notion of justice is irrelevant, but it should
not be the sole mechanism for processing
events that occur within and as a result of
conflict situations. Juridical justice will
always represent a top-down approach to
regulating social relationships, and whereas it may be portrayed as a humane substitute for blood-soaked revenge (if we are to
believe the French historian rene girrard),
the people it leaves behind will rarely feel
any wiser.
Culture is a word that makes Europeans both proud and nervous. on the one
hand, there is a feeling of great pride in
the importance that Europe places on a
robust cultural infrastructure, on its historical significance and its maintenance
and development. on the other hand, there
is the prickly subject of European member
nations having used culture as a signifier
of hierarchy (and supplement to violent
invasion) during times of colonial subjugation. Both of these stamps continue to
exert their force on European attitudes
63
and actions to this day, which means that

a truly sophisticated and forward-looking
international cultural policy will necessarily have to take into account a balanced
understanding of both trajectories.
Despite these foreboding complexities,
one thing cannot be denied: bottom-up
approaches to social development and individual/group empowerment are essential
for sustainable conflict resolution, and socially engaging projects based in the arts
and culture are a powerful resource (if not
the most powerful) in facilitating such approaches.
For this reason, serious consideration
should be given to the development of autonomous and independent cultural movements, spaces and institutions. They
offer opportunities for free thinking and
dialogue and can even act as safe havens
in difficult socio-political environments.
For instance, one of the most widespread
global challenges today is pervasive social inequality and the violence that results from the inability of governments
to control it, or their complicity in upholding it. Individuals are first and foremost
citizens, but their formal recognition as
equal members of a political body is the
first step towards the effective exercising
of their political rights. However, wide gaps
in social equality, cultural and linguistic
differences and political borders hinder
mutual recognition between members of
an integrated socio-political body. This is
where art can make a significant contribution to easing tensions between diversity
and homogeneity through the creation of
64
spaces where creative practice intersects

with human rights agendas in the interests
of a broader notion of social justice, particularly in defence of vulnerable communities. In this context, the recognition of
the human rights violations suffered by
these communities should be seen as the
first step. Different forms of artistic expression can then provide the necessary
platform for the second stage: reclaiming
these rights.
Laboratory for creative

collaboration
A similar dynamic is evident in postwar zones where the scars of conflict remain exposed. A good example is provided
by the Cultural Centre REX in Belgrade,
which played an important role in mediating the residual trauma prevalent in
post-war Serbia. REX provided a safe space
for socially engaging, psycho-therapeutic
activities, whether through open forum
debates as a backdrop to newly opened
exhibits, or as a laboratory for creative collaborations, aimed at improving the social
conditions of the city and the country. Yet
rapidly disappearing public spaces worldwide means that open environments are
often hard to find or access, resulting in
increased social atomisation and psychosocial alienation. In this sense, cultural
spaces often serve as meeting-points for
people whose paths might otherwise not
cross, thereby fostering a more inclusive
approach to social citizenship.
Artists can also play a fundamental role

in the peacebuilding process, particularly in societies divided by armed conflict
or where open conflict is curtailed by allpervasive repression. When the rule of law
has been eroded, when social services are
lacking and there is no free press, the artist often takes on the role of government
critic, peoples advocate, community organiser, human rights defender or even movement leader. Individuals who use creativity to fight injustice often face direct
or indirect persecution for their activism.
While frameworks for the support of human rights defenders already exist, these
support mechanisms often do not take into
account such latent forms of activism and
overlook the specific risks faced by artists
and culture workers doing the work normally associated with activists.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for cultural workers who are also active within
civil society to work in multiple media,
while culture is also a common ingredient
in projects striving for social justice and
equality. Thus, collaborative relationships
between human rights and arts organisations and networks hold great potential
for developing alternative support structures for rights defenders that function by
accessing under-utilised resources (which
often originate in the art world) and occu-
Theatrical improvisation allows

people to investigate the root
causes of difficult social, political and economic realities, explore personal feelings and relate
to the emotional expressions of
others through story-telling.
py interstitial spaces in larger social justice

agendas.
Perhaps the most thoroughly explored
artistic methodology employed in conflict
situations is the use of theatre with vulnerable individuals and communities. Augusto Boals famous Forum Theatre method
and the work that this visionary creative
practitioner initiated in his native Rio de
Janeiro and across South America provide an excellent example of the virtues of
participatory cultural activities that are
built on principles of direct engagement,
creative expression and dialogue.
Theatrical improvisation allows people
to investigate the root causes of difficult social, political and economic realities,
explore personal feelings and relate to the
emotional expressions of others through
story-telling and spontaneous action. At
the same time, they are an active celebration of the strength of their own voices
and of mutual, equitable exchange between
people. By creating an alternative space
for social engagement, theatre for development can educate, empower and even
heal. Numerous initiatives of this kind
have been launched all over the world, such
as the Amani Peoples Theatre in Kenya,
Zwakwane in Zimbabwe, and the Berlin
Fountainhead Tanz Theatre in Germany.
Apart from the obvious benefits to those directly involved, there is also great value in the knowledge and understanding
that is generated. The people we tend to call
victims of conflict rarely have a chance to
tell their own stories first-hand. Typically,
their stories are recounted by mediators
65
who unilaterally interpret their needs and

dictate solutions. However, when human
rights and development actors actively
collaborate, the specific needs of specific
groups can be directly linked to appropriate resources and solutions devised in collaboration with the users. This not only
makes the work more effective, but also
makes it easier for marginalised discourses
to reach the mainstream.
Starting points could also be found in
the existing human rights infrastructure.
Transparency International, for example,
has 45 ALACs (Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres) in 40 countries with different historical, cultural, legal and social
backgrounds. These centres are dedicated
to encouraging citizen participation in the
fight against corruption in particular and
the defence of rights in general. Citizens
can use the centres to highlight rights violations and lodge complaints. Linking these (or similar human rights organisations)
with artists and cultural networks could
create a space where both parties could
work together in realising different forms
of social justice. Dynamic initiatives of this
nature could provide a timely response to
todays global conditions where flexibility,
creativity and innovation are key to moving beyond the pervasive disenchantment
and passivity that can often result from
overexposure to conflict.
Often the leading institutional cultures
of the different disciplines (arts and culture/human rights/development), including planning timeframes, evaluation criteria, funder management, assumptions
66
on valid outcomes or priorities, can create

obstacles to such collaborative experiences.
Language is used with different weighting
for example development activities are
not the same for those concerned only with
economic development as for those who
value human development above all. Likewise, freedom of expression advocates do
not bend before questions of taste, local
sensitivity or controversy: a human right
is a human right. And artists often work
on less obvious, more immaterial levels of
consciousness or self-confidence. While
there have been successful cross-disciplinary, cross-sector projects for many years
now, NGOs can often be wedded to their
own methodologies.
In this context, institutions such as EUNIC and the main human development
agencies and foundations could act as catalysts for increased dialogue and mutual
understanding between sectors. By highlighting good practice, commissioning
joint analyses and bringing key players together, overall perspectives can be created
to demonstrate the value and constraints
of separate approaches and the synergies
created in collaborations, as experimental
as these may be.
There is also a need for mapping both
the dangers and the resources available to
non-professional activists working in the
culture sector. 2011 saw an increase in the
repression of and attacks on artists and culture workers globally, most notably in the
While there have been successful cross-disciplinary, cross-sector projects for many years now,
NGOs can often be wedded to
their own methodologies.
Middle East/North Africa, China, South

East Asia and Central America. Systematic
and widespread repression of artists and
culture workers indicates the need for both
global and local mechanisms to support
and defend artistic free expression.
The International Coalition for Arts,
Human Rights and Social Justice (ICARJ,
www.artsrightsjustice.net) has the potential to be a useful and timely platform for
local, regional and international networks
defending creative activism. A recent proposal by Freemuse, the world forum on
music and censorship http://freemuse.org,
and others to create a global monitoring
system (http://artsfex.org) for freedom of
artistic expression is a welcome step in
the same direction, as is the new Working
Group ARJ (arts-rights-justice) within the
EU civil society platform Access to Culture, which had its constitutive meeting
in Brussels on 13 February 2012.
Potential ways forward should now include the following:
Mapping existing organisations that
support artists and cultural operators
whose rights are abused or endangered;
Commissioning studies on short-,
medium- and longer-term actions to
improve protection of threatened artists and arts initiatives;
Collaborating with existing work on
more humanistic and cultural indicators for measuring development;
Creating a clearing house for sharing
information, cases and analyses so
that cases can be better matched to

the appropriate resources;
Creating a global monitoring system
for abuse of freedom of artistic expression;
Awareness-raising and training projects addressing the arts sector, the human rights sector and policy makers.
Mary Ann DeVlieg has worked in the culture
sector for more than 30 years. Since 1994 she
has been the General Secretary of the IETM
international network for contemporary performing arts. In 2010 she founded the International Coalition for Arts, Human Rights & Social
Justice, www.artsrightsjustice.net. Co-authors
Victoria Ivanova, Sidd Joag, Rosario Pavese
and Ole Reitov are also members of this organisation. Victoria Ivanova works as a strategy
coordinator at an arts foundation in Donetsk
in the Ukraine and is a member of the art platform Trans Europe Halles (TEH). Sidd Joag is an
artist and experimental filmmaker. He is the
co-founder of Zero Capital Arts, an organisation which supports low-cost socially and politically engaged creative projects and exhibitions. He is also a member of FreeDimensional,
an initiative which supports the freedom of art
around the world. Rosario Pavese is a member
of the Latin American Network Art for Social
Transformation initiative, which is committed
to fighting for social justice. Ole Reitov is the
Programme Manager at Freemuse, a Danish organisation that advocates freedom of expression for musicians around the world.
67
68
Peacebuilding:
Learning from
local
experiences
What are the positive, practical experiences of external cultural policy initiatives in conflict regions?
Which ones have been proven worthwhile and
what circumstances are needed for their success?
Is it possible to successfully transfer initiatives that
have shown positive results in one place to another
location? Conflict experts and peacebuilders share
their experiences, gather examples of best practice
and tell us their hopes for the future.
69
70
71
healing from within When vision and will come

together, anything is possible. Even peace. Fearless,
strong-willed people are working in conflict zones,
undeterred by the day-to-day violence, and dedicating
themselves to civil society initiatives. they combine
professional strategies for conflict resolution with
cultural empathy and are demonstrating how cultural differences can be experienced in a constructive
way. By Michael Gleich
f all the peacemakers, it was the

two murderers who touched me
the most. As a young man, Joe
had fought for the Catholic armed underground, shot a British officer and been handed a 22-year prison sentence. peter had
long been a career terrorist on the protestant side and had an even more serious record. As members of two cultures that were
battling for supremacy in Northern Ireland,
they found themselves fighting a civil war
in which everyone was a loser.
At some point, something snapped.
When Joe was released from prison he was
depressed by what he saw: frustrated young
people with no chance of training or a job
were inciting mini-revolts in the poor areas of Belfast out of sheer boredom. peters
life collapsed even more spectacularly. he
72
dropped out when he was ordered to shoot

a disgraced member of his own paramilitary group. out there in the woods, he
found he was unable to pull the trigger and
asked himself in despair: What has this
war done to me?
Joe and peter separately came to the same
decision. they wanted to carry on fighting,
but non-violently. they both had a difficult
path ahead of them as they attempted to escape the orbit of their former comrades-inarms. they were in constant danger of being
denounced as traitors. today, they are both
social workers who work with young people to persuade them to keep their distance
from the paramilitary groups. they are putting all their efforts into finding a political
solution to the conflict. It is not the road
to damascus story that impresses me about
them so much as their unerring belief that
Catholics and protestants can live together
as equals, along with their strong will to
begin life afresh in their mid-forties. When
vision and will come together, anything is
possible. Even peace.
It happens more often than we might
think. Since the early 1990s, more than
80 violent conflicts have been resolved: in
logic will get you from A to B.

Imagination will take you everywhere. Albert Einstein
Pe ac ebu i ld i ng le a r n i ng f rom lo c a l e x p er ienc e s
Mali, Mozambique, Haiti, East Timor,

Kosovo, to name but a few. The situation in these countries ranges from fragile
to stable. And there are yet more reasons
for optimism. Since 1992, there has been
a 40 percent reduction in particularly violent conflicts, and the number of people
killed in such conflicts has fallen by 98 percent since 1950. And we should not forget
events in places like South Africa, where
a country ruled by fear and racism made
the transition to democracy with hardly a
drop of blood being spilled. This was more
than anyone had hoped for. But charismatic leaders such as Nelson Mandela and
Frederik Willem de Klerk possessed both
imagination and initiative.
War is now an event

So why are we not celebrating? Why is
the International Day of Peace not a public holiday? And why does watching the
evening news make us feel that the world
is increasingly ruled by war, death and destruction? The explanation is simple and
twofold. Simple, because we are dealing
with the way the media typically distorts
reality the amount of violence in the
world has not increased, just the number of
reports. Twofold, because the responsibility for this does not lie solely with sensationalist journalists seeking to increase their
viewing figures or sell more newspapers.
The public is also to blame for focusing on the negative. We are fascinated by
dramas involving life and death, and war
brings them into our homes every day. The
battlefields are reported like football matches. During the last Gulf War, embedded
journalists related what was happening
like over-excited sports commentators.
War is now an event. Peace is quiet, slow,

boring, and reporters soon lose patience
with it as they race around the globe.
And they are not the only ones. Research also cultivates its blind spots. There should be nothing more important than
finding out when and how peace can be
achieved, but unfortunately very few researchers are interested in breaking new
ground by exploring the causes of peace.
War sells better even in trade journals
and at conferences.
So any kind of exciting changes go unnoticed. In the past, war was declared by
statesmen, prosecuted by generals and armies and brought to an end by presidents
signing treaties. Nowadays these kinds of
wars between countries involving huge
numbers of victims have become the exception. This is surely a step forward for
civilisation.
But now we are faced with new challenges. The international community is
confronted by violent conflicts that emerge
from within societies. They are a societys
heart attack, its organ failure. Generally,
two or more ethnic groups with different
cultures come to blows in order to gain power. Or so it seems. But underneath it all, it
is about mutual respect and recognition. I
would even go as far as to say it is about the
desire to be respected and loved by others.
Every single one of us yearns for love, and
communities are no different.
The healing of such societies that are
torn apart by hate also has to come from
within. The poet Hlderlin remarked that
where danger is deliverance also grows,
and indeed, a new generation of peacemakers is growing up. They do not demonstrate, and they no longer leave it to politicians and armies to take charge of events,
preferring to roll up their sleeves and get
73
involved. Doctors and human rights activists, trade unionists and housewives,
sportspeople, aid workers, priests and educators many of them are risking their
lives in their desire to find non-violent
solutions. They are creative, professional,
courageous and, above all, successful.
They count it as progress when rebels
lay down their arms, as happened in 1995
in Mali; when minefields are cleared and
peasants return to their fields, as in the
north of Sri Lanka; when the army removes road blocks, as in Israel; when Catholic children can once again walk to school
through a Protestant suburb, as in Northern Ireland; when Ugandan child soldiers
are allowed to take up civilian jobs.
Project Civilisation
With every step, peace regains a tiny
piece of territory. Behind every step there
are social innovators, empathetic people
who are perfecting techniques for promoting mediation, active listening and reconciliation. The art of peace requires great
skill. All together, they form civil society. It
sounds like they are sitting around drinking
tea, but in fact they are creating a secret superpower. Alongside national governments,
multinational organisations and transnational corporations, they are increasingly becoming the face of globalisation. Whether
small circles of activists or large special interest groups, one thing unites them: they
are extremely flexible, which makes them
difficult to control and even harder to stop.
Their strength lies in their global networks.
They use the internet and emails to tell each
other what does and doesnt work. Suddenly a successful campaign in one place has
become an object lesson somewhere else.
74
Working together in a loose alliance, private

peacemakers all over the world are advancing Project Civilisation.
These days a good idea needs no time
to spread from the Cape of Good Hope to
the other side of the globe. In the aftermath of its apartheid regime, South Africa
found itself faced with the question: should
we allow people who have tortured and
massacred to go free in order to maintain
peace in our country? Or should we take
them to court and once again risk furious uprisings on the part of entire ethnic
groups? This is a typical dilemma faced
by societies the morning after the night
before. South Africa found its response in
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The main culprits were punished, while
lesser miscreants and victims were invited
to conciliation talks. This balancing act
proved to be successful, allowing wounds
to heal and democracy to endure.
Since then, other countries have experimented with similar instruments, as has
happened in Rwanda. The village communities organised their own tribunals
called Gacaca, which means sitting in the
grass. Lay judges and elders presided over
these open-air courts, pronouncing judgement on the main perpetrators of genocide against the Tutsi. This was a desperate,
common effort to heal the deep sense of
shock caused by the genocide. This grassroots movement in its most literal sense
can be viewed as a real success story. It is
proof that all peace is created by peoples;
otherwise it is not created at all.
Civil wars tear societies apart. The leave
in their wake traumatised children, shattered villages and hostile groups that still
mistrust each other and contemplate revenge, despite any ceasefire that has been
imposed. Ethnic groups often live in se-
parate areas and have no communication

with each other.
This is where non-governmental peacemakers have an important role to play.
Unlike official diplomats, they can find
unconventional ways of bringing the members of enemy groups to the negotiating
table. When the German Benedictine abbot Benedikt Lindemann opens the doors
of his monastery in Jerusalem for discreet
talks, Israelis and Palestinians know that
they can come together without fear of
spies. The hallowed walls provide a refuge. The monk is the mediator. He does not
ask the politicians whether he is allowed to
get involved. He just does it. He is inspired
by an image that he has never lost sight of:
the image of Jews, Christians and Arabs all
living together in peace in the Holy Land.
This flame burns inside all successful
peacemakers. They are driven by a vision
of how they can change their country for
the better. They are unrealistic in the positive sense of the word. They dont accept
things as they are. The importance of this
has been shown in Sri Lanka, a country
that has been torn apart by a bloody civil
war for over 20 years. A young colleague
from the shattered north of the country
They use the internet and

emails to tell each other what
does and doesnt work. Suddenly a successful campaign in one
place has become an object lesson somewhere else. Working together in a loose alliance, private
peacemakers all over the world
are advancing Project Civilisation.
told me: The war has been going on all

my life. It has poisoned our minds and our
hearts. We just cant imagine a life without
attacks and bombings. The worst thing
about this is that people who have only
ever known violence will always turn to
violence as a solution when in doubt. Of
course it presents a risk, but at least it is a
familiar risk, whereas peace is a journey
into the unknown, an adventure with an
unpredictable outcome.
This is why imagination is so critical. It
unleashes energies that as Einstein said
can take people everywhere. When Singham, a Tamil who had lived a carefree life
in Berlin for 15 years, decided to return to
war-torn Sri Lanka, his friends told him he
was crazy. But he dared to dream: One day
the island will once again be rightly called
Happy Lanka. He didnt just leave it at
that, but used donations to build houses for
refugee families, set up a school for children
orphaned by the war, and looked after street
kids. Tamils and Singhalese, supposed enemies, work side-by-side in his organisation.
Singham is one of those volunteer bridgebuilders who are prepared to risk all in the
quest for reconciliation. The very best of
them are a charismatic blend of Mahatma
Gandhi and Bill Gates. They have that rare
ability to think big and act decisively and
be good managers. These new professional
peace activists understand that security and
stability are also linked to money, jobs, economic growth and development.
It is worth investing in humankinds
number one dream. According to experts
at Oxford University, the average civil war
last seven years. Of course, every year and
every victim are one too many, but the good
news is that wars do come to an end, sooner
or later. But sooner is better than later. If it
is not possible to prevent a war, then the
75
international community can at least try

to curtail it. United Nations interventions
are in fact better than their reputation suggests. According to a study by the US think
tank RAND, two out of three peacekeeping
missions are successful. And they are cheaper than might be thought when listening
to the awkward skirmishes in the Security
Council. The total cost of all 16 blue-helmet
missions carried out in the last year was just
under five billion dollars. To put this into
perspective, the USA spent more than this
every month on the war in Iraq, and as the
worlds self-proclaimed sheriff, they have
just experienced one debacle after another.
Multinational institutions such as the
United Nations and the European Union
are the state counterpart to a closely-linked
civil society. The UN and EU have made
great strides over the last few decades in
combating poverty, improving health and
promoting human rights. In this way, they
have made a major contribution to building positive peace: a peace that is more
than just the absence of war, a culture that
is no longer governed by violence and fear,
but by respect and love. In the end, this is
what its all about.
And of course its about money. Its
amazing but true that it makes economic
sense to invest in peace. The Oxford experts have calculated that a typical civil
war costs around 70 billion dollars. On
the loss side, they place lower economic
growth, equipment, illness, refugees and
organised crime. To look at it another way,
every year that such a war can be shortened
brings a dividend of 10 billion dollars. It
costs just a fraction of this amount to try
to end the war by deploying an international intervention force. The new wars
need both approaches. They need their
societies to be healed from within, with
76
civil society initiatives and peacemakers

being the decisive factor in this respect.
They also need strong resolve on the part
of the international community if it decides in favour of military intervention.
In many troubled regions, the fighting is
not done by regular soldiers but by militias organised into unruly gangs. Many of
them are still teenagers with the emotional
maturity of children. And so this is how
they behave wildly, erratically, turning
killing into a game. From my own experience of war zones I know that if someone
bangs his fist on the table everyone shuts
up. There has to be an authority figure to
say thats enough!, like the strict father
that so many of these children in uniform
have never known.
Of course, non-violent interventions are
in principle always preferable. Europes present-day unity has been won at the cost of
centuries of bloody war and new spirals of
violence. It has been a long hard road to reach todays union of nations where cultural
differences are valued and seen as a positive enrichment. United in Diversity the
EUs external and cultural policies should
spread this motto as inspiration for the rest
of the world. There is a good chance that this
voice will be heard in places where people
are struggling to return to peace. But only
if Europe continues to really live its cultural
diversity in a constructive way.
Michael Gleich is a journalist and writer specialising in finding understandable and surprising ways of presenting complex issues such as
peace, social change and the environment. His
works have been translated into several languages and he has won many awards. For his
latest project, Peace Counts, journalists and
photographers travelled to more than 30 conflict regions to document the work being done
by peacemakers to find peaceful, proven ways
of successfully resolving conflicts.
Fighting trauma and taboo Cultural production alone is not enough to break down the dominance of
ethno-nationalist parties and beliefs, to overthrow
corrupt ruling systems and create a tolerant society.
But it is able to create niches where alternative debate
is possible, and in this way give people hope and encourage them to put into context the omnipotence of
the ethnocentric and counter it with other concepts
of belonging, tradition, history and identity.
By Martina Fischer
or years, German and European cultural institutes, along with political

and private foundations, have been
doing their best to encourage cultural initiatives in regions that are beset by crises
or recovering from wars. In the past, the
focus was on regions such as Southeast Europe and the former Yugoslavia, then from
2002 onwards it was on Afghanistan, and
now in the wake of the Arabellion it is
increasingly on the countries of the Mediterranean that find themselves undergoing
a process of transition.
Along with establishing educational
institutes and independent media, the
main emphasis tends to be on encouraging the development of civil society, with
many projects being targeted specifically
at young people. The reason for this is the
belief that cultural neglect and lack of economic prospects can leave young people
open to ethno-nationalist propaganda and
make them easy recruits for wars and civil
wars. Instead, a countrys youth should
be inspired to work on rebuilding their society and the processes of democratisation.
As part of Germanys presidency of the EU
Council in May/June 2007, a Euro-Mediterranean Youth Parliament was created
for the benefit of young people. The aim
was to encourage dialogue between cultures in the Mediterranean region and to
help the participants to gain intercultural
skills. Initial funding was provided by the
EU Commission, and it is to be hoped that
the project can be driven forward by the
Mediterranean countries in conjunction
with EU bodies.
Initiatives to promote dialogue and
bring people together are considered to
be very important in this respect. Examples are the European-Islamic Dialogue, or
steps taken to promote settlements and reconciliation between rival groups in divided communities and societies that have
been devastated by war.
It is generally assumed that cultural
initiatives and educational programmes
can assist with the peace process. But we
still have to ask ourselves the following
questions: what potential do cultural initiatives have to aid in conflict resolution?
77
How can cultural activities be linked to

activities that promote peace in a meaningful and lasting way? What conditions are
necessary for them to make a contribution to rebuilding and reconciling societies
devastated by war?
First of all, if we are to look at ways of
promoting culture as a means of promoting peace, we should not forget that culture can be a two-edged sword. This was
clearly demonstrated during the escalating
conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the
early 1990s, when some people in educational institutions and the media worked
actively to try to increase political polarisation, marginalisation and expulsion.
Intellectuals and journalists from the different ethno-nationalist camps came together with politicians to emphasise cultural
differences and prove the superiority of
their own culture and religious orientation over that of the others. In this way
they provided an ideological justification
for acts of brutality and genocide. Historical facts were ignored or distorted in order
to construct a false idea of racial purity
and to fuel perceptions of religious and
cultural differences. An incredible desire
for destruction led to the devastation of
the cultural treasures of the other enemy
camp, and even people in the cultural sector played their part in creating this ethnopolitical conflict. Before the war, and even
more strongly in its wake, a folk culture
that harked back to historical myths enjoyed a dubious renaissance.
Myths of heroes and sacrifice surround
many of the memorials that have been
erected to honour the soldiers and civilians killed during the war. In Bosnia and
Herzegovina in particular, many forms of
commemoration have emerged that run
counter to peacebuilding efforts. In di-
78
vided societies, cultures of remembrance

often manifest themselves in very selective
ways that just serve to intensify polarisation along ethnopolitical lines. The feelings
of people who have been through loss and
suffering are ignored and slighted, and relations become ever more strained.
Myths of heroes and sacrifice

So cultural forms of expression can
have an emancipatory effect, but in equal
measure they can also cause indoctrination and serve to glorify violence. Cultural
products can be used to campaign for tolerance, pluralism, multiculturalism and
an open, democratic society, but at the
same time they can foster intolerance by
cementing monoethnic group identities
and supporting models of closed societies,
or even by providing the aesthetic backbone of dictatorial regimes. Above all,
cultural forms of expression serve to forge
an identity or identities at individual and
collective levels, and this should be borne
in mind when considering the potential of
cultural initiatives to help promote peace.
The post-war situation in Bosnia and
Herzegovina provides a good example of
the ambivalent nature of culture. The official cultural policies of the still-hostile
political parties focused mainly on using
language and their own versions of history for the purposes of creating division.
Educational establishments and the media
were enlisted to promote these policies,
and literature, film and the visual arts did
not remain immune. However, at the same
time various cultural forms emerged that

dealt with the war in ways that were both
critical and constructive. With the help
of international funding, the cultural and
media scene has developed a new dynamic
since 1995 and educated a significant section of civil society, providing a contrast
to the ethnocratic model that dominates
political life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Alongside the shallow and nationalistically-tinged folk culture, another culture
began to emerge that defied the definition of belonging and exclusion along ethnic lines. A creative cultural sector that
transcended territorial and ideological
boundaries particularly in youth culture
could have an integrating effect and at
least contribute to breaking down the us
versus them mentality. International assistance programmes are vital to support
these kinds of initiatives.
Cultural production alone is not enough to break down the dominance of
ethno-nationalist parties and beliefs, to
overthrow corrupt ruling systems and create a tolerant society. But it is able to create
niches where alternative debate is possible.
In this way it can give people hope and
encourage them to put into context the
omnipotence of ethnocentric autism, as
diagnosed by Croat writer Ivan Lovrenovic, and counter it with other concepts of
belonging, tradition, history and identity.
Cultural neglect and lack of

economic prospects can leave
young people open to ethno-nationalist propaganda and make
them easy recruits for wars and
civil wars.
Cultural initiatives in themselves cannot create a dynamic to resolve deeplyrooted conflicts or reconcile hostile societies. But as one element within a group
of policies designed to promote development and peace they can help to stimulate significant change. As long as there
is the political will to find compromises,
they can help war-ravaged communities to
recover from their traumatic experiences
and assist them in their journey towards
building trust and reconciliation. They can
play their part in creating a society based
on democratic participation, pluralism
and tolerance.
This presupposes that international actors that are involved in war-affected regions will identify areas of potential and
take a long-term view by supporting projects in a systematic way rather than just
on an ad-hoc and short-term basis. They
must carefully seek out suitable partners
for these projects because as previously
mentioned not all cultural productions
are designed to encourage plurality but instead can have a strong nationalistic bent.
Everyone involved in the field of culture, educational institutions and the
media can help to glorify things that happened during the war, participate in mythbuilding and prolong exclusion and suffering. But they can also make a significant
contribution towards helping societies deal
with the violence they have experienced
and in the long term they can assist in their
regeneration through public debate. On
the other hand, there are examples from
post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina where
victims of the war were often used to fuel
79
a one-sided politics of remembrance but at

the same time were offered no protection.
The fate of women who were raped or tortured during the war was long ignored and
the whole subject was treated by society as
a major taboo.
The film Grbavica (released in the UK
as Esmas Secret: Grbavica) by Bosnian
director Jasmila Zbanic won many international awards and played a part in helping
to break the silence surrounding this issue.
The film shows the relationship between a
Bosniak woman who was raped during the
war and her adolescent daughter in postwar Sarajevo. It reveals how the trauma
of the war influenced individual destinies
and how social taboos served to prolong
the suffering and make it difficult to deal
with it in a constructive way.
More than 100,000 people went to see
the film in the year after it was premiered
in Bosnia. Its release was accompanied by a
campaign by local and international NGOs
to promote the rights of women who had
been the victims of sexual violence. The
Medica Mondiale organisation played a
particularly prominent role. However, political pressure meant that the film was not
shown in the Republika Srpska, the Serbian
entity of Bosnia.
Inclusive forms of remembrance

In mid-2006, in the aftermath of the
films release, the Bosnian parliament decided that women who had been raped
should be legally recognised as war victims and should receive the same compensation as that given to men who had fought
in the war. This was viewed as a great success by human rights organisations and
womens groups, even though it should be
80
noted that to date many of the victims have

still received nothing and a great many
others are still fighting for this compensation. The film Grbavica forms part of the
artistic growth of a director who has spent
years working with the Deblokada group of
artists in Sarajevo making documentaries
dealing with the war and how people have
been affected by it, and also with the fate
of people from all sides as they returned
to their communities.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with
other parts of the former Yugoslavia such
as Serbia and Croatia, civil society groups
and individuals have over recent years dedicated themselves to finding constructive
ways of dealing with the past. Their mission is to establish the facts, influence teaching in educational establishments and
to make the wider public more aware of the
need to come to terms with the violence of
the past. They want to inspire people to
face up to the roles played by individuals
during the war and the need for politicians
to take responsibility for war crimes and
human rights abuses. They are making
every effort to create new, inclusive forms
of remembrance in order to counter the
tendency towards a very selective perception of war victims. The creation of memorials is a controversial issue and artists are
faced with huge challenges when designing
their concepts. They have to proceed with
great circumspection and sensitivity and
ensure the public at large is involved in the
decision-making process.
Under certain conditions, the encouragement of cultural exchange forums can
contribute to conflict transformation and
reconciliation. But this does not mean that

per se that projects promoting intercultural exchange and dialogue between people
in opposing camps produce positive results
in terms of peacebuilding.
Caution is needed in this respect, at
least in regions that are riven by ethnopolitical conflict. In recent years, a series
of evaluation reports and impact analyses across various regional contexts have
shown that the success of dialogue projects
is very much dependent on whether they
are carried out at the right time and are
focused on the right target groups. During some conflict stages, multi-ethnic
dialogue projects between hostile camps
can actually have the opposite effect to
that intended, that is to say they can increase confrontation and mistrust rather
than encourage rapprochement. In certain situations, peace education initiatives
within the individual camps can be more
effective than artificial attempts to bring
people together. And at times insufficient
importance is given to the fact that structural aspects also need to be taken into
account alongside the time factor. Taking
steps towards building trust need a certain
level of economic stability and a sense of
security within society.
Cultural initiatives can help

war-ravaged communities to recover from their traumatic experiences and assist them in their
journey towards building trust
and reconciliation. They can play
their part in creating a society
based on democratic participation, pluralism and tolerance.
However, existing empirical knowledge

about the effectiveness of dialogue projects
in post-war and crisis situations is as yet
insufficient to draw up a list of lessons learned. This would require more comprehensive studies to be carried out, along with
active research measures. It is a highly
complex task to measure the effectiveness
of peacebuilding actions. One of the main
challenges when evaluating such actions is
how to define the criteria for success and
failure. There is also the problem of how to
allocate specific results particular social
developments to specific actions. The
duty of accountability certainly demands
that the use and benefit of donations and
public money should be appraised, along
with an evaluation of actions to promote
peace and conflict transformation and to
support development policies.
But is much more complicated to assess
effectiveness in this area than in the field of
traditional development cooperation. This
is partly due to the limited resources and
tight deadlines required by such evaluation
activities. The value of such evaluations is
also often somewhat dubious because of
the difficulty of coming up with conclusive
indicators and because the effects of work
in the areas of peacebuilding and conflict
resolution can only be evaluated in the long
term, many years after particular measures
and programmes have drawn to a close.
In any case, evaluations need to be set
up in a participative way, i.e. those involved need to be constantly included in the
process. The results need to be linked back
to those whose actions are being investigated, and evaluations have to be integra-
81
ted into courses of action in the planning

stage. This is the only way to ensure they
are part of a realistic definition of goals and
provide an aid to self-reflection on the part
of those carrying out the evaluations, or
even help the latter when they are developing methods for reviewing their goals and
strategies (self-evaluation). Critical selfreflection and ongoing self-appraisal are
essential processes for international actors
who intervene in conflict regions. It is also
important to avoid undesirable and negative side-effects as a result of their actions.
It is, however, extremely difficult to
prove the effectiveness of cultural initiatives in aiding the peacebuilding process.
The empirical measurement of educational programmes is an extremely complex
and difficult task because the results only
become evident in the long term. It is even
more difficult to determine the effects of
cultural events in the areas of music, literature and the visual and dramatic arts.
Different forms of artistic expression
can play their part in exposing the mechanisms of power and violence, in ensuring
that forbidden narratives are heard and
in stimulating alternative perceptions and
ways of thinking. They can help people
to process their experiences of violence,
but they do not necessarily have to do this.
Art is autonomous. Only a few artists devote their work to political activism and
peacebuilding. At the end of the day, it is
not the primary responsibility of artists to
actively influence society by having a political agenda. The role of the visual arts,
literature, music, film and theatre is rather
to anticipate and mirror trends in politics
82
and society. Culture expresses the quest for

identity, suffering and the desire for recognition in a wide variety of ways.
At the same time, we should be clear
that cultural production can only be influenced to a limited extent by international
support programmes, and it normally does
not allow itself to be hitched to set agendas.
Moreover, these products are often the cultural expression of political and ideological
messages that outsiders with little real understanding of the country find difficult to
discern and interpret. International actors
should therefore guard against excessively
narrow categorisations into emancipative
and manipulative forms of cultural expression and would do better to focus on
looking for areas where a constructive approach is being taken towards the ambivalence of culture.
In extremely polarised societies it is
important to focus above all on creating
forums where people from all sides can
familiarise themselves with and gain an
understanding of the cultural characteristics of the other group that provide them
with their identity. In this respect, the external role consists of moderating discussion processes rather than making political
assessments and categorisations. Readings
and exhibitions can help to set in motion
this kind of dialogue that highlights the
interests and needs of others while at the
same time allowing the expression of ones
own interests and needs. However, this
presupposes that this takes place in an environment of mutual respect and safety for
The role of the visual arts, literature, music, film and theatre is
rather to anticipate and mirror
trends in politics and society.
those taking part. Creating these kinds of

protected spaces presents one of the main
challenges.
International support programmes for
post-war and crisis-ridden regions should
therefore be less focused on the instrumentalisation of cultural initiatives for the
purposes of promoting peace and more on
encouraging plurality and providing meeting places for initiating discourse. But in
essence they should espouse values and
principles that encourage conflict transformation. The most important of these
is inclusivity, in the sense of inclusion and
openness not only for cultural actors who
are clearly dedicated to supporting peace
processes, but also for more difficult actors who are indifferent or opposed to these values.
Impartiality towards the opposing
camps is also important. However, this
should not be manifested in a way that
goes against the principle of siding with
people who have had their rights abused or
whose interests have been ignored during
asymmetric conflicts. One of the main preconditions for conflict transformation is
exposing and raising awareness of cultures
of dominance and structures of inequity.
Ownership is another important principle the power of people who are caught up
in conflicts to determine and shape their
lives. Successfully tackling the causes of
conflict and setting in motion the processes of reconciliation largely depends
on these people, but external support can
of course be a great help. These international actors not only need to have expertise in the area of cultural policy but must
also possess and put into practice the same

high level of intercultural awareness and
experience that they expect from their local counterparts. They must display transparency in their goals and strategies and
a willingness to create relationships based
on a partnership of equals. Collaboration
between international and national actors
should open the doors to a mutual learning
process. International and national cultural actors also need to develop trust, to
carry out ongoing needs assessments and
have staying power. Cultural studies expert Tina Balla puts it very clearly: A process that is moved forward with patience
and that must involve the agreement of the
society involved, and a planning process that is sensitively adapted to the conflict involved which allows step-by-step
progress from one project to the next. If
these standards were upheld when sponsoring, planning and carrying out cultural initiatives, then it is much more likely
that they would make a meaningful contribution towards building trust, restoring
damaged relations and achieving conflict
transformation.
Martina Fischer is deputy director of the

Berghof Foundation for Conflict Research in
Berlin. She is co-editor of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation and has
carried out research and published articles on
the following subjects: peacebuilding in the
former Yugoslavia; combining peacemaking
and development cooperation; the role of civil
society in conflict transformation; the relationship between the military and society; European peace policy.
83
Afghanistan and beyond Cultural activity supported

by foreign governments is barely visible in Afghanistan. Why isnt more energy being put into alternative forms of diplomacy and development? When
we consider the lack of success that military action
has had in terms of establishing peace and security in
the country, it would make sense to try to strengthen
civil society and to put more emphasis on initiatives
based around art and culture. By Jemima Montagu
aclev Havel once claimed that if

we are to change our world view,
images have to change. And this
makes the role of the artist especially important: The artist now has a very important job to do. Hes not a little peripheral
figure entertaining rich people, hes really
needed. Havels support for the role of the
artist, and by extension the role of arts and
culture in shaping history no doubt partly
derived from his experience as a playwright and activist who was catapulted into
politics and was to become one of the most
respected leaders to emerge from the vel-
86
vet revolution. Despite suffering from a

long illness, he continued to go his own
way right up until his death last year, and
he was able to see the truth of this statement being borne out by the events of the
Arab Spring in 2011, when writers, musicians and artists were at the forefront of
their own jasmine revolution.
March 2012 marked the 11th anniversary of the destruction of the magnificent standing buddhas in the Bamiyan
Valley in Central Afghanistan. It was an
act that sparked worldwide outrage and
many would argue that it was one of the
key events used to build public support in
Europe and the West in favour of foreign
military intervention in Afghanistan after
9/11. There was of course a great sense of
international revulsion at the daily violence, the public stonings in Kabuls main
sports stadium and the public hangings
on street lamps, but it was the abolition of
music, the banning of television and the
annihilation of 1,500 years of Buddhist
heritage that also played a critical role in
swaying public opinion towards supporting the military-led intervention. It was
culture that aroused empathy for Afgha-
nistan and the Afghan people amongst the

international community.
And yet, if this is true, if international
intervention in Afghanistan was indeed
mobilised by empathy through culture,
then it could also be said that the role of
culture in this foreign adventure has not
really been explored or exploited to its fullest potential. Cultural activity supported
by foreign governments is barely visible
in Afghanistan although when I was living there I did see examples of enlightened initiatives and makes up a fraction
of the foreign billions spent there since
2001. Why, as the military action and the
state-building project floundered, wasnt
more energy put into alternative forms of
diplomacy or development, specifically the
support of civil society initiatives, and its
poorer siblings, arts and culture?
Feel-good actions
We know the answer, of course. Culture still barely registers on the agenda
of international diplomacy and development, and is regarded, at best, as soft power but more usually as touchy-feely or
feel-good phrases that belittle both the
activity and the participants, along with
under-estimating the real value of culture.
It may be a promising sign, however, to see
that the UK Foreign and Commonwealth
Offices Building Stability Overseas Stra-
Soldiers in full body armour

sporting a range of automatic
weapons were advised to go and
shake the hands of local people
and say salaam aleikum.
tegy, published in July 2011, includes the

following statement:
Soft power will play a significant role
in support of our efforts. The work of the
British Council is important in building
engagement and trust for the UK through
a mutual understanding of values and the
role of citizens, governments and civil society worldwide.
Although this may promise a new commitment to the value of soft power, it is
dispiriting to see that the word culture is
still considered off-limits. Yet, by contrast,
there was an almost embarrassing over-use
and abuse of the phrase winning hearts
and minds in the coalitions counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. Winning hearts and minds consisted of quickwin development projects, such as building
wells, but also emphasised face-to-face
contact between soldiers and Afghans. Soldiers in full body armour sporting a range
of automatic weapons were advised to go
and shake the hands of local people and
say salaam aleikum inevitably appearing threatening to most Afghan men, let
alone women and children.
It is not my intention to mock the coalition soldiers, nor to undermine genuine
attempts at cross-cultural engagement, but
to query why more wasnt and still isnt
being done to support cultural initiatives,.
There are many proven examples that not
have not only demonstrated that they have
real value but that are also locally embedded that is to say, initiated and run by
Afghans. It is impossible to describe the
culture of a nation as complex as Afgha-
87
nistan on two sides of a smart card surely

more lessons could have been learned from
Iraq regarding the need for committed and
well-informed cultural engagement?
Last year I was one of the co-founders
of a new agency called Culture+Conflict,
building upon three years spent working
on cultural projects in Afghanistan from
2006 to 2009. Culture+Conflict is responding to the lack of knowledge and understanding about the role that culture plays
in conflict and post-conflict areas around
the world. We are building up a body of
examples of outstanding cultural projects,
and will be promoting them to many different stakeholders in the conflict business
from government departments dealing
with foreign relations, defence and international development, to human rights organisations and NGOs already working in
conflict zones.
We also want to create a platform for
artists and cultural organisations to promote their work and connect with their
international peers. We know that some
outstanding work has already taken place
but these projects are rarely documented
and, even if they have been, there is no central place where such examples and writeups can be found. Given the number of
conflicts around the world today, surely
there is no shortage of places seeking new
approaches to peace-building?
I am not, of course, going to claim that
arts and culture are any kind of universal panacea, or that they alone can resolve
many intractable world conflicts. Culture
and cultural life, however, do continue,
88
despite the daily disruption of war and

conflict: culture can be a touchstone for
normality (reading a book, listening to
music), or a refuge from the surrealism
and pain of conflict. Art and culture may
offer a space for reflection, to digest the experiences of war, or a means to communicate the incommunicable. There are many
extraordinary examples of projects where
theatre directors, artists, writers, musicians, film-makers and others have worked with people traumatised by war, using
the arts to bring people together, locating
a common humanity, as Michaela Crimmin, co-founder of Culture+Conflict, describes it, using art as a frame to play out
realities too difficult to put into words,
and thereby beginning a process of rehabilitation.
Theatre or therapy?
But, as the above examples demonstrate, cultural activity, whether sprouting
from the roots of the people and places
afflicted by conflict or facilitated and supported by external players, is notoriously
and wonderfully! hard to pin down. Theatre or therapy? An exhibition or a public
engagement project? Or simply art for its
own sake? Even here, as I fall back on wellworn words such as culture and art, I am
aware that there is a wide spectrum of possible interpretations for these terms alone.
And here begins the problem of definition,
measurement and evaluation, which too
often thwarts official support and the fun-
ding of cultural activity, whether at home

or abroad. The arts and culture rarely fit
into the tick-box evaluation matrices expected by donors and tax-payers.
But can, or should, the arts be subject
to the same frameworks for evaluation as
other disciplines? The challenge of evaluation is a question that Culture+Conflict
intends to examine more closely. We would
like to see if there are ways to develop robust and yet more flexible frameworks for
assessing cultural activity in the context of
development or conflict.
We know that opening up the arts and
culture to conventional evaluation methods could unlock the door to much
more funding and support, to greater recognition from the foreign relations and
development sectors; but we also value the
independence of culture the ability to
be critical, experimental, and sometimes
open-ended. Art, as with any other sector,
sometimes fails in its attempts.
There are, however, other forms of cultural activity that have a directly practical,
some might say, instrumentalised nature:
heritage preservation and regeneration,
jobs generated by the craft industry, festivals that bring communities together, the
creative economy. These examples relate
Culture can be a touchstone for

normality (reading a book, listening to music), or a refuge from
the surrealism and pain of conflict. Art and culture may offer a
space for reflection, to digest the
experiences of war, or a means to
communicate the incommunicable.
to culture and the arts, but they also fit

neatly into the funding objectives of government departments for international
development or NGO mission statements.
In Afghanistan I once worked for a
charity called Turquoise Mountain, an
Anglo-Afghan NGO which developed an
integrated model of working that linked
heritage and regeneration, education and
skills development, income generation and
enterprise with culture as the central pivot. Turquoise Mountain was established
as a result of a conversation between HRH
Prince Charles and President Karzai about
heritage in Afghanistan. It was founded by
Rory Stewart, now a UK Member of Parliament, and focused on the restoration and
regeneration of Murad Khane, a historic
part of the old city of Kabul; training in traditional arts skills (calligraphy, miniature
painting, carved woodwork, ceramics and
jewellery-making); and economic development by supporting traditional craft businesses and marketing Afghan craft skills
internationally.
I joined the NGO in late 2006 as one of
the founder-directors, after first visiting
Kabul at the beginning of that year and
seeing Murad Khane in the rain of a February day, when it could best be described as a slum. The streets were submerged
in compacted rubbish, and were over-run
with filth and waste. I hardly believed it
would be possible to bring these tumbledown houses and filthy streets back to life.
Today, the whole district of Murad Khane has been completely transformed, and
with it, the quality of life of the people
89
living there. From what was a dwindling

immigrant population, the community has
now re-established itself. There is now a local public school, clinic, and the Abu Fazl
shrine the most important Shia site in
Afghanistan has a refurbished mosque,
courtyard and elaborately carved doors.
The success of the Turquoise Mountain
old city project rests partly on ownership
of the project within the local community,
and policing by local power holders. But
the benefits to the community have also
been very tangible cleared streets, waste
disposal, a health clinic and school. Last
year, the craft training centre moved into
the beautifully restored buildings in the
old city, and concerns about local resentment have proved unfounded. Although
building a tourist offer may be a statement too far in this war-torn city, small
craft businesses and traditional Afghan
restaurants have already started moving
in to capitalise on the new heritage zone.
Sceptical local politicians are now competing to be associated with the project,
and threatened urban developments on or
around the site have been halted. The major donors, USAID and CIDA (Canadian
International Development Agency), have
also promoted the charity as a flagship project in Afghanistan.
In local hands
The regeneration has taken place over
5 years, and has not been cheap over $25
million USD has been spent in this period.
90
Once Turquoise Mountain could be justly

criticised for having a large imported international staff, but numbers have gone
down from about 25 foreign staff in 2008
to only 2 in 2012. International operations
have largely closed down and the charity
is now managed almost exclusively by Afghans. This alone is something to be proud
of: the completion or conclusion of an
NGO project that remains a sustainable
enterprise is rare in Afghanistan where
NGOs tend to grow exponentially with the
money available from donors, only for activities to halt abruptly when the agencies
move elsewhere.
Turquoise Mountain ticks a number of
boxes in terms of concrete development
results: urban regeneration, economic development, building livelihoods, providing
community facilities and infrastructure,
providing education and skills, supporting
new businesses and yet all of these were
directly related to the arts and crafts sector.
The project has also produced some more
intangible benefits that are no less important but much more difficult to measure,
such as restoring a sense of civic and national pride. The often repeated statement
of Turquoise Mountain staff and students
goes along the lines of I am proud of our
country and our heritage, and I want people all over the world to know about this,
to know about Afghanistans beautiful arts
and crafts.
The story of Turquoise Mountain,
which inevitably had its failings along
the way, demonstrates that not only can
a cultural project deliver hard and soft
outcomes, but it also plays into the wider
and more impactful narrative of building
national identity and pride. I use national identity in a qualified sense because
ethnic divisions are so pronounced in Af-
ghanistan that it is always hard to speak

of a collective national identity. But what
this project did prove is that all Afghans,
whatever their ethnicity, can be united by
a sense of pride in their shared cultural
heritage.
These touchy-feely qualities are of
course the essence of soft power, but could
they have been supported by foreign governments and foreign aid budgets without
being attached to the tangible, measurable
benefits of training and skills development,
a community health clinic, and so on? This
is doubtful, but surely it should not be impossible in the future when other opportunities arise?
Another example is Kabul University.
All faculties at the University have an academic partnership with a foreign university (or two) except the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Yet it too needs help to develop its curriculum, facilities and teaching. As yet, none
of the foreign governments operating in
Afghanistan or their counterpart cultural institutes have thought it worthwhile
to intervene. What are the cost benefits,
they might say? How can our investment
be measured? We want to encourage a new
generation of economists, businessmen
and engineers, not artists, actors and musicians! But lets not forget Vaclav Havel,
the unlikely president.
So this brings me back to the original
question of what motivates and justifies
foreign intervention in war and conflict
areas, and what sort of intervention should
this be? The slippery words foreign intervention allow many different, and poten-
tially opposing, interpretations from the

harmless to the harmful. I would like to
co-opt this phrase for culture. Investing in
culture, I believe, is investing in the bedrock of a society, the terrain from which
many tangible benefits may sprout; and
from which many less tangible, but no less
significant benefits grow the roots that
bind people together on an emotional level.
If we are to intervene at all, and the politics of this question should be the subject
of a separate study, then I believe that it is
through culture that we can achieve the
most lasting and successful form of international intervention.
Jemima Montagu is a freelance curator
and cultural advisor. She is co-founder of
Culture+Conflict, an initiative that addresses
the role of art and culture in conflict and postconflict situations.
91
Wars begin in the minds of men Whether it is Catholics in Northern Ireland or Basques in Spain, cultural
arguments have been used to reject what is seen as foreign rule. Culture plays a key role in the way conflicts
between different groups and ethnicities play out and
it must play its part in resolving conflicts. But how?
Cross-border cultural and educational programmes
have powerful potential for promoting peace in many
places around the world. By Raphael Vergin
hen understood as a dynamic,

multi-faceted and often unconscious vehicle for identity
and meaning, culture can shape perceptions, judgements and ideas about what
constitutes us and them. It can separate
the normal from the strange and unfortunately in this way can engender an
us against them mentality. As a result,
cultural devaluation and identity crises
amongst marginalised ethnic groups are
often the root cause of internal conflicts
in many countries.
Secessionist movements often dispute
the right to rule of the others on the basis
of their cultural differences: the Catholics
in Northern Ireland, for example, or the
Basques in Spain and the Palestinians in
Israel. In one of the forgotten conflicts of
92
our time, the independence struggles in

the Casamance region of Senegal, nationbuilding and ethnicity are central to the
conflict. In simple terms, the ruling elites
are rejecting the cultural otherness of those
on the periphery.
The creation of the African Union in
1963 provided the continent with a territorial/nationalist model. This led to political elites in nation states such as Senegal
trying to absorb different ethnic patterns
of identity and specific cultural characteristics in order to create national unity
and integration. This national unity was
to be achieved through homogeneity and
through assimilating the otherness of peripheral groups. In order to gain access
to the political and economic resources
of state power, those on the periphery (as
in Casamance) find themselves forced to
give up their own identities in order to become part of the dominant model. Stereotypes and disparaging descriptions such
as noble savages, anarchists or forest
dwellers who eat monkeys and palm oil
have created a sense of inferiority among
the ethnic groups involved, especially the
Diola people, and sparked a desire to escape such taunts. In its extreme form, opposition to such political and economic
marginalisation leads either to social and
cultural assimilation or to violent conflict
and rebellion.
By looking at a specific conf lict in

context and focusing on the cultural dimension, we can start to understand the
potential and limitations of culture in conflict transformation. Despite the relatively
high importance of ethnicity in the conflict mentioned above, the political and socio-economic prerequisites for providing
equal opportunities for all ethnic groups
and peoples also need to be guaranteed
in terms of universal human rights, democracy, security and the rule of law. It is
also vital to progress the multi-track negotiations with the fragmented rebel group
Mouvement des forces dmocratique de la
Casamance (MFDC). After nearly 30 years
of conflict, some of the groups factions are
still calling for independence and keeping
the struggle alive with the help of transnational financial support.
Geopolitical implications
But the cultural dimension has much
more than just a niche role to play in the
complexity of the Casamance conflict it
has geopolitical implications. How, for example, do we deal with the fact that unified
cultural areas can exist homogeneously
across national borders but not maintain
a symbolic bond with the centralised state?
When the German writer and thinker
Gottfried Herder wrote that the wild mixture of various races and nations under
one sceptre is in conflict with the aims
of government, then it seems fair to ask
just what governments can do to create a
sense of integration in spite of and on the
basis of cultural diversity. I interviewed the
Senegalese historian Abderrahmane Ngaide in 2007 as part of a field study on the
Casamance conflict. He believes that the
solution lies in cross-border regionalisation, saying that this would help increase the
legitimacy of the nation state and ensure
that people still feel they are maintaining
their ties to their ethnic roots, while at the
same time seeing the effects of economic
development within the nation.
Along with improvements to infrastructure in order to increase peoples mobility and expand trade as part of creating
regional economic areas, cross-border culture and education programmes also offer
huge potential for promoting peace. Fostering an appreciation of the culture of
previously denigrated ethnic groups, promoting the maintenance of traditions, customs and cultural heritage, and creating
a regional centre of excellence can all help
the people of the region to develop a new,
more self-confident sense of identity that is
of benefit in the process of nation-building.
Africas past is of course totally different
from that of Europe with its recent experiences of military conflicts and the redrawing of borders. Lack of political will and
the fear of losing power mean that many
African governments are (still) inclined to
reject these kinds of transnational proposals. It may also remain too unclear what
unintended consequences there might be
on the fragile states and war economies of
West Africa. This is where European cultural institutes and cultural policies could
help in the medium-to-long term by offering advice and helping with implementation. They can also bring to bear their
experiences relating to hybridity, transculturalism and identity on the delicate balancing act created by globalisation, regionalisation and nation building. Transnational
cultural projects are already booming in
Europe and can surely be adapted to suit
the needs of other continents.
93
If we look more closely at current projects, we can see that cultural activities are
being supported as a means of exercising
soft power to deal with the consequences
of protracted violence in the Casamance
conflict and as part of other peace processes. Inter-ethnic festivals, peace radio,
interactive theatre, films and photography
all offer the potential and opportunities to
overcome feelings of deprecation, division
and difference between ethnic groups and
to create opportunities for dialogue between formerly hostile parties. Suddenly
rehabilitation, trust, humanity, reconciliation and healing start to emerge and there
is the discovery of a commonality amid
diversity that does not rely on a common
language. It is important to be inclusive,
particularly by involving people living in
remote regions and not simply focusing on
urban centres or elite groups.
Issues such as sustainable growth (in
this instance the creative economy), gender, human rights, education, health and
environment need to be addressed as part
of projects dealing with culture and conflict at the point where the link to nonviolent conflict resolution is justified in the
regional context and above all is triggered
by the suggestions and initiatives of the
local people themselves.
Overall, it is a good idea to predominantly support and promote existing local
structures based on a participatory assessment of needs. Before launching projects
and not only those in the area of culture
and conflict it could be worthwhile to
invest in some cultural reconnaissance in
order to get a better picture of intercultural competence and sensitivity to cultural
differences and needs.
The Arab Spring has made it even more
obvious that it is worth focusing on digi-
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tal media and its potential to support the

processes of social change by increasing
pluralism. Digital media also offer an innovative way of strengthening ties between
sponsors and donors and specific projects,
in as much as they provide additional ways
of documenting project activities and progress in a transparent way and promoting
direct and interactive dialogue. Finally,
from the perspective of grass-roots initiatives, it is important to find ways of creating dialogue between policymakers and
the main actors in conflicts, so that these
key individuals can appropriately adapt
their attitudes, positions and approaches to
meet the calls for peace and international
understanding on the part of local people
and communities, and also, quite simply,
so that they talk to each other. This kind
of advocacy work could well benefit from
the creative methods such as the use of
audio-visuals to influence the awareness
and decision-making process of the key
players concerned. Community radio is
a widespread discussion platform that is
generally well-accepted by the local population. Radio programmes and radio
plays are often much more successful than
conferences and round table discussions
at keeping people informed across wide
geographic areas, irrespective of their level of education, and can influence them
much more profoundly at an emotional
and symbolic level.
If wars begin in the minds of men as
suggested by UNESCOs charter, then the
reverse must also be true and overcoming
violence and hostility must also start with
peoples minds. This is where cultural activities have a potential role to play in helping to change peoples attitudes and behaviours. However, it is not always the case
that culture is used to help prevent violence
and war. As Martina Fischer and others

point out in this report, it can actually contribute to violence and hatred as well. The
ambivalence of culture in conflicts therefore makes it imperative to look more critically at calls for independence and freedom for the arts, at least from the point of
view of cultures practical role in conflict
transformation, and even to put forward
counter-arguments in favour of more control and a greater sense of responsibility.
Here, we are talking about responsibility in the sense that projects undertaken
within the context of civil conflict management efforts always serve an external and
interventionist function, in spite of all right
and proper attempts to ensure participation, self-determination and ownership. By
taking into account not only the interests of
sponsors, donors and tax-payers, but also
our own motivation, responsibility and
willingness to learn, it is imperative that
we assess whether our projects might not
also have the potential to actually intensify
the conflict. The principle of do no harm
must be respected.
We need to work on the basis of the
lessons-learned principle so that people
on the ground can be guided in a more
effective way. To do this we need specific
criteria, frameworks and indicators that
are developed, continuously tested and enhanced in a dynamic way through dialogue
and the exchange of ideas and experiences
amongst all the key players from both the
culture and conflict camps, in order to pro-
Transnational culture projects

are already booming in Europe
and can surely be adapted to suit
the needs of other continents.
mote the maximum amount of peace and

the minimum amount of violence.
We have to accept that it is currently very difficult and time-consuming to
quickly or accurately measure progress
towards peace. Having said that, it is important to focus on best practice examples
that show how potential outcomes can be
both devised and evaluated.
How senseless is everything

that can ever be written, done,
or thought, when such things are
possible. It must be all lies and of
no account when the culture of a
thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being
poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands.
Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929.
It is precisely this question we have to

ask ourselves in relation to post-conflict
Nepal, a country where we have for some
years been running a number of projects as
part of an initiative called culture4peace.
Working with representatives from Nepalese civil society, we have been supporting dialogue and reconciliation processes
through workshops, training sessions and
community radio initiatives that build
upon the success of each other. Interactive
theatre, film and radio plays are all integrated as components of follow-up projects.
In this example, it is relatively easy to
quantify the effects of these initiatives in
terms of the numbers of people informed
about civil conflict resolution; the number
of participants at training sessions on the
95
subject; the number of actors; the topics

addressed; the estimated number of listeners to radio programmes or audiences at
films shown in villages. Age, sex, social
status can all be measured and quantified.
What is much more difficult to quantify
is their effectiveness, the intensity of the
dialogues or the transformative nature of
what is said and heard.
However, in terms of monitoring and
evaluation, it is possible to gather important qualitative feedback from participants
(and random samples of audiences in various communities) using questionnaires,
group discussions, telephone interviews
and participative observation, and also
to provide these people with qualitative
feedback from our side. The interpersonal aspects involved in the implementation
and evaluation of projects, such as trust
building, non-violent communication, readiness to embrace dialogue and conflict resolution, can all be observed and assessed
in the field. However, people often pursue
their own interests and egotistical goals,
so answers to surveys and questionnaires
can be deliberately biased. Nevertheless,
despite these potential shortcomings or inadequacies, and despite a lack of resources, we have had some success in terms of
monitoring effectiveness and in gathering
useful data based on experience, and we
can build on this.
The kind of practical information gathered in the course of project work (and in
this case underpinned by the experiences
gained in a project that has been running
since 2009 under the auspices of the Nepali Civil Peace Service, in which training
seminars on interactive theatre play a key
role) could and should be continuously added to, expanded and made more transparent through inter-organisational dialo-
96
gue. But how can we now even think about

more flexible frameworks for cultural activities in the area of conflict transformation? How can we reconcile the apparently
insurmountable differences between the
desire to honour the temple of art on the
one hand and specific peace agendas on
the other?
If the causes of conflicts are infinitely complex then so are the potential solutions. For example, it is undeniable that
freedom of expression is a fundamental
principle of human rights, democracy and
pluralism. According to democratic peace
theory, these in turn can, under certain circumstances, help to foster non-violent conflict management and so promote peace.
It could also be argued that every form of
conflict, even the most violent, can at first
be necessary, sensible and right.
Stirred to action by artists

A society that is moved and stirred to
action by artists and that denounces the
current state of affairs and identifies solutions, effectively shapes its conflicts and
determines their form. Building stable nations and achieving national unity within
Europe was a long, slow progress that often
involved violent altercations.
It could be argued that independent artists should simply be given a bag of money
and their freedom (within the restrictions
imposed by their society at least) with our
best wishes, without worrying about other
issues, such as a sense of awareness. The
consequences could be either positive or
negative.
The fact is, those who are primarily
interested in promoting a peace agenda
rather than artistic freedom would need
to impose strict criteria in order to ensure

they have the maximum amount of control over the success of this approach. In
this way they would follow an intrinsic logic that is also designed to make them less
vulnerable and legitimise their own peace
efforts. This could result in much creative
potential being lost, but could also prevent
some damage occurring, the consequences
of which might be much more severe than
the potential success envisaged.
Having said that, this does not mean
that it is impossible for artists to be given
the maximum amount of freedom in a
conflict transformation situation. Various organisations, such as the Dutch Prince
Claus Fund, are already supporting culture
and conflict initiatives in a more flexible
way. Other initiatives, such as the British
Culture+Conflict programme, are making
a valuable contribution in terms of gathering, evaluating and publishing valuable
data through their approach to documentation and best practice. What is clear is
that the resulting lessons learned should be
evaluated in as transparent a way as possible and widely discussed in order to be
able to use the success of a more flexible
approach as a key bargaining point when
dealing with more conservative donors.
In principle, cultural activities should
not be subject to any more restrictions than
the general peace process itself, whatever
the potential outcome paradigms, for it is
just as difficult to effectively and quickly
measure the impact of, say, a symposium,
as it is to foresee in detail the potential impact of setting up a peace museum. The fact
that in terms of peace work both can be
equally well conceived, implemented and
evaluated and that local target groups can
also give important qualitative feedback on
these and other similar activities should be
sufficient reason to pursue both options.

There may be a benefit in shifting the
discussion away from specific positive
outcomes towards reflecting on potential unintended negative consequences. In
this way, background checks and trustbuilding within the framework of freedom
for the artist could help to prevent unwanted potential damage. As a result, artists
would have freedom of choice in the creation and presentation of their work and
would simply be assessed through regular monitoring and a final evaluation for
documentation. Workshops on awareness
and responsibility could also be integrated
into the programme.
In general, there is a need to gather more
data based on experience and to increase
funding and resources aimed at the practical and analytical management of the cultural dimension of conflicts. The exchange
of ideas and experiences within Europe
could and should be actively promoted by
the European cultural institutes and pursued in international and cross-discipline
forums, as is the case with the informal
working group Culture and Conflict, coordinated by the Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural
Relations, ifa). This provides clear evidence
of the important role played in conflicts by
art and culture.
Raphael Vergin was a trainee at the Society
for International Cooperation and also worked
for several years for the peace and human
rights organisation Peace Brigades International in Nepal and Germany. In 2009 he set up
the project culture4peace which focuses on
intercultural aspects of peace processes. As
part of his political science studies, he carried
out research into obstacles to constructive
conflict resolution in the Casamance conflict
(Senegal).
97
A voice for the voiceless The South African government uses culture and art as a way of achieving togetherness, mutual understanding and respect and
as a means of overcoming the long and heavy legacy of colonialism and apartheid. In Brazil, music is
commonly used to lure youth away from drugs and
crime. Percussion, in particular, seems to offer the
additional side-effect of channelling frustration and
aggression into harmony. What else can culture do?
By Bernd Reiter
or many social scientists, cultural

phenomena are peripheral a mere
reflection of the really important
factors that determine life: economics, assets, the ownership of the means of production, and the political power that has
its roots in this material base.
According to Karl Marx, it is material
conditions that determine the society and
culture of an era. For Marx and his followers, whoever holds the money and power can define what is right, beautiful and
just, and cultural life is a mere reflection
of these basic power and wealth constellations. There are countless examples of how
98
powerful and influential elites have radically restructured the lifeworld, and this
framework is still able to provide us with
many revealing questions and answers.
However, like any theoretical framework, it
provides just one way of looking at reality.
Another was developed by Antonio
Gramsci (1891-1937). In his Prison Notebooks, he pondered the autonomy of culture that at one time was established and
defined in a certain way. Later authors,
in the tradition of the German/Austrian
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and the Austrian Alfred Schtz, gave more detailed
accounts of how culture, once institutionalised, can become autonomous and
withstand some of the direct changes in
material conditions.
It was Gramsci who introduced the idea
of cultural hegemony a situation where
one version or definition of culture is imposed on material conditions, influencing, structuring, and restricting peoples
actions and thoughts. For Gramsci, the
content of cultural hegemony was almost
always shaped by the ruling classes and it
restricted the opportunities of poor and
working class people. Schtz, in particular,
set out the conditions under which certain
behavioral patterns become institutionalised, thus gaining some degree of autonomy

from material living conditions. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), who was writing
around the same time as Gramsci, believed members of the leisure class only
engaged in conspicuous and unproductive
consumption in order to set themselves
apart and reconfirm their elite status. According to him, elite culture was empty and
meaningless, and it was mostly aimed at
maintaining and reinforcing status rather
than contributing to general welfare. It did
not merely grow out of and reflect material
conditions, but rather culture and customs
affected these material conditions.
Art, however, is social not only

because of its mode of production, in which the dialectic of
forces and relations of production is concentrated, nor simply
because of the social derivation
of its thematic material. Much
more importantly, art becomes
social by its opposition to society, and it occupies this position
only as autonomous art.
Theodor W. Adorno
Norbert Elias (1897-1990), a German

sociologist of Jewish descent, took this
analysis a step further by demonstrating
that the upper classes constantly invent
new cultural forms and manners in order
to set themselves apart from the rest who
then seek to imitate these latest mannerisms. This starts an endless game of cat-andmouse that results in forms of behavioural
and cultural expression that are ever less

practical, rational, and functional.
Such a public sphere, we believe, creates a space whereby the

critical models of artists, theorists, philosophers, historians,
activists, urbanists, writers, and
others working within other intellectual traditions and artistic
positions could productively be
represented and discussed. The
public sphere imagined by these
collaborations is to be understood, then, as a constellation of
multifaceted platforms in which
artists, intellectuals, communities, audiences, practices, voices,
situations, actions come together
to examine and analyze the predicaments and transformations
that form part of the deeply inflected historical procedures and
processes of time.
Okwui Enwezor

All these theories and frameworks
point to the autonomous power of culture. Culture, once created and institutionalised, has an effect on peoples thoughts
and behaviours, determining what they
perceive to be right, beautiful, and proper.
99
Furthermore, all the authors mentioned

above agree that culture tends to be biased
towards the ruling classes, but also that it
influences the lives of ordinary people by
channelling and restricting their options
in their efforts to achieve upward mobility because they emulate the habits of the
rich. In other words, status maintenance is
to a large extent performative, and cultural forms allow it to create, maintain and
reinforce its separation.
Such a framework also allows consideration of the liberating potential of culture
and cultural production. If culture is to
some degree autonomous and if it affects
peoples options and values, then it also has
the potential to impact and change their
lives in negative and positive ways.
The key factor in this equation is the
content of culture and the values and preferences that it transmits. If it is normally the
rich and powerful who load culture with
their own preferences preferences that
are in themselves not genuine, but driven
by the need for distinction then a progressive or revolutionary culture and art
aimed at producing social change, more
democracy, more participation, more selfdetermination, and more justice, liberty,
and equality can use culture and art to disseminate and instil values and preferences
associated with these values. The resulting
utopia is one of a culture and art of the
people one that provides incentives for
a deeper and more meaningful democratic
praxis. After all, democracy renews itself
through associations formed in the public
sphere, as Jrgen Habermas has so insistently asserted, and culture and art are the
100
public expressions of this par excellence.

This is a utopia because, in reality, public spheres and the media that influence,
inform, and even uphold them tend to be
privately owned, thus representing particular rather than general interests, mostly
of a commercial nature. But utopia or not,
if it is recognised that culture and art can
be autonomous and constructed by society, then they have the potential to bring
about social change, and it also explains
how and by which means such a change
can come about.
In a truly democratic system, public
spheres and the media that create and influence them should be geared towards
democratic meaning general aims and
they should focus on issues of citizenship,
democracy, justice, and equality. If they
were to do this, they would have the potential to create a democratic public sphere
that actively disseminates and spreads a
democratic culture, not least through the
production and dissemination of democratic and educational works of art.
A world of democratic culture

In such a world, democratic culture has
the potential to influence all those who
are exposed to it and who engage with it.
In this way it has an impact not only on
their thoughts and actions, but also on
The Rwandan civil war clearly attests to the power of culture

and the media in mobilising
people and imposing analytical
frameworks to guide peoples
thoughts and actions.
their norms, values, and preferences.

We can grasp the power of culture and
art by looking at its influence in most market-driven societies, where its main and
hegemonic function is the dissemination
of consumerism, individualism, and materialism. The culture of the market is indeed
so pervasive and powerful that it ensures
the continued working of market systems,
constantly instilling new wants and needs
and a restless drive towards consumption.
Without it, markets could not work and
constantly expand.
But what can culture achieve in situations of conflict? In a poignant article
entitled Civil Society, Pluralism, Goldilocks and Other Fairy Tales in Africa,
Leonard Markovitz (2002) argues that in
situations of civil war and conflict, civil
society (and as a consequence culture and
art) are toothless. Where weapons speak
the loudest, the often ephemeral voices
of artists, neighbourhood associations,
and civic activists are drowned. Similarly,
where public spheres are emptied out by
fear, hatred, and mutual suspicion, democracy cannot renew itself. Like other political realists, Markovitz, shows that states
and state power need to uphold, enforce,
and protect the basic civil rights of free
speech and association, without which democratic culture cannot thrive.
Although this argument is certainly illuminating and explains many situations
where culture and art are pushed to the
fringes by guns, fear and violence, there
are still many empirical examples that contradict it and perhaps provide an exception to this general rule. Taken all together,
these examples allow for some tentative

deductions and generalisations about the
autonomous power of culture and art in
conflict situations.
One of the most telling negative examples of the power of culture and the media
is the civil war in Rwanda. Here, radio stations were able to fall back on old resentments and actively disseminate a culture of
hatred that was ultimately channelled into
genocide. The Rwandan civil war clearly attests to the power of culture and the
media in mobilising people and imposing
analytical frameworks to guide peoples
thoughts and actions. With the support
of their organisations, ethnopolitical entrepreneurs were are able to use and manipulate the media in order to advance their
own agenda and spread dissent and hatred.
Platforms for encounters

Beyond Rwanda, we have witnessed the
brutal power of the media in shaping and
forging cultural norms in Nazi Germany
and everywhere else where particular frames of reference and ways of seeing things
are propagated to the point where they become the new mainstream. However, this
power does not have to be directed towards
such negative ends, as media content is not
in any way predefined.
A very positive example that points to
the power of culture, media, art, civil society and the public sphere in overcoming
division is that of post-apartheid South Africa. Here, immediately after the dismantling of apartheid, the new Department of
101
Arts and Culture set out to promote cultural and artistic events with the explicit aim
of bringing together the different groups
of South Africa who had previously been
kept divided by law.
I remember meeting a representative
of the new South African government in
the late 1990s who told me that for the first
time, South Africans of different ethnic
backgrounds were able to come together.
Culture and art provided the main platforms for these encounters. So it should
not come as a surprise that in a society
that is still strongly divided, culture and
art are perceived as stages or platforms for
the practice of togetherness, the exchange
of ideas, mutual learning and respect. In
June 2012, the South African Department
of Arts and Culture presented a National Strategy for Developing an Inclusive and Cohesive South African Society
(pdf available at: http://www.dac.gov.za/
reports.htm). The first line of the report
reads: This is a draft National Strategy
on Social Cohesion and Nation-Building
of the Department of Arts and Culture
(DAC). Under the concept of ubuntu,
which involves interconnectedness, sharing, and commitment to the greater social
good, this report states the vision of the
Department of Culture and Art as: To develop and preserve South African culture
to ensure social cohesion and nation-building. It goes on to say: This mandate derives from its role as public custodian of the
diverse cultures, languages and heritage of
the people of South Africa and as the national leader in providing public support for
the development of innovation across the
104
full spectrum of the arts as creative, economic and social practices, and as bearers
of a dynamic society. As a consequence,
the departments programmes cover the
administration of arts and culture in society, language, heritage promotion, national
archives, records, libraries and heraldry.
The South African government is therefore using culture and art as a way of achieving togetherness, mutual understanding
and respect and as a means of overcoming
the long and heavy legacy of colonialism
and apartheid. In doing so, it highlights
the importance, relevance and power of
culture and art. This power is considerable,
as is shown by the example of integrated
sport in South Africa. The symbolism and
lasting impact of playing football, rugby or
cricket together goes beyond the players
themselves. It sends a powerful message
to the rest of the nation and even to the
global sports audience. It instils values of
togetherness and celebrates unity, and in
doing so it forges a new democratic, hegemonic culture that has a positive effect on
peoples values, norms, and motivations
and influences the material conditions of
their lives.
There are many other examples of how
culture and art have the power to instil
democratic values that provide the direction and motivation for democratic
action. Such values have the potential to
influence material conditions. In Brazil,
music is commonly used to lure youth
away from drugs and crime. Many well-
The symbolism and lasting impact of playing football, rugby or

cricket together goes beyond the
players themselves.
known NGOs, including Viva Rio, Afro

Reggae, ISER, Pracatum and Bagunao,
offer after-school music education as a way
of engaging urban youth in positive and
constructive activities. Music has proven
to be a powerful tool in the struggle for
Brazilian citizenship. Music is a way of
increasing the self-esteem of groups that
have historically been mistreated and
disrespected: the victims of a deeply-ingrained institutional racism. As musicians, poor urban youth can gain a voice
and a public platform, or in this case, a
stage. By making their voices heard, they
are able to break their imposed silence and
overcome their invisibility. Their voices
enrich the Brazilian public sphere in important and consequential ways, making
it more diverse and a reflection of Brazils
multicultural society. Percussion, in particular, seems to offer the additional side
effect of channelling frustration and aggression into harmony. The Brazilian
impromptu percussion formation O Zarabe, created and led by the Bahian musician Carlinhos Brown, provides a good
example of this. In a TV interview given
in the late 1990s, Brown explained that the
200 men who were running, drumming,
and singing with him as they roamed the
streets of Bahia could be using this energy
to rob and steal in an arrasto, that is,
a mass robbery orchestrated by a band of
thieves sweeping up whatever is in their
path. Instead, Brown explained, O Zarabe
was a peaceful, musical arrasto that channelled youthful male energy into music (O
Zarabe is made up exclusively of young
black men).
Art has to do with life. Only

from art can a new concept of
economics be formed, in terms
of human need, not in the sense
of use and consumption, politics
and property, but above all in
terms of the production of spiritual goods.
Joseph Beuys
The power of music to heal divisions

and overcome separation can also be seen
in the United States, where racial divisions
and segregation are among the harshest in
the world. In cities like New Orleans and
Memphis, where African Americans dominate the music scene, we can see how
integration is at work in bands and carnival floats. White Americans who are
normally the main orchestrators and beneficiaries of American racism take part in
forms of black cultural expression and in
doing so become as one with their fellow
black band members. New Orleans and
Memphis both have a long history of black
music and are unique in providing a kind
of contact between black and white that
is rare elsewhere. This contact seems to
spring from their music scenes but it ends
up characterising their societies, setting
them apart from other American cities.
New Orleans and Memphis show us how
culture, music and art are able to bring
together people and groups who are normally divided to take part in a joint project,
whether it is playing in a team, forming a
105
band or simply coming together to enjoy

cultural events such as carnivals. Whenever this happens, cultural praxis provides
orientation, motivation, and practical examples of joint actions that bring together
those who are so often separated.
Culture becomes political

The Argentinian philosopher Enrique
Dussel (2000) and his French colleague Jacques Rancire (2007) both argue that we
need to rethink what constitutes the political. While Dussel argues that everything
is political, Rancire suggests that most
political problems are actually of social
origin, but that they can be addressed by
political means. In this essay, I have expanded the notion of the social to include the
cultural. Most political problems are indeed rooted in social and cultural problems,
but political solutions are not enough to
address them successfully.
When culture is used as a tool to tackle
social division, suspicion or even hatred
between groups, then indeed it becomes
political, as Dussel suggests. Enwezor Okwui, artistic director of the Dokumenta
11 exhibition in Germany (2002), explains
this in his book The Short Century (2001),
saying that culture and art have the power
to make, unmake, and redraw divisions
among people and groups. At a very basic level, inter-group conflict is the result
of portraying certain people as different
from, or better than, others, and thus justifying their privileges. Government action is often called for in crisis situations,
106
but such action cannot change the very

definitions and frames of reference that
pitched people and groups against each
other in the first place. However, culture
and art can do this.
Bernd Reiter is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics and Latin American Studies
at the University of South Florida, Tampa. His
research topics include democracy, citizenship,
participation, civil society and education. He
has spent time in Colombia and Brazil working
on projects to aid street children and at-risk
urban youth and to increase the participation
of favela dwellers.
References
Adorno, Theodor W. 1997, Aesthetic Theory.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Beuys, Joseph, 1997, The Multiples, Cambridge:
Busch-Reisinger Museum.
Dussel, Enrique. 2000, Democracy in the Center and Global Democratic Critique. In: Okwui,
Enwezor, Okwui 2000, Democracy Unrealized:
Documenta 11_Platform 1. Ostfildern-Ruit:
Hatje Cantz Publishers, pages 267-284.
Enwezor, Okwui. 2001, The Short Century, Munich: Prestel Verlag.
Markovitz, Leonard, 2002, Civil Society, Pluralism, Goldilocks and Other Fairy Tales in Africa,
In: Bond, George Clement and Nigel Gibson,
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories. Boulder: Westview, chapter 5.
Rancire, Jacques, 2007, On the Shores of Politics. New York: Verso.
Setting the truth free Northern Ireland is only just

beginning to emerge from a painful and destructive
period characterised by sectarianism, isolationism,
armed conflict and murder. In common with so many
conflicts, the roots of the Troubles in Northern Ireland were arguably as much cultural as they were political and economic. Can culture also help to create
lasting peace? By Peter Jenkinson
n common with many other European nations, the United Kingdom has a
legacy of imperial and colonial adventure and misadventure on every continent
that stretches back hundreds of years and
that redrew the maps through the use of
force. This complex British history and
practice of invasion, plantation, human
trafficking, slavery, exploitation and repression in multiple locations across the
world led, in many instances, to enduring
violence and conflict and finally to struggles for peace, justice, autonomy and independence. The lessons of this long imperial period continue to cast long shadows
and are still being unravelled, unpacked,
assessed and disputed through to this day.
Without doubt this critical debate on rights
and wrongs will and should continue long

into the future, as new narratives emerge,
injustices are corrected, histories are retold
and as new and more positive and more
equitable relationships and alliances are
made and remade between the former colonisers and the colonised, and with those who inhabited ambiguous positions in
between.
Yet for the United Kingdom there is one
conflict much closer to home, in fact right
on the doorstep, which has deeply affected
national life for centuries and that today is
only in the earliest and most fragile stages
of the long journey to eventual peace and
reconciliation: the conflict in Northern
Ireland.
The painful, bitter and destructive period of sectarianism, isolationism, armed
conflict and murder from the 1960s onwards, that became known as the Troubles and which was witnessed on television screens across the world for decades, is
one from which Northern Ireland is only
just emerging. In common with so many
conflicts, including many in the Middle
East at this moment, the roots of the Troubles in Northern Ireland were arguably as
much cultural as they were political and
economic.
The crucial question for us now is: if the
roots of the Troubles were as much cultural as they were political and economic,
107
is this also true of the potential solutions?

And if so, what exactly is the role, or even
responsibility, of culture in rebuilding, reconnecting, reshaping and reimagining
Northern Irish life and society? What is it
specifically that culture can do, or make
possible, that nothing else can? And why?
Alternatively should culture even be employed in so instrumentalist an agenda as
conflict management and resolution and
the re-creation of a strong and purposeful civilian and civic life for all? Or might
culture continue to prove to be a malign
force, slowing or blocking the path of reconstruction and normalisation? And
finally, in a broader European and international context, what lessons might be
drawn from the ongoing Northern Ireland
experience?
Human beings suffer,

They torture one another,
They get hurt and they get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted or endured.
Seamus Heaney Nobel Laureate From The Cure at Troy
I should stress from the outset that although I have shared Irish and English family heritage I am from England and not
from Northern Ireland and so my perspective here is very much that of a more distant, or even consciously nave, observer
who has not been directly involved in the
vast sweeps of history that have affected
this troubled place on the very western
edge of Europe in recent times. But I have
had the great privilege of being involved
with Northern Ireland over the last five
108
years through being appointed as a deliberately outsider expert advisor on the postconflict art programme in the ancient city
of Derry~Londonderry and latterly on its
successful bid to be the first UK City of
Culture in 2013. It has been a fast-moving,
exciting, inspiring, puzzling and troubling
experience and, as so many outsiders do,
I have become fascinated with the people,
the place, its multiple unresolved stories
and myths and the huge energy and wit
that is being brought to bear to create a
more positive future for all.
The roots of the Troubles in Northern
Ireland lie in the long and complex history
of the frequently antagonistic relationships
between the islands of Ireland and Great
Britain and specifically events almost 400
years ago that dramatically changed these
relationships forever. In 1613, under the
instructions of King James I, the wealthiest
Guild Companies of the City of London,
(many somewhat reluctantly) made settlements in the province of Ulster in the
north of Ireland. Ulster at that time was
regarded as the most Gaelic and the most
troublesome of the Irish provinces in the
eyes of the English Crown and therefore
needed to be brought under control, lest
it make alliances with Englands enemies
in Continental Europe.
The London Guild Companies divided
up the best land between themselves and
established plantations, often replacing
the Irish names of the towns and villages
with English names. They built the walled city of Derry at a key defensive position on the River Foyle in the North West
of Ireland, renamed it Londonderry and

established new English forms of political and civic administration across Ulster.
From this moment of the English (and subsequently Scottish) Protestant and Presbyterian settlement of an Irish and predominantly Catholic territory an event that
many living in Ulster regarded rather more
negatively as an unjust and unjustifiable
English invasion the seeds were sown
for division, discord and conflict along
practically tribal, ethno-political lines in
the four centuries that followed.
Laboratory of Empire
This northern Irish colonial adventure would influence British overseas expansion from this period onwards. The
many lessons learned from the Plantation
of Ulster were to be exported to Britains
rapidly-burgeoning colonial, and latterly
imperial, territories across the world, making Ulster an early Laboratory of Empire.
Whilst strife and conflict were, almost
inevitably, constant over the centuries that
followed, the most sustained period of systemic violence and sectarian bloodletting
the Troubles engulfed Northern Ireland
from the late1960s. What started out as civil rights protests were rapidly accelerated
by the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972 in
which, as the subsequent UK Government
Saville Inquiry concluded only in 2010,
British soldiers murdered 14 innocent ci-
Year by year, toxic words and

images of hatred, pain, cruelty and breakdown were flashed
across the world.
vilians in Derry. Whilst the Troubles were

most often all too neatly and conveniently
characterised, not least in Britain, as a distant battle between two conflicting sides
on another island Catholic v Protestant,
Nationalist v Unionist, Green v Orange
the truth is that from the beginning the
third partner in this battle was Britain itself, or at least British political and military
leaders, though few of them acknowledged
this at the time or even since.
As they ran their course over the next
30 years, the Troubles would result in the
deaths of more than 3,600 people 2,000
civilians, 1,000 members of the security
services and 600 paramilitaries. Many
others were permanently wounded and,
in such a small province in which communal and familial bonds were extremely
tight, everyone living there could not but
be directly and deeply affected by the debilitating conflict that raged on an almost
daily basis.
The Troubles attracted unprecedented
national and international media attention. Year by year, toxic words and images of
hatred, pain, cruelty and breakdown were
flashed across the world, accompanied by
narratives that were often far from objective, if not avowedly partisan. For most
outsiders this dramatic conflict is all that
the reality of Northern Ireland represented and for many this is still the case today. But, as always in conflict territories,
there were many other realities than those
presented by the outside media.
As is the case in most conflict situations,
as the violence deepened across Northern
Ireland many people chose to leave, in-
109
cluding artists, creative practitioners and

intellectuals, exiling themselves and moving to other parts of the island or to other
parts of the world, in particular to North
America where the diasporic connections
were especially strong. Some would never
return. But many of those who stayed in
Northern Ireland felt a strong responsibility to play a part in contemporary events.
As the artist John Kindness stated, The
Troubles changed the agenda a lot of us
felt a need to bring what was happening on
the street into our work.
The most famous and vibrant examples of this were the murals and frescoes
that were painted on buildings and walls in
both Catholic and Protestant communities
across the province, drawing, quite literally, the battle lines to come. Often featuring extreme and violent images depicting
paramilitary fighters, children in crossfire, Orange marches, drive-by shootings
and fallen heroes, the murals reflected and
underscored, and arguably boosted and
glorified, the rapidly growing separation
of the two conflicted communities: art simultaneously in the service of cohesion
and division. But these intimidating and
celebratory murals were not and are not
the only cultural story.
Many mainstream and official cultural
and academic institutions remained frozen, almost paralysed, by the Troubles,
unable to respond for fear of being perceived as taking sides. For example, the exhibiting or collecting of directly Troublesrelated contemporary art by the primary
public institutions in Northern Ireland
was minimal during the period, nor did
the art market beyond pay much heed to
art that was often perceived as too socially and politically engaged for elite tastes
at the time.
110
An upsurge in creative energy

However, despite the conservatism of
most institutions, there was, simultaneously, an upsurge in artistic, cultural and
creative energy as immediate, on-time account was taken, through art, photography, literature, poetry, music and film, of
the ongoing conflict.
The work of Brian Friel and Stephen
Rea at the Field Day Theatre Company,
the writings of Nobel Laureate Seamus
Heaney, Seamus Deane, Michael Longley,
Tom Paulin and Pulitzer prizewinner Paul
Muldoon, the exuberant punkish songs of
The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers,
the works of visual artists including Willie
Doherty, Rita Duffy, Paul Graham, Victor
Sloan, Conrad Atkinson and Richard Hamilton and the films of Paul Greengrass,
Ken Loach, Pat OConnor, Alan Clarke and
Neil Jordan bear witness to the fact that,
during the darkest years, the Troubles were
also characterised by cultural output that
directly connected with the realities and
complexities of the region in multiple ways.
This work reflected the conflict back to the
people living through it and bore testimony to their struggle and suffering, whilst
importantly drawing British and international attention to, and placing a sharper
focus on, the intensity, volatility, violence
and vibrancy of what was happening in,
and to, Northern Ireland.
This three decades of work touching
upon the Troubles by artists and cultural activists of every kind, using every
type of art form, from street artist collectives to now internationally renowned
creative figures significantly had no

one common role, purpose or manifesto.
Throughout these years the artists work
fulfilled various different functions it
bore witness, protested, interrogated, affirmed and celebrated, quietly reflected,
angrily denounced, gave voice to the voiceless, called to action, made connections
and reconnections, took sides, encouraged
empathy, contested the foundation myths
and stereotypes at the root of the conflict,
healed, inspired, scrutinised, sanctioned
ambiguity, satirised, proposed novel answers to ancient questions and asked new
questions of old answers, memorialised
and mourned, opened up the wider world
beyond Northern Ireland and, for some at
least, sought the elusive truth of the situation everyone was living through.
The brother of the youngest civilian
killed on Bloody Sunday in 1972 claimed,
throughout the decades that followed, that
all he wanted all along was to set the truth
free. Whilst there may not have been a
common artistic purpose, this setting
the truth free may arguably have been
one of the common artistic motivations.
Today it is not possible to imagine the
Troubles in Northern Ireland without this
astonishing record of work created by, and
the agency willingly and passionately provided by, artists. Nor indeed to imagine
any conflict without the record and agency
History says, Dont hope

on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
provided by artists and cultural activists.

Certainly art and culture did not stop the
battle that raged for decades and perhaps
this should never be expected. But what
did it do or make possible? Even now it is
perhaps too early to assess precisely what
its impact was, across Northern Ireland
and across the world. But is it not critical that we reach this understanding, not
least to be able to pass on this knowledge
and painfully-acquired wisdom, openly
and with generosity, to people living in
and with current and future conflict situations?
Northern Ireland is now described as
being in a post-conflict situation. Id like
to speculate that whilst culture played a
vital, multi-levelled, multi-constituency
role during the conflict as witness, as
protestor, as connector, as provocateur,
as memorialist and so on it is perhaps
during this so-called post-conflict period
that culture can play its most powerful and
purposeful role yet.
40 years on, there is at last the space for
reflection, for reassessment, for compassion, for openness, for peaceful pause and for
slowness and patience. Now at last there is
time for conversations that were previously
deemed out of the question, for new relationships and partnerships, not least with the
world outside and, crucially, for the weaving
of new generations, who never knew the
Troubles but who will be shaping the future into the ongoing story (and stories) of
Northern Ireland so that it becomes their
story, a shared story, connected with the
difficult past but not trapped or frozen by
it. The truth can and will at last be set free.
Seamus Heaney From The Cure at Troy
111
The stories of Northern Ireland are

about to be presented on a new global
stage. The crucible of the Troubles, the
city of Derry~Londonderry, is to step up
to lead the Northern Irish renegotiation
of its past, present and future. In 2009
plans for marking the 400th Anniversary of the connection of the two cities of
London and Derry~Londonderry in 2013
through new cultural partnerships and
collaborations were well underway when
the UK government, intending to build on
the success of Liverpools year as European City of Culture in 2008, announced a
competition to become the first UK City
of Culture in 2013. Designating itself as
the City of Derry~Londonderry (thereby signalling the inclusion of both traditions in the city from the outset), the city
entered the competition with great drive
and passion and in June 2010 was declared
the winner, marking yet another highly
significant milestone in British-Irish relations. The headline of the citys bid was
Telling a new story with the foundations
built on the twin philosophical pillars of
Purposeful Inquiry, boldly looking afresh
at the past and present in order to inform
the future, including the revisiting of the
culture of the Troubles, and Joyous Celebration, marking the energies and achievements the city and its people sustained even
through the darkest and most painful years
of the past. If there is an answer (or likely
answers) to my speculation on the power
of culture in peacemaking and renewal in
the post-conflict period, it is likely to be
found in this city on the edge of Europe in
the year, and the decade, ahead, starting

with the London Olympics and Paralympics this summer.
The opening concert, the Peace Concert, of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, produced in collaboration with the agency Peace One Day, will be held not as
would be expected in London but rather
in Derry~Londonderry on 21 June 2012.
This will signal to the world the intention
of the London Olympics to return to the
modern Olympics original focus on truce
and peacemaking when it was reinvented
in the late nineteenth-century by Baron de
Coubertin in a Europe torn apart by war.
Equally it will signal yet another dramatic moment and shift in British-Irish relations. Following this concert, the UK
will initiate a conversation about culture
and peacemaking that will move from the
London Olympics and Paralympics of 2012
to Derry~Londonderry in 2013 and then
on to Glasgow when it hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2014, before the conversational baton is passed on to Rio de Janeiro
when it hosts the Olympics and Paralympics in 2016 and, it is to be hoped, onwards
from Brazil thereafter.
Northern Ireland will thus play a key
role in the global conversations still to
come. So, looking to the future it is clear
that, whilst the collision and contestation
So hope for a great sea change

On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.
Seamus Heaney From The Cure at Troy
112
of cultures English v Irish, Protestant v

Catholic, Loyalist v Nationalist, Orange v
Green, insider v outsider were at the root
of the centuries of conflict in the north of
Ireland and particularly of the Troubles of
the last century, in the twenty-first century
it is most likely to be culture, from within
and, vitally, from without, that is set to play
an ever more critical, deeper and more sustained role than ever before in the rebuilding, reshaping and the reimagining of this
damaged but now optimistic province, in
ways that will undoubtedly provide inspiration, encouragement and hope to the rest
of the world. It will not be easy or quick.
It will take several generations. There will
undoubtedly be setbacks. There are still
militant minorities, hooked on conflict,
that do not accept the current version of
peace and will do all they can to disrupt it.
But the positive course is now set and
unstoppable. It is about putting the negative past behind us, whilst at the same time
never forgetting it and trying to better understand it from all possible perspectives.
Looking ahead through a new culturallyenabled lens will ensure a more peaceful,
empathetic, creative and inclusive future
that importantly and at long last is for
everybody.
Peter Jenkinson OBE is an independent
cultural broker based in London UK and a codirector of Culture+Conflict (www.cultureandconflict.org.uk), an initiative started in 2011
that supports art and culture in conflict and
post~conflict situations through programmes
of research, projects, events, advocacy and
network development. Culture+Conflict works
with artists and creative practitioners and with
local, national and international organisations.
More information on Derry~Londonderry UK
City of Culture 2013 can be found at www.
cityofculture2013.com and at Peace One Day
www.peaceoneday.org
113
4. Kapitel
114
The power
of the artist:
the search
for common
ground
Whether during the Middle East conflict, the Chinese Cultural Revolution or the collapse of Yugoslavia,
culture always has a special role to play. And each
different location needs individual approaches
when it comes to cultural initiatives and conflict
resolution. Is there any common ground? How can
music, literature, the fine arts and remembrance
culture really exert an influence on society? We can
learn from different experiences around the globe.
115
116
117
The political in the poetical There is rarely conflict

between two vital cultures that are animated by creative individuals. And vice versa: a culture that is no
longer vitalised by humanitys desires takes on the
rigor mortis of an instrument that can be only too
easily abused. Such cultureless conflicts are in fact
struggles for power and vested interests. But literature can combat this, because all classics are imbued
with one essential meaning: the aesthetic resistance
of the individual in adversity. By Yang Lian
n 2012, I was made a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin,
and immediately upon taking up the
position in October I translated into Chinese a poem by the exiled Uyghur poet
Exmetjan Osman (see box). I was inspired
to do this by its beauty, but even more by
its depth. Its title is a play on the famous
Arabian tale of the One Thousand And
One Nights. The cruel Persian king has
taken Scheherazade as his wife in order
to kill her the following day, but the clever heroine of the story has thought of a
way to delay her execution. She tells the
118
king stories that are so exciting he has to

keep her alive for another night in order
to hear more. At the end of 1001 nights he
has fallen in love with her. Life is born of
creativity and wisdom defeats death.
This directs us to the deeper meaning
of the poem. As a poet who shares with
Osman the pain of exile, I can understand
only too well how, when he describes a peaceful, sunny day sitting in a small park in
a foreign country, he is on the one hand
living in the here and now, more or less
enjoying the daytime as he observes the
shade cast by the tree, the grass and the
faces passing by, while on the other hand
he feels with total clarity how this here and
now is opening up a crack. He makes out a
shadowy Scheherazade among the passersby, and seeping through the sunlight are
all the nights lived on a knife-edge. As the
charming words fall from her lips, no-one
knows more painfully than Scheherazade
how widely the abyss of death is yawning
beneath her, ready to swallow her up the
instant the Persian king tires of her.
Densely poetic, the phrase the meaning of the murder encompasses the
nights passing endlessly and his own
T he p ower of t he a r t i s t
pondering. Reality instantly breaks in

two, into light and darkness, the changing nature of which provides the complex structure of the poem. The day is filled
with night; reality is permeated by an imaginary past. No matter where finds himself, an exiled poet can never escape the
pain that lies deep within. But here too
lies the meaning of exile: those unhearable voices and unseeable lights are my
lifes dark mirrors that illuminate my
fate and the fate of all humanity.
At the end the poem takes another unexpected twist. Just as Scheherazade wins
the love of the Persian king with her wisdom, the poem too comes to an end on an
affirmative note. But this affirmation is
not simplistic nationalism or religious dogmatism; rather it is humanitys desires.
Even in the nights passing endlessly, the
cracks in the asphalt can be penetrated
by the sun or by the grass that rings from
our shining steps. Exmetjan Osman is a
Muslim poet, but his poem goes beyond all
external theological doctrines (what even
God and Satan cant divine) and achieves
fulfilment in its belief in humankind. The
power of this poem far exceeds our initial expectations. Because of the way the
Uyghur independence movement has been
brutally suppressed by the Chinese government, we find ourselves anticipating a nationalistic poem or a poem propagating
Islam, or at least a poem that denounces
persecution. But the poem does not conform to any of these collective forms of expression. Its poetic content is very familiar
to me. By affirming humanitys desires
The Nights Passing Endlessly Through

Scherezades Mouth
In a public park
where I like to sit
in the thick shade cast by the branches of a tree
i was more or less enjoying the daytime
I was watching grass sprout from cracks in the
asphalt
and the sun as it shone in the faces passing by
as I pondered the meaning of the murder taking
place
in the nights passing endlessly through
Scheherazades mouth
when a fortune-teller woman approached me
and asked permission
to illuminate my fate
from my lifes dark mirrors
Staring in silence
at her sly eyes
I must have been lost in thought a long time
When I looked up
she had moved away from me, quickening her
steps like the nights passing endlessly through
Scheherazades mouth
These steps
Like bells hung round the necks of people
strolling by
rang out in an unhearable voice
These steps
as if celebrating the sprouting of grass
from cracks in the asphalt
shone with an unseeable light
Right then
I wanted to know
if that fortune-teller woman could find out
what even God and Satan cant divine
humanitys desires,
ever since weve strolled in public gardens
more or less enjoying the daytime
watching the sun from endless passings of night
as the grass rings from our shining steps

Exmetjan Osman
119
it is questioning Islamic culture and opening up resources so that this ancient tradition can step forward into the modern
world. This kind of critical self-reflection is
the real driving force of poetry. Collective
mentalities and slogans of any kind are far
removed from Exmetjan Osman, but I feel
that he and I a poet who began writing as
a result of reflecting on Chinese cultural
traditions share a real closeness. In the
fight for autonomy between Chinese and
Uyghurs we find ourselves on opposing
sides, and yet we are united by our affinity
of mind and spirit.
It is no exaggeration to talk about our
affinity of mind and spirit, as we are
bound together by similar experiences
that have been both painful and enriching.
When the Cultural Revolution ended in
1976, it left behind a wasteland: not only
politically and economically but also in
terms of culture and language. No other
era in the history of Chinese civilisation
has thrown thought into such a state of
confusion, even disintegration. When viewed against the cultural self-reflection
that lasted throughout the 1980s, our writings found an outlet in one utterly simple
question: Who is to blame? Who should
take the responsibility for this deeply barbaric catastrophe that went beyond all normal common sense and understanding?
If the overwhelming majority considered
themselves to be victims, then where were
the perpetrators? Was reality in fact even
more absurd than the literature of the absurd with countless victims but no perpetrators? The only possible conclusion
120
must be that every victim was also a perpetrator. We hid behind masks that we decorated with the fine-sounding rallying
calls of Communism, a word we had imported from Europe. But deep within we
were permeated with the legacy of a thousand years of authoritarian thinking. This
legacy had particularly extinguished our
ability to create an individual consciousness of ourselves on the path to reflection.
So the 1980s became known, with good
reason, as the age of self-reflection. With
our critical questions, we penetrated deep
into many different layers from external
reality, history and culture, to language
and the psyche. The political catastrophe
that we had lived through had been fuelled
by a thousand years of authoritarianism
and an aberration of thought for which
the Confucians had paved the way with
their ideal of a Great Unity. The thought
control of the traditional Chinese educated
classes became part of the fixed structures
of family and state.
Every victim was also a perpetrator

In the 20th century, the Chinese then
gave themselves over to fanatical dreams
of modernisation; indeed they tried to destroy their own traditions. In doing this,
they overlooked the fact that modernity
is not a commodity that can be imported
but has to have its roots in a cultures creative self-transformation. Anyone who
rejects clear self-knowledge is unable to
modernise and will simply sink ever dee-
per, afflicted with blindness and ruled by

the dark side of tradition. This is what happened in 20th century China. If only two
words fall from our lips Long live ... or
Down with ... then we are all followers
of authoritarian thinking. And we have
simply parroted increasingly convoluted
foreign terms in the past: Communism,
Capitalism, historical dialectic and
dictatorship of the proletariat and today: post-Cold-War-era, post-colonial,
post-revolutionary, and everything that
is post just because they are fashionable
slogans, without thinking about their meaning. But who can evade the responsibility
of being a co-creator of Newspeak? We
can say everything without it having the
slightest shred of meaning! The inevitable
result is that words lose their connection to
meaning until in the end we are left with
nothing more than a linguistic cynicism
that causes language to disintegrate. The
emptiness of words promotes naked power
and vested interests. All the prevailing hollow political phrases have already become
an organic component of commercial globalisation.
But then we have to ask ourselves
whether this sentence only describes the
nightmare of the Cultural Revolution or
whether even more than this it actually
illuminates todays worldwide spiritual crisis: Anyone who rejects critical self-reflec-
The emptiness of words promotes naked power and vested interests. All the prevailing hollow political phrases
have already become an organic
component of commercial globalisation.
tion becomes a perpetrator. The more I

try here to discuss contemporary Chinese
culture, the more I find myself faced with
the questions: Does culture actually exist?
And if so, what does it consist of? And what
should we call it? I have to admit that of all
the worlds many foreign cultures, classic
Chinese culture is perhaps for me the most
foreign precisely because I have no geographical distance from it. The continuity
of Chinese script awakens in me (and even
more so in the rest of the world) the illusion that there is a direct line connecting the
old and the new China. But this is purely
a chimera. In reality, 20th century China
and particularly contemporary China
since 1949 is a monstrosity standing on
the ruins of traditional Chinese culture.
The clash between its own culture and
Western culture that China has experienced since the first Opium War (18391842) dealt it a major blow that toppled the
Chinese from their position of excessive
self-conceit and landed them in the middle
of an inferiority complex. Unwilling to
come to terms with their backwardness,
they imported European culture en masse, and radicals even went as far as to utter
the battle cry: Down with the Confucian
shop! All the many foreign and borrowed
words that I mentioned earlier have penetrated the Chinese language via Japanese,
which has reproduced European words in
Chinese script. These second-hand European words now make up more than half of
the vocabulary of Chinese urban-dwellers.
The aforementioned clash of word and meaning has therefore become characteristic
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of so-called contemporary Chinese culture. When the word for people (renmin)
is made up of the general word for person
(ren) and the word for the lower rungs of
society, the ordinary people (min) as opposed to civil servants, then when should
we speak of people and when of ordinary
people? What is the difference? And who
decides this? This semantic void can be
filled by the countrys rulers as they see
fit. We only have to look at how much political persecution of the people has been
carried out in the name of the people since
the establishment of the Peoples Republic
of China.
This kind of baleful influence is not just
a Chinese idiosyncrasy. Which Communist country during the Cold War did not
subject its people to similar empty words?
Is this now Chinese culture? Or should we
simply talk about Communist culture? It
is a mechanism used by the state to misappropriate all kinds of concepts nation, fatherland, culture, history and
even international? A future embellished with evolutionary phrases and based
on economic logic sparked an enthusiasm
within more than two generations of Chinese people that was blind to the inherent
contradiction in the slogans fatherland
and international.
Millions of young people, like my father, came from well-off backgrounds,
but nevertheless considered capital to be
corrupt. They came together to form the
Communist Party, fuelled by a desire to
build a society of equals in China, and in
this way and with the best of intentions
122
they committed themselves to the destruction of their own class. Even today,
many of them are still considered idealists
of the highest order. But whatever respect
we have for their idealism, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that the catastrophe
of the Cultural Revolution had its roots
in precisely these empty ideals. Looking
back, we are dismayed to see how a country
whose civilisation dates back five thousand
years could lose its humanity and common
sense to such an extent that fundamental
issues such as respect for private property have to be relearned and a system of
law and morality has to be painstakingly
rebuilt.
A shock awakening
I call China a monstrosity because, although we have to admit that it has undergone a transformation into modernity, this
transformation has been fuelled solely by
debased sources from West and East and
has failed miserably. The modern Chinese
culture that was dreamt of by our fathers
generation has not materialised.
In one respect, I am grateful to what I
call the nightmarish inspiration of the
Cultural Revolution, because without it
we would probably still be trapped in a
state of stupefied indecision. This shock
awakening was necessary to create a chain
reaction of critical questioning. It is only
now that we recognise the full extent of
our affliction: we are unable to carry on
the legacy of a Chinese cultural tradition
but we also cannot simply engraft Western

culture.
When everything around us is alien,
then we are left with no other choice but to
become voluntary aliens. By allowing our
individual potential to blossom once again
and by bringing together the different resources from past and present to create a
new synthesis, we can create our very own
contemporary Chinese culture. To take
one of the leitmotivs of the 20th century
discussion on modernisation treating
traditional Chinese culture as the substance while modern Western science is
the practical function then we should
consider independent thinking as the substance and turn the cultures of past and
present, of China and elsewhere, into the
function. For as long as we fail to create
an open tradition that is part of growth we
will have no tradition at all and will just
be left with a past that never wants to end.
When analysing Chinese culture in
such detail, I do it knowing that this is
not an idle undertaking but that without
a deep knowledge of my own culture in all
its complexities I can never hope to understand other cultures. The world may
have shrunk in this era of economic globalisation, but this closeness has nothing
This shock awakening was necessary to create a chain reaction

of critical questioning. It is only
now that we recognise the full
extent of our affliction: we are
unable to carry on the legacy of
a Chinese cultural tradition but
we also cannot simply engraft
Western culture.
to do with greater understanding. On the

contrary: conflicts are generally on the
increase. Since the end of the Cold War,
hatreds and tensions between peoples and
religions all over the world have not diminished but instead have amplified. Since
the end of the First Gulf War in 1991, the
world has become even more mistrustful
of the question of whether a war is just
or whether it is just profitable. And since
the Arab Spring we would of course like
to know from what we are liberating ourselves but also to what?
Samuel P. Huntington tried to define
the world after the Cold War as a clash
of civilisations, but this theory is highly
simplistic and stereotypical. First of all, it
does not explain the contrast between rich
and poor that permeates every civilisation in a capitalist world; and secondly, by
stressing the cultural conflicts, it conceals the benefits that groups from different
cultures can gain from each other. A wellknown Palestinian writer once said to me:
Theyve got nothing against mongrels, as
long as theyre the ones who have brought
them up.
One of my most fond memories is the
time I met the poet Adonis in Jordan in
2003. In the course of our conversation he
spoke about how religion benefited the authoritarian system of Arab rule. In this respect, he stated quite clearly: I am against
Islam. I was deeply shocked by this statement because compared to the ideological control that I personally experienced
the religious and spiritual control that
Adonis was rejecting stretched way back,
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long before the first signs of any kind of

Arab Spring. And what affected me even
more was how the power of self-reflection
that Adonis brought to his own Arab culture was so similar to my own experiences
with China.
And what is more: we are bound together by an affinity of mind and spirit. A
deep sense of trust has grown up between
us based on personal integrity. We are the
first of our Chinese and Arab literary contemporaries to engage in a direct exchange
of ideas. We are both in the same situation:
we are both fighting on a dual front. On the
one hand, we are confronted by the complex difficulties of our present culture as it
moves towards modernity (and also by the
enrichment that results from this), while
on the other hand we have to deal with the
way the rest of the world (and particularly
the West) generally simplifies us by reducing China to mere ideology and the Arab
countries to nation and religion.
We are also similar in the way we react
to these challenges. We both have an internal conviction that cultural change can
be driven forward through independent
thinking and creative individuality. Outwardly, we both reject all simplifications
that lower the level of the discussion. And
we both adopt an attitude of universal critical reflection when looking at the world.
The lesson that we have learned from 20th
century Chinese history is that every civilisation has to base its modern self-transformation on a creative assimilation of the
positive elements of its legacy. Otherwise
this civilisation will go the same way as that
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of the Chinese: instead of truly adapting

Western ideas, we simply imported the
Soviet model of Communism a Communism that no-one in the West wanted
anything to do with.
Adonis is also wrestling with a similar
problem. In Sufism, he has found a legacy
that allows the fruitful modernisation of
Islam from the inside out. When I took a
first superficial look at the ideas of Sufism
I was amazed to find that as far back as
the 10th century, Mansur al-Hallaj proclaimed: I am The Truth! According to
Sufism, man has the internal capacity to
gain the highest level of spirituality and
become one with Allah through love. This
deeply anthropocentric version of Islam
led to al-Hallajs public dismemberment
and execution. And yet he paved the way
for an incisive and dazzling spiritual path
a path that has led through ten centuries
to Adonis, and even to Exmetjan Osman!
What is even more remarkable is the fact
that the Muslim community in the Chinese province of Xinjiang (also known as East
Turkestan) has developed and spread under the influence of Sufis that were seeking
refuge from persecution. As followers of
an anthropocentric Islamic tradition, they
should not be seen as the enemy of all those Chinese that are also striving towards
Chinese modernity. Quite the opposite:
the two groups should be fellow-travellers
who inspire and encourage each other in
their journey.
Now it should finally be possible to resolve the issue of cultures and conflicts.
A culture that has the vital capacity for
self-reflection will not only avoid the emergence of conflicts but will also resolve conflicts; it will not create enmity but understanding. When I say the vital capacity
for self-reflection, I mean the capacity for
self-examination in every culture. This
ability not only paves the way towards independent thinkers in other cultures, but
also towards other cultures that have been
labelled as opposing parties in a conflict.
Cultureless conflicts
In the centre of every culture there is the
goal of creating an individual consciousness just as the meaning of democracy
rests in the Enlightenment. A majority that
closes itself off from independent thinking
and personal choice is susceptible to being
dominated by an extremist and authoritarian system. We can say that there is rarely
conflict between two vital cultures that are
animated by creative individuals. And vice
versa: a culture that is no longer vitalised
by humanitys desires takes on the rigor
mortis of an instrument that can be only
too easily abused by those in power. How
many examples are there in the world of
such cultureless conflicts that are in fact
struggles for power and vested interests?
The monstrosity that was Chinas official Communist culture over the last fifty
years and more was a common dictatorship
A culture that has the vital capacity for self-reflection will not
only avoid the emergence of conflicts but will also resolve conflicts; it will not create enmity
but understanding.
suffered by over a billion Chinese Han

Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols
alike. Official rewriting of history meant
that this China was simply set alongside
the empires of the many different preceding dynasties, and particularly with a
China under the rule of the Manchurian
Qing dynasty whose territories stretched
into Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia and large
swathes of land to the north of the Great Wall as far as the Stanovoy mountains.
When making this equation, the historical complexities were deliberately ignored. The Qing rulers divided the people
into different social classes Manchurians, Mongols, Muslim Hui Chinese, Tibetans and Han Chinese and joined together with other minorities to keep the
Han Chinese under control, despite the
fact that the latter outnumbered them onehundred-fold but still found themselves
reduced to the lowest social stratum. This
is why the Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism, became the emperors spiritual instructor at that time. And the Hui
Muslims in Xinjiang enjoyed a social status
that was much higher than that of the Han
Chinese, despite their uprisings being put
down by the Qing dynasty.
Early in the 20th century, with his rallying cry of Drive out the Tartars, establish the Republic! Sun Yat-Sen laid the
ground for the way the concept of democracy was subsequently confused with the
fight between the different ethnic groups.
The inherent contradiction in this the
fact that Sun used ethnic prejudices for
the purposes of pure pragmatism while
125
propagating a democracy based on overall

human rights cast a dark shadow over a
whole century of Chinese history and created confusion in the minds of the rest of the
world. The conflict between the Chinese
people and their authoritarian rulers was
falsely considered to be a conflict between
different ethnic groups. This erroneous belief contributed in no small way to a lack
of serious historical thinking and, worse
still, allowed the rulers to give the appearance of legitimacy to their suppression of
supposed ethic conflicts.
Similarly, the current dire situation in
the Middle East cannot be blamed on cultural conflict between Palestinians and Israelis but is the historical product of egoistic and irresponsible Western colonialists.
Have Western intellectuals looked at
this issue in sufficient depth? I mean, really
looked at it, rather than just staying quiet
out of politeness (or self-preservation?).
Politeness has to be put to one side when
thinking. For example, the slave trade has
been exhaustively studied, but what about
the First Opium War, one of the dirtiest
chapters in human history? This war marked the beginning of modern Chinese history with all its twists. I once asked a wellknown British historian the question: Is
there a detailed monograph on the Opium
Wars? For a moment, the man simply
looked blank. This is another example of
the lack of critical self-reflection within a
culture. It is not only the Arab lands and
China that need to develop this capacity for
exhaustive self-reflection, but also to a lesser extent Europe and the USA. In todays
126
era of globalisation, political correctness

and profit are the only hard currency. They
have long ago eroded the differences between cultures and united humankind in
egotism and cynicism. We are now faced
with a single conflict: look, heres the profit
do you want to grab it with both hands or
run away from it? But where can you run
to? Faced with this ever-present reality, the
individual has never been more helpless.
A world full of chanted slogans

But perhaps I have missed the point
here? Once a conflict has reached this
stage, what use is a poem? Can it resolve anything or change anything? Lets be
honest a Chinese poet who translates a
poem by an Uygur poet is not going to
change anything in reality. Exmetjan Osman is still living in exile. The world is
still full of chanted slogans. The bright
desert of commerce still bears witness to
the spiritual crisis of humankind. In the
end there remains an everlasting desolation that all the worlds poets know only
too well, regardless of the bounds of time
and language. No true poet can escape it.
And yet, wonderful things do happen.
However strongly a supposed conflict is
raging, we only need the poets of different
ethnic groups to come together for a rea-
The current dire situation

in the Middle East cannot be
blamed on cultural conflict
between Palestinians and Israelis but is the historical product of
egoistic and irresponsible Western colonialists.
ding Han Chinese and Uyghurs, Iraqis

and Americans, Turks and Kurds, Russians and Chechens, Poles and Lithuanians,
and yes, even Israelis and Palestinians
and we soon see that they are all exactly the same in the way they lay bare their
perceptions of existence, strive for deep
poetic understanding and their efforts to
push themselves to the furthest limits of
their language. This bond creates a common grammar that allows a poem to go
deeper than mere language, transcending
the battlefield and speaking from one heart
to another, and in doing so we recognise
the classics of other cultures as our own.
For all classics are imbued with one essential meaning: the aesthetic resistance of
the individual in adversity. The Heavenly
Questions (Tianwen) posed 2,300 years
ago by Qu Yuan have established this poet
from the ancient state of Chu as a questioner. He was later to drown in a river
while in exile. Similar fates were suffered
by Ovid, the creator of Metamorphoses,
who also died in exile; by the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, who sublimated the pain
caused by his unsettled migratory life far
from royal courts by transforming it into
incomparable verse; and by many others,
including Dante, Celan, Mandelstam and
Tsvetaeva. For these poets, the earth was
never a paradise. Anyone who seeks after
meaning inevitably lives in exile.
This is what is revealed to me by the
nights passing endlessly in Exmetjan
Osmans poem. Endlessly, because we
cannot believe in any promise of some illusory progress. Every poem (indeed, eve-
ry line) ends with an impossible, but the

poet begins unremittingly with the impossible and makes himself the poetical
other. Here, the word poetical takes to an
extreme the intellectual content and dynamic that is naturally inherent in the
concept of poetry. I dont write my poems in normal Chinese, (because such a
thing doesnt exist), but rather in my own
Yanglish, and in the same way I have discovered Exmetjan Osmans Osmanisch
in his poem The nights passing endlessly through Scheherazades mouth. This
poem has not disappointed me. It is so
calm and yet so powerful in the way it
moves from light to night to light again.
Its brilliance illuminates its Uyghur author
and also enlightens me. And I am convinced that any Chinese person who reads it
will be deeply moved. Poetry lends depth
and clarity to the vision of a lyrical self
and also affects its attitude towards nations, states, languages and religion. This
is why I give my unconditional support to
Osmans fight to save the Uyghur language
and culture, just as I work whole-heartedly
to preserve the purity of that of the Chinese. At the same time, I am committed to the
transformation of Chinese civilisation as
it modernises, so I am inevitably opposed
to the absolute rule of a Communist Party
that denies minorities their rights.
One of the things I like the most is when
poets sit together side-by-side and translate
each others work, conveying it image by
image and line by line into another language. Aided by their fulgurous poetic understanding, they can penetrate deeply into
127
the others work, in such moments feeling a

sense of inner connection and the absence
of all conflict. In 2006, also in Berlin, I had
an opportunity to talk to the South African
poet Breyten Breytenbach, who has firsthand experience of the suffering caused
by conflict. We discussed the meaning of
the phrase poetry is our only mother tongue. This phrase succinctly sums up the
beauty of poetic boundary-crossing. In
2012, at the annual conference of PEN International in Gyeongju, South Korea, we
Chinese, Uyghur and Polish poets all
agreed that we should no longer wait for
political solutions that rely on obscure negotiations, but instead we ourselves should
roll up our sleeves and get involved. With
every poem that we write, we resolve conflicts and cast a soft, shimmering net of
understanding. This is the attitude that
we as poets take towards the challenges of
today. By its very nature, the poetical is
always political.
Compared to the tumult of conflicts,
poetry speaks with a quiet voice, and yet
its No comes across loud and clear. In this
way, like Exmetjan Osmans light of wisdom, it can break through the darkness of
the nights passing endlessly.
128
Yang Lian is a Chinese poet who is currently

a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in
Berlin. In 2012 he won the renowned International Nonino Prize for literature. The son
of diplomats, he was born in Switzerland in
1995 and grew up in Beijing. In 1979 he joined
a group of poets who published the Jintian
magazine. At the time of the Tiananmen
Square massacre he was in New Zealand and
took part in the protests against the actions of
the Chinese government. Shortly afterwards
his works were blacklisted in China and his Chinese citizenship was revoked.
Reconciliation is not just going through the motions

Since the war in Bosnia ended in 1995 there has been
much talk of reconciliation. A great deal of money has
been spent on garnering the opinions of international
experts, almost as if reconciliation were a branch of
rocket science, rather than being about settlement,
understanding, compromise between neighbours,
as defined by the dictionary. But what does it really
come down to? By Slavenka Drakulic
here was a flurry of media attention when Serbian president Boris

Tadic visited Vukovar in October
2010, where he was met by the Croatian
president Ivo Josipovic. Tadic visited the
mass grave near Vukovar and asked for
forgiveness for the massacre carried out
by the Yugoslav National Army and Serbian paramilitaries in the autumn of 1991.
It was the first time that a Serbian president had expressed his profound regret
for this crime.
Josipovic , who in the first year of his
presidency had done more than any of his
predecessors to promote reconciliation,
then visited the village of Paulin Dvor,
where Croatian paramilitaries had killed
eighteen Serbian civilians and one Hungarian in December 1991.
These were impressive gestures by the

two heads of state, designed to bring the
vicious cycle of war to a symbolic close. A
few days later, the Bosnian tripartite presidency also joined in by calling for reconciliation. Bakir Izetbegovic, the newest
member of the presidency, said he apologised for every innocent person killed
by the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While this frenzy of reconciliation activities attracted a large share of praise
from the international community and
the people of the region, many voices were
also raised in criticism. Werent all these
well-meaning gestures and expressions of
remorse simply political theatre for the
benefit of the world community? Where
were the lists of prisoners of war who had
disappeared? When would stolen cultural
property be returned to Croatia? When
would refugees return to Krajina?
It has always been difficult to believe politicians in the Balkans, even when
they seem to be acting with the best of
intentions. But we must start to believe
them if we are to progress down the path
of reconciliation. We need to start taking
their words seriously and assume that
129
their gestures indicate a serious intention to change perceptions and attitudes towards each others countries. The political
willingness to bring about reconciliation
demonstrated by Tadic and Josipovic was
as clear as that of former Croatian president Stjepan Mesic when he officially
apologised in Belgrade in 2003. In March
2010, the Serbian Parliament also passed a
Declaration on Srebrenica. Although it
stopped short of using the word genocide,
it clearly acknowledged the responsibility
of the Serbian army for the massacre of
8,000 Bosniaks in July 1995.
Capitalism 1, patriotism 0
Ever since the war in Bosnia ended in
1995, there has been much talk of reconciliation first and foremost from abroad.
A great deal of money has been spent on
garnering the opinions of international
experts, almost as if reconciliation were
a branch of rocket science, rather than
being about settlement, understanding,
compromise between neighbours, as
defined by the dictionary. After endless
rounds of meetings, the experts came to
the conclusion that what was needed was
for people to work together. Well I never. They came up with a whole series of
recommendations on how this might be
achieved as if the people of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo need to be told.
They only have to look at the regions criminal scene to see that there is already a
certain amount of bottom-up collaborati-
130
on going on. Undeterred, people are calmly carrying on with the kind of criminal
activities that had been normal before
the war, from the smuggling and trading
of fuel, weapons, people and tobacco to
contract killings. Businessmen at all levels are also working together, sometimes
overtly, sometimes behind the scenes. The
Slovenes were the first to start exporting
their products to Serbia: capitalism 1, patriotism 0.
When Tim Judah, a journalist for The
Economist who knows the region very
well, published an article about the Yugosphere in 2009, he unleashed a huge
storm of protest, especially in Croatia.
He wrote about the unbroken collaboration and cooperation going on at all levels,
which shows that the former Yugoslavia
is still effectively functioning as a single entity, despite the fact that nationalist
ideology condemns such collaboration as
anti-patriotic. Times are hard, writes
Judah, and it is natural that people try
to exploit the advantages of a common
language and the fact that consumers are
used to having certain products.
Judah tells how in the last few months
alone numerous new initiatives have
been announced: the founding of a railway company jointly owned by Slovenia,
Croatia and Serbia; a meeting between the
national lottery companies of Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia,
with a view to agreeing a merger; the signing of an agreement on the extradition
of criminals between Croatia and Serbia
and between Bosnia and Croatia; and an

agreement on military cooperation between Serbia and Croatia, to name but a
few.
It was clear from the criticisms levelled
at the article that it was not so much the
examples of collaboration that people
found offensive, as the use of the word
Yugosphere. Yet not even the most
hard-line Croatian nationalists (who, it
should be noted, also condemned Slovenia for blocking Croatias entry to the EU)
could deter Croatian businessman Emil
Tedeschi from expanding his market into
Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Tedeschi prefers the term
South Eastern Europe, while others prefer
Western Balkans anything, so long as it
doesnt include the prefix Yugo. Nothing
illustrates more clearly how nationalist
sentiments and values withstand the test
of time, regardless of how collaboration
works in reality.
The main difference between reconciliation efforts over the past fifteen years
and today is that for a long time there was
no real political will behind the endeavours. The new impulse has come from
a new generation of politicians who are
much more committed than their predecessors to seeing their countries join
the EU. Long considered a rogue nation,
Serbia has now stepped up and signed a
Undeterred, people are calmly carrying on with the kind of

criminal activities that had been
normal before the war, from the
smuggling and trading of fuel,
weapons, people and tobacco to
contract killings.
number of important agreements. The

country has become a member of the RCC
(Regional Cooperation Council, formerly
the Stability Pact) and signed up to the
CEFTA (Central European Free Trade
Agreement) and the PFP (Partnership
for Peace), a military cooperation programme established in 1994 between
NATO and, to date, 23 European and
Asian countries.
This should serve to strengthen Serbias
negotiating position on the issue of abolishing the need for visas to enter the EU
and help to forge closer ties to the EU itself. While the EUs attitude towards Serbia
joining the Union can hardly be termed
enthusiastic, it is recognised in Brussels
that stability in the region is inextricably
bound up with each countrys hopes of
joining the EU one day, irrespective of
when that might actually be.
When business people continue to collaborate, Croatian publishers take part in
book fairs in Belgrade, national football
teams play each other and ordinary people visit their relatives across the border
without being suspected of treason, is there even a need for an official policy of reconciliation? Or should it be left to spontaneous, bottom-up initiatives, as a few
prominent commentators have suggested?
If we look at the Croatian press, we
still find someone like Tim Judah being
accused of Yugo-nostalgia, or a Croat
businessman being called a traitor because he sold his factory to a Serb. There is
still opposition to the idea of a hotel or
shipyard being bought with Serbian capi-
131
tal. According to surveys, the majority of

people in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia are
far from being reconciled with the idea
that their neighbours are no longer their
enemies. Is it not reasonable to believe
that, were citizens left to their own devices, reconciliation would take at least a
few more generations?
No justice without truth

Neither war nor peace simply happen spontaneously. Wars are the result
of political will, primed by inf lammatory rhetoric that creates a concept of
the enemy and justifies aggression. The
same goes for peace and reconciliation
processes. They need to be initiated and
conducted from the top, spreading values
downwards that are the exact opposite of
those promoted in war, namely tolerance
and collaboration. If reconciliation between France and Germany, for example,
had been left to the ordinary man in the
street, a united Europe would still be a
hundred years off.
The precondition for reconciliation,
and the fundamental principle that underlies it, is justice. But there can be no
justice without truth. Without a legal system for trying war criminals in which
the truth about crimes committed in recent wars is revealed every attempt at
reconciliation is bound to fail. In Croatia,
the main obstacle to reconciliation is the
absurd conviction, cultivated and nurtured over nearly two decades, that the
134
Croatian army cannot be guilty of war

crimes because it was acting in defence
of the nation, with the result that war criminals are regarded as war heroes. For
this reason, the International Criminal
Court in The Hague is seen as an enemy
institution and not as a vehicle for uncovering the truth.
If a culture of denial existed at both
public and political level in Serbia before
the Declaration on Srebrenica was issued,
then Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has also made much more difficult by its special status as a divided country. Not just divided administratively, but
psychologically and emotionally: victims
and perpetrators live together in the same
states, the same towns, maybe even in the
same village on the same street.
Promoting different values means
constructing a different psychological
framework. It is no longer necessary to
persuade citizens to collaborate across
state borders: they are doing that already.
What is needed now is to send out the
message that collaboration visiting, trading, working together, breaking down
negative perceptions of each other is
not only politically correct but also politically desirable. It should be possible
for a Croatian writer to publish a book in
Serbia, or for a Croatian musician to put
on a concert in Serbia, without being pilloried in the media, as was the case until
very recently.
But how does a government get such a
message across? Perhaps indirectly, such
as by supporting common initiatives,
from regional agreements like the Regional Cooperation Council or the Partnership for Peace, to smaller-scale initiatives
such as singing competitions or the muchtrumpeted school exchanges. Not surprisingly, the mass media has an important
role to play. It is from the mass media
that values seep into everyday life, not
the other way round. If the government
were to start systematically promoting anti-nationalist values, public TV channels
would probably follow suit. Not necessarily because they felt that they had to,
but it is not unreasonable to suppose that
broadcasters would soon recognise that
reconciliation was the order of the day
rather than nationalism and hate. In any
case, private TV channels are less prone
to spreading nationalist propaganda and
always concerned about their ratings, so
they would be very likely to jump on this
particular trend.
Sending out positive signals to the
neighbours is a useful, but short-term
strategy. A new government, a new dominant political will, can still quickly
swing public opinion back towards nationalism again which is precisely what
happened in the 1990s. In order to really
establish different values, we need a longterm approach, with a primary focus on
teaching an understanding of history. If
the process begins by trying war criminals, it needs to continue with historical
research and the publication of history
If reconciliation between France

and Germany, for example, had
been left to the ordinary man in
the street, a united Europe would
still be a hundred years off.
books and textbooks. Teaching an understanding of history needs to be based

on fact, not myth and ideology.
Living with contradictions

A glance at todays history books provides all manner of contradictory information. For example, 65 years after the
end of the WWII, the Croats are still
struggling to come to terms with the fact
that the only time in history when Croatia was ever independent was when it
also happened to be a fascist puppet state,
the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
Indeed, the first president of the newly
established state of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, never tired of insisting that the new
Croatia was built on the foundations of
the old one. The Croatian constitution,
however, says just the opposite, that the
new state is founded on anti-fascism
showing that Croatian society is still divided over its past.
In all post-Yugoslavian societies, people are used to living with such contradictions. During communism, their memory was usually at odds with history. It
is easy to disseminate propaganda in a
country that is ruled by communist ideology, folklore and myth, and where there is a dearth of concrete historical facts.
After 1945, it was claimed that 700,000
civilians had perished in the Jasenovac
concentration camp during the NDH era,
while some four decades later a more realistic 60,000 became the accepted figure.
135
The precise number of NDH soldiers and

civilians executed in Bleiburg just after
the war ended is still a matter of dispute,
but it runs to the tens of thousands. It
was hard for people to imagine that Titos
glorious army could have committed war
crimes. Generations of Yugoslavians grew
up with the contradiction of not being
able to question the truths contained in
school textbooks, while being told very
different stories at home. It was easier not
to challenge the dogma.
Too little history, too much memory

So far, there has been too little history
and too much memory: this is one reason why people were so quick to take up
arms in the 1990s. History books and textbooks are as much a part of the problem as
they are a part of the solution. Historians
should stop behaving as slaves to the current ideology and start presenting facts.
But education is a long drawn-out
process. Any education process aimed at
bringing about some form of reconciliation has to be about much more than simply correcting textbooks. To bring about
reconciliation, society needs a consensus.
To articulate the truth, there needs to be a
public forum. Any responsible society interested in reconciliation should be able to
do this, as was the case in Germany. Culture can serve as the forum for this debate.
The question is: how can arts and culture foster reconciliation, while mainstream culture and its institutions for
136
example the Serbian and Croatian Academies of Science promote nationalism?

Like mass media, culture serves as a vehicle for nationalist propaganda before
and during wars. It would be wrong to
talk of the reconciliatory role of culture
and arts as if they were independent of
political will.
Our expectations of culture generally
tend to be too high: we hope that culture
will help us create a better, more peaceful and more just society. Underlying this
idea of the potential role of culture in the
process of reconciliation is a belief that
artists and intellectuals, and educated
people in general, are somehow beings
of a higher moral order. Because they are
educated, they should by definition know
better than the rest of society. However,
this is not necessarily the case.
It has been proven time and time again
throughout history that culture is ideally
suited to being used for propaganda purposes, especially in totalitarian regimes.
Why? Because the morals of artists and
cultural bureaucrats are in fact no different to those of anybody else. Moreover,
in the former Yugoslavia (but also elsewhere), there was a tradition of cultural
servility to the regime indeed there was
barely any other type of culture worth the
name. Then again, this can be understood
as a kind of survival strategy, where selfpreservation forced artists and intellec-
It has been proven time and

time again throughout history
that culture is ideally suited to
being used for propaganda purposes, especially in totalitarian
regimes.
tuals to effectively become employees of

the state. So it is no surprise that it was
precisely this group of people who were
disseminating nationalism in the 1980s.
Writers, academics, journalists, members
of cultural institutions educated people
became cogs in the nationalist propaganda machines. Their task was to create a
sense of others within society in order
to persuade people to commit to the idea
of armed conflict, to war. They did their
job very well.
An emblematic image from 1993: Radovan Karadzic poet, psychiatrist and
the president of Republika Srpska standing in the hills above Sarajevo. Alongside him stands the Russian poet Edward
Limonov, shooting a machinegun in the
direction of the city.
When talking about the role of culture
in the reconciliation process, we should
not ignore its capacity to produce ideology and propaganda, to manipulate people,
to prepare for and justify mass murder.
However, the opposite is also true if
culture can be turned into a nationalist
propaganda machine, then, in a democracy that allows the free circulation of
ideas, it can also be a key element in the
reconciliation process. But this can only
happen if projects supported by the state
are free from political abuse. Compared
to other activities, such as arms procurement, culture can achieve a great deal with
relatively little cost. Only a fraction of a
countrys budget is normally allocated to
culture. It might just be worth investing
a little more.
A process of reconciliation
To a greater or lesser extent, a process
of reconciliation is already underway and
has been for some time. It is almost two
decades since the wars, and a whole new
generation has grown up. But if this new
generation is to be the one that should
consolidate the progress of reconciliation,
then the news is not good. In a recent opinion poll among high school students between 17 and 18, only 27% think that the
NDH was a fascist state, while more than
40% think that Croats in Croatia should
have more rights than citizens belonging
to national minorities. 40% are against
prosecuting Croat soldiers for war crimes
and every second one of them (49 percent)
is against Croatia joining the EU. Even if
this opinion poll is not representative of
all Croatian youth, it serves to remind
us that nationalist values are still highly influential. This mini-snapshot of the
new generation offers little in the way of
hope to a government that wants to demonstrate its political will. However, it
should also motivate us to act quickly
and decisively if we truly want to achieve lasting reconciliation before the end
of this century.
Ultimately, one cannot but notice a
kind of paradox at work within the territory of the former Yugoslavia. First came
independence and then the destruction
of Yugoslavia in a series of bloody wars.
Tens of thousands of lives were lost. A
conservative estimate for Bosnia alone
suggests that some 100,000 people died.
137
Hundreds of thousands of people were

displaced or resettled, not to mention all
those who were maimed and orphaned.
Between 30,000 and 50,000 women, mostly Bosniaks, were raped. Now, a mere decade since the tragedy, all the newly established independent states want to join
the EU and live in union with neighbours
who, historically speaking, they were killing only yesterday.
Why fight for independence? Why go
to war? Was it a civil war? Was there only
one aggressor? How many victims were
there on each side? It is hard to find answers to these kinds of questions, and convincing the public to accept them is even
harder. But in order to succeed, reconciliation programmes must deal with these
questions at all levels, and this will require
the necessary political will. Reconciliation does not come easily and it takes time,
but it might take less time and be easier
if there is real political will, starting with
governments, that leads to a top-down
process of reconciliation. At least, one
would like to imagine that such an approach is worth trying, given the failure of
the last 15 years of laissez-faire. The latest
news is that the Serbian President Boris
Tadic has visited Croatia for the second
time in a month this time accompanied
by more than 70 Serbian businessmen.
Slavenka Drakuli is one of the best-known
Croatian writers and journalists. Her novels
and non-fiction books have been translated
into many different languages. She writes for
various publications, including the New York
Times Magazine, the Sddeutsche Zeitung
and La Stampa. She lives in Vienna and Istria.
138
Europes problem zone Today it is still difficult to

come to terms with the fact that, of all things, it was
representatives of culture, literature, journalism, theatre and film who were the first to set off down the
nationalistic route. One of the first victims of Serbian
nationalism was the tiny province of Kosovo.
By Beq Cufaj
n 30th January 2012, an Albanian man doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire outside
a shopping centre in the Kosovan city of
Prizren. Fortunately an off-duty policeman was among the many passers-by who
jumped in and managed to save his life.
This incident is worth mentioning because in another January on 14th January
1968, to be precise the Czech student
Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague as a protest against
the Soviet invasion, triggering protests
throughout the whole communist bloc.
The Prague Spring remains one of the
most memorable events of recent history.
And just over a year ago, on 4th January 2011, the self-immolation of Tunisian
street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in the
town of Sidi Bouzid set in motion the series of popular revolts that were to change
the face of North Africa and that are now
referred to as the Arab Spring.
Of course it would be nave to set the
failed self-immolation attempt of the citizen of Prizren alongside such historical
events. It is very unlikely that a successful
attempt would have set off mass protests in
Prizren, Pristina and other towns and villages across Kosovo and triggered an Albanian Spring that would affect the entire
Balkan region. Or at least this is how the
newspapers reported the event.
A place in the European family

of nations
On 17th February of this year Europes
youngest nation, the Republic of Kosovo,
celebrated the fourth anniversary of its
independence. Before this, the Albanians
and particularly the Kosovar Albanians
who, to put it somewhat melodramatically, lived in a state of subjugation were
fighting for their freedom and for a chance
to become normal members of the European family. In this respect they were little
different from their neighbours.
However, the striking difference is the
long time they had to wait before their efforts finally bore fruit. The reasons for this
139
go way back in history and can be found

in the random restructuring of the political landscape of Southeast Europe early
in the last century after the collapse of the
regions two dominant powers, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. The
Balkans were left a minefield that decades
later was to result in massive bloodshed,
with the main victims being the Kosovar
Albanians, who found themselves plunged into a serious conflict with the Serbs.
Although Albanian political and cultural circles are reluctant to admit it, during
their centuries of subjection to the Ottoman Empire and to a certain extent during
their colonisation by Serbia over the last
eighty years of the last century, the Albanians were prepared to adapt themselves
to these regimes. Their survival probably
hinged on the fact that they accepted the
Islamic faith and major portions of the mythology, traditions, language and culture of
their Ottoman and Slavic rulers. However,
the more ethnically self-contained Albanians living in the craggy and remote northern highlands clung on to their original
language, culture and firmly-rooted patriarchal tribal society and formed a strong
nucleus for potential future resistance.
After World War I, Albania set out on
its erratic path towards becoming an independent state, facing many setbacks along
the way. In the meantime, the Albanians
who had been left in Kosovo, which had
been separated by the Great Powers at the
London Conference of Ambassadors, were
largely ignored by the rest of Europe and
were left to try to hold out against the Sla-
140
vic oppression of the Serbian-CroatianSlovenian monarchy. As the most underdeveloped region of the southern Slavic
state structure, and faced with the constant
threat of reprisals, it was difficult for Kosovo to make any progress. The burning
of countless Albanian villages in Kosovo
during the 1920s and 1930s was viewed
as a legitimate act of state force. This explains the sad fact that many Kosovar Albanians welcomed the conquering of the
Balkans by troops from Nazi Germany as
they hoped it would lead to the creation of
a national entity an area that to this day
is generally referred to by the somewhat
alarming name of Greater Albania.
A brutal revenge was taken. The communist victory after the Nazi troops were
driven out of the Balkans led to the Yugoslav monarchy being replaced by a socialist
state headed by Josip Broz Tito. Kosovo
was awarded the status of an autonomous
socialist province within the Republic of
Serbia and the Yugoslav Federation.
During the first twenty years of the
Tito regime, Kosovo was very clearly the
poorest region in this state of 20 million
people and was faced with difficulties on
every front. This is demonstrated by the
fact that in 1945 around 90 percent of Ko-
The more ethnically self-contained Albanians living in the

craggy and remote northern
highlands clung on to their
original language, culture and
firmly-rooted patriarchal tribal
society and formed a strong nucleus for potential future resistance.
sovar Albanians were illiterate. Enormous

challenges and social dramas played themselves out after the dream of unification
with Albania (now also under communist
rule) was shattered. In the 1950s, pockets
of Albanian protest in certain areas were
easily suppressed by the Yugoslav police
and army.
Kosovos Albanians gradually began
to adjust to the need to find some sort of
accommodation with the Tito regime without necessarily considering themselves
to be a normal part of the state structure.
School integration
Under Tito, Belgrade also began to treat the Albanians somewhat differently to
under the pre-war monarchy. Attempts to
integrate Albanians into schools had some
success. Children were allowed to learn
in their native language and then go on
to higher education in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Ljubljana or Skopje. Back in
Pristina, they began working as doctors,
journalists, writers and film directors, or
they entered politics.
The first Albanian-language newspaper
appeared as early as 1945. Ideologically,
it was strongly in favour of the direction
being taken by the Communist Party of
Yugoslavia. The first Albanian literary magazine Jeta e Re (New Life) followed
on its heels in 1949. The first Albanianlanguage university was established in Pristina on 18th November 1969, at the time
of the huge wave of student protests that
swept across Europe. However the political reprisals of this time stand in stark
contrast to the progress made in the areas
of education and culture. These included
the mass expulsion of Albanian Muslims
to Turkey and the arrest and imprisonment
of young Albanian intellectuals on the orders of the head of the notorious Yugoslav security service known as the OZNA
or UDBA, the Serb Aleksandar Rankovi,
one of Marshal Titos closest colleagues.
This period of more than 20 years highlighted two issues. Firstly, despite the fact
that the Serbs considered themselves to be
in the vanguard of socialist equality, this
was largely ignored when it came to the
Albanians. The Albanians for their part
felt justified in their belief that the Serbs
were an occupying and colonising force,
irrespective of their political hue. To date
it is still not clear whether Kosovo and the
oppression of the Albanian people was the
reason why Tito distanced himself from
Rankovi.
But in any case there is no denying the
fact that towards the end of the 1960s and
particularly in the 1970s Kosovo gained
greater autonomy within the Yugoslav
Federation. Not only did the Albanians
have their own newspapers, TV stations,
universities, journalists and writers, film
directors and theatre, but they also had
political representation in the Federation
through the regime, the ruling ideology
and Albanian politicians loyal to Marshal
Tito. This led to a first cautious opening
of the border between Kosovo and Albania. Students and academics, artists and
141
cultural actors from both countries came

together; films and books were shared; and
Kosovos Albanian writers could finally
proudly declare that their work was also
being published in the Motherland.
The Enver Hoxha regime in Tirana also
involved Kosovar academics in the process
of standardising the Albanian language.
This cautious rapprochement between two
countries that after the Second World War
had first embraced each other and then fallen out was maintained until the death of
Josip Broz Tito on 4th May 1980.
The immediate aftermath ushered in a
new chapter in relations between the Slavic
peoples of the Yugoslav state and the Kosovar Albanians. Despite being designated
a minority, in terms of their numbers the
Albanians of Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Southern Serbia all together
formed the third-largest population group
after the Serbs and Croats, outnumbering
the Slovenians, Montenegrins, Bosnian
Muslims and Macedonians. The reasons
for the mass protests of Albanian students in Pristina in March 1981 have still not
been completely explained, but the slogan
that they chanted as they marched through
the streets remains etched in peoples memories: Kosovo Republic!
The result was a tightening of Belgrades
policy towards Pristina and the Albanians.
The Albanian politicians who were part of
the nomenklatura left behind by Tito made
some efforts to balance the interests of the
communist federation and the demands of
the Kosovar Albanians. Albanias leaders
were shaken by the sickness and eventu-
142
al death of Enver Hoxhas, leading them

to close the border and refuse to support
those who sought to disrupt Kosovos ossified status quo. This suited the Yugoslav
communists, who believed the increased
openness with Albania was the main reason for the unrest. Small Marxist-Leninist
cells and leftist groups had emerged in Pristina and amongst the Kosovar Albanian diaspora in Germany, Switzerland and
Austria who were opposed to the Yugoslav
regime and disseminated the idea of uniting all Albanian areas of the Balkans. The
prominent Albanian journalist and author
Jusuf Grvalla, who had fled to Germany in 1979, was shot to death in the small
southern German town of Untergruppenbach on 17th January 1982, along with his
brother Bardhosh and a co-worker, Kadri
Zeka. This murder has never been officially explained, but there was and is no doubt
that it can be attributed to the Yugoslav
secret service, who had already assassinated a whole series of Croatian political
migrs. Grvallas murder made it clear
to Pristina that there was no going back.
The freedoms enjoyed under the socialist
autonomy before 1981 gave way to a climate of tension and squabbling amongst
the Albanians, egged on by Belgrade. Everything was policed, including the press,
art, theatre, film and, of course, literature.
In a state where Titos absence was felt
more and more with every day that passed,
the Serbs and Croats also increasingly began to express their political disaffection.
Now the conflict had shifted, so no-one
any longer spared a thought for the Ko-
sovar Albanians, who in the 1970s and

1980s had made appreciable progress in
their infrastructure, economy and culture
and who had been gradually turning away
from their patriarchal and extended family structures. And now the nationalism of
the Serbs the largest and most powerful
section of the Yugoslav population had
descended from the realms of mythology
and religion to take root in the politics of
Belgrade. Today it is still difficult to come
to terms with the fact that, of all things, it
was representatives of culture, literature,
journalism, theatre and film who were the
first to set off down the nationalistic route. It was they who lamented the role of
Serbs as supposed victims during the Second World War and particularly during
the communist rule under Tito, who they
variously denounced as being Croatian or
Slovenian.
Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

The fact that the political elites in Yugoslavia set off down the path to hate-filled
nationalism, chauvinism and war at a time
when the foundations of the red empire
were rocking and starting to collapse in
The political reprisals of this

time stand in stark contrast to
the progress made in the areas
of education and culture. These
included the mass expulsion of
Albanian Muslims to Turkey and
the arrest and imprisonment of
young Albanian intellectuals.
Eastern Europe can be attributed to this

malign ideology. And of course Kosovo
was once again the first to suffer.
The notorious Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts called
for compensation and reparation for the
victimisation suffered by the Serbs, along
with the establishment of Serbian rule over
peoples lives, religion and souls in every
corner of the earth that held a single Serbian grave. In the wake of this Memorandum a former communist apparatchik by
the name of Slobodan Miloevi appeared
on the scene. After ordering the murder
of his political mentor Ivan Stamboli, he
quickly ascended to Belgrades political
throne and turned himself into one of the
most terrible dictators seen in Europe since
the Second World War.
Kosovos autonomy was quickly and
firmly swept aside, accompanied by Albanian protests and the murder, torture
and imprisonment of hundreds of young
people. Miloevi deployed the whole political and military apparatus that he had
inherited from Tito to push forward a bloody campaign that today is viewed as all
the more intolerable because of its blatant
absurdity.
The collapse of talks aimed at finding a
peaceful disbanding of the former Yugoslavia led to war and bloodshed that particularly affected the civilian population.
The break-up began in Slovenia and Croatia, but it was the particular brutality of
the events in Bosnia and Herzegovina that
brought the dawning realisation that peace
would never be established without milita-
143
ry intervention on the part of NATO. The

pictures of refugee convoys and Sarajevo
in ruins, along with words such as mass
graves, Vukovar and Srebrenica, sparked
public support for military operations to
be undertaken against Miloevis regular
and irregular troops.
Dr. Rugovas pacifist movement

During this period, the Kosovar Albanians were setting up parallel institutions
under the leadership of the pacifist writer
and scholar Ibrahim Rugova, with a view
to countering Serbian attempts at forcible assimilation. In hindsight there were
two positive aspects of this state within
a state: its clandestine maintenance of an
Albanian-language educational system
and the way it raised international public
awareness of the oppression of Albanians
by the Miloevi regime. At the end of the
1990s, a whole nation within Europe was
being ruled and oppressed by a (Serbian)
minority that made up barely 10 percent of
the total population, supported in classic
fashion by the police and military.
After 1989, the Kosovar Albanians were
to all intents and purposes excluded from
the administration, education system, political structures, media, economy, health
system and cultural production of the state
that ruled them and hence were forced to
rely on parallel institutions or improvisation. Thousands of young men and women
fled the country to seek refuge in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the USA. It
144
was largely the financial contributions of

this new diaspora that ensured the parallel state could function in an adequate
fashion. The government and political
parties had sufficient funds to send representatives abroad in order to draw the
problems of Kosovo to the attention of international public opinion.
Dr. Rugova and his cohorts could
certainly consider themselves to be true
statesmen. The fact that they had to show
their Serbian passports during their travels
and on their return home did not detract
from their sense of their own importance.
After all, Kosovos parliament had declared
a republic in 1991, though this remained
unrecognised except by Albania, which at
the time was desperately trying to keep its
head above the stormy waters of democracy. Europe had never before been home to
this kind of virtual state.
The USA and the countries of Western
Europe had honestly believed that the Dayton Accord would halt the bloodshed in
the former Yugoslavia, even if the Kosovo
question could not be resolved. But after
the demonstrations by the Serbian opposition in 1997 they were finally forced to
admit that Miloevi only had one option
if he was to cling to power, and that was to
return to the place where he had begun his
political career a decade earlier: Kosovo.
In Kosovo, people had gradually begun
to lose faith in Dr. Rugovas pacifist movement. The emigration of thousands of
During this period, the Kosovar

Albanians were setting up parallel institutions under the leadership of the pacifist writer and
scholar Ibrahim Rugova.
young Albanians to countries where conditions were very different, along with the
discovery that US, British, German, Swiss
and Austrian TV channels could be received via satellite, brought home to them the
illusory nature of their own republic. It also
served to bolster hope amongst Albanians
that the West would not simply stand by
while they were being ripped apart by the
claws of a Serbian tiger that simply wanted
to provoke a new conflict in order to keep
at bay the opposition that was being so energetically led by Zoran ini.
The timing was perfect. Young Albanians from Kosovo who had saved a few deutschemarks or US dollars during their time
abroad were at the same time gathering in
an Albania that had been brought to the
brink of civil war in 1997 by the autocratic
regime of Dr Sali Berisha. A Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA for short, suddenly
appeared on the scene in the same year,
setting up bases and creating flashpoints
in various regions throughout Kosovo. The
response from Miloevis military machine was brutal and uncompromising. It was
to be the beginning of yet another war in
the Balkans, but this time it was also the
last, because the brutality of the actions
taken by Miloevis soldiers and paramilitaries in the villages of Drenica and Dukagjini forced the West to attempt mediation
between the two warring parties.
The Rambouillet Conference in France
was attended by the full political spectrum of Kosovar Albanians together with
Miloevis own representatives, but it
achieved little or nothing. The West then
had little choice but to try and underline

the seriousness of its attempts to bring
about a peaceful resolution by launching
an air campaign against Miloevis troops
in both Serbia and Kosovo.
A new war in Europe

In the final year of the twentieth century, Europe had once again been dragged
into a new war: a war that would stir up
emotions and divide public opinion, but
that, above all, would create an enormous
amount of suffering. During the bitter
debate on NATOs intervention, the wellknown German philosopher Jrgen Habermas spoke of a need to intervene in
an emergency based on a legitimisation
by international law. Miloevi took his
revenge by driving a million Albanians out
of Kosovo: more than 10,000 people of Albanian nationality were killed. The West
felt it had a clear responsibility to try and
bring this tragedy to an end. After 78 days
of aerial bombardment, Miloevi admitted defeat and pulled the Serbian troops
out of Kosovo, a retreat that included many
Kosovo Serbs and members of minority
groups who feared reprisals at the hands of
the Albanians who had returned to Kosovo
in June 1999. The fear felt by the Serbs and
other minorities was not unjustified. Albanian acts of vengeance were more than
just brutal. Both the NATO KFOR soldiers
stationed in Kosovo and the biggest mission in UN history, known as UNMIK,
formed as a result of UN Security Coun-
145
cil Resolution 1244, found themselves in

a difficult position. The Albanians hailed
them as liberators, while the Serbs condemned them as an occupying force. The
international troops not only faced the
task of overseeing the return of those had
been driven out and rebuilding the country, but also of ensuring that the rights of
the Serbs and other minorities were protected. In the months and years that followed the end of the war, Kosovo had to
deal with countless traumatic experiences.
Hundreds of humanitarian organisations
flooded into the country to lend their support, including animal protection groups,
technical aid organisations, groups involved in searching for missing persons and
mine-clearing organisations. It should not
be forgotten at this point that those members of the Kosovo Liberation Army who
had come down out of the mountains and
occupied the towns and cities when NATO
troops entered the country had changed
their one-time slogan We are ready to die
for our country to Steal and plunder as
much as you can.
The consequence of this was that those parties that grew out of the military
groups concerned had a very bad showing in Kosovos first free elections, while
the pacifist Dr Rugova thought by many
of his international allies to be politically dead in the water enjoyed a revival
in fortunes. With support from the UN
mission, Rugovas Democratic League was
called upon to set up provisional government institutions with responsibility for
rebuilding the country from nothing. In
146
fact, after a decade of neglect, it would be

fairer to say that they were starting from a
position of less than nothing. In the 1990s,
Rugovas party had controlled the parallel government and were no strangers to
corruption. Bearing in mind the adventurism of the UN and other agencies, combined with their obvious ignorance of the
true state of affairs in the country, it can
come as no surprise that embezzlement
and large-scale abuse of Western aid money became common practice amongst
many international aid workers and Kosovar politicians.
A heroic war of liberation

In order to divert peoples attention
away from what was really going on behind
the scenes, politicians in Kosovo invested a
great deal of effort into fostering the notion
of a heroic war of liberation, all served up
with lashings of pathos. The Albanian politicians fed the hungry population a diet
of media outpourings: the main thing is
that you have survived thanks to our heroic efforts and are now reasonably free;
the rest will come, all in good time! Lets
call on the writer Thomas Bernhard for
help: There is nothing to praise, nothing
to condemn, nothing to lament, but there
is much that is ridiculous, everything is
ridiculous if we but ponder death.
The massive influx of aid workers from
the UN, the EU and all manner of NGOs
provided the people of Kosovo with a massive culture shock that they are still trying
to digest. And all the great tragedies in the

rest of the world September 11, Afghanistan, Iraq do not alter the fact that people
are still worried there could be further conflict in this southernmost part of Europe.
The Albanian majority in Kosovo have on
numerous occasions come close to believing they might follow the example of other
peoples and lose their newfound freedom.
Their disappointment runs particularly deep because they feel they are being
let down by both sides. The international
community has spent huge amounts of money and sent in a whole army of people to
help, but it has not even been able to provide households with sufficient electricity, let
alone satisfy other basic needs. Meanwhile,
local politicians have simply sat on their
hands. It was this that helped foment what
have become known as the March riots in
2004. Barely five years after freedom had
finally been achieved, violence broke out
on the streets of Kosovo once again, and
this time the main victims were the members of ethnic minority groups, especially
the Kosovo Serbs.
The international community continued to apply pressure in Pristina and Belgrade to get all sides around the negotiating table to discuss the status of Kosovo.
By this time, Miloevi was in the Hague
facing trial, ini had been brutally murdered on account of his more open attitude
towards the West and Serbias neighbours,
The massive influx of aid workers from the UN, the EU and
all manner of NGOs provided
the people of Kosovo with a
massive culture shock that they
are still trying to digest.
and yet nothing had changed in the negotiating positions of either side during the
Albanian-Serbian talks.
Chaired by the ex-president of Finland,
Matti Ahtisaari, and the diplomat and top
Balkans expert, Albert Rohan, a two-year
marathon of talks took place between Pristina and Belgrade in Vienna. Their only possible outcome could be the independence
of Kosovo as proposed by President Ahtisaari. Although he envisaged a considerable amount of international oversight and
far-reaching rights to self-government and
autonomy for the Kosovo Serbs, the Albanians finally accepted the compromise as
being a prerequisite for an eventual breakaway from Serbia that was sanctioned by
the international community.
And so on Sunday 17 February 2008,
the parliament in Pristina, with the backing of the European Union and the USA,
proclaimed the independent Republic of
Kosovo, heralding the end of one of the
bloodiest conflicts in European history. Serbia, however, refused to recognise
the independence of Kosovo, a position it
maintains to this day. There are still problems between Serbia and Kosovo, especially in the northern part of the country,
and EU-mediated negotiations between
Pristina and Belgrade continue. The hopes
of reaching a settlement have still not been
totally dashed, but it will require substantial pressure to get the message across to
the Republics of Serbia and Kosovo that
only those countries that can meet the necessary democratic criteria can become
part of the European family. Paradoxically,
147
the border conflict actually suits the political leadership of the both countries. It
is easier to keep the Serbian or Albanian
people supplied with long-standing conflicts than it is to provide them with good
government!
After four years of independence, Kosovo is still a long way from meeting all
the criteria that have been set. Although it
managed to make a successful transition
to independence with the help of its international allies, the new state soon fell prey
to corruption and organised crime, with
electoral fraud and maladministration becoming part of everyday life.
Despite Eulex, the EUs largest rule of
law mission, Kosovo is still considered to
be a problem region, with an under-developed judicial system that is struggling
under the weight of corruption and undue political influence. Kosovo is the only
country in the Balkans whose citizens are
not allowed to travel in Europe without a
visa. The situation cannot be sugar-coated.
The final two decades of the last century
may have been unbearable, the 10 years of
UN involvement may have been chaotic,
but since independence the Albanian Kosovars have been faced with an even thornier dilemma. It is time for them to take a
long hard look at themselves and face up
to the reality of their situation. If they are
to become valued members of the Western
family of nations, they need to free themselves from political, economic and cultural clientelism, but so far there has been
little sign of this happening. The grinding
poverty (Kosovos GDP per head of population is similar to the average in Africa);
the corruption that pervades all areas and
all levels of society; the terrible image that
the country has in Europe and around the
world are not causes for great optimism.
148
The people of Kosovo continue to live

in a kind of virtual reality created by television, the internet, the media and a somewhat battered dream that their future lies
in Europe. Their dissatisfaction is palpable, yet there is no sign of a revolt against
the corrupt political classes, who, while
being pressured by the international community because of their corruption, are
also being supported by them in order to
maintain stability.
Let us now return to that attempted selfimmolation in Prizren. The stimulus for
this dramatic act was the fact that a shopping centre had refused to take back a plasma screen TV that the man had bought a
couple of days earlier. He was so incensed
that his protest almost ended in tragedy.
The big question for Kosovo now is:
what will happen if the Albanian people
wake up one day from their virtual reality
world and realise that the whole thing is
just an illusion that is not going to provide people with their basic needs any more
than it is going to fulfil their desire to be a
part of Western civilisation and thinking?
Beq Cufaj (born 1970 in Dean/Kosovo) is
a Kosovar Albanian writer. He lives with his
family in Stuttgart. He studied linguistics and
literary science in Pristina and now writes for
various Balkan and Western European newspapers, including the FAZ, the NZZ and Courrier international. He has published several
volumes of essays and prose and his novel
projekt@party was recently published by Secession Verlag.
Seeing with both eyes The attitude of the West is all

too often based on interests rather than on empathy
and objectivity. Serious cultural dialogue and acceptance of the others culture form the foundation for
culture as an effective element in resolving international conflicts and clashes between different groups.
But this dialogue has to be fair and we need to be
seeing with both eyes, not just one, writes Egyptian
author Salwa Bakr. By Salwa Bakr
t was not by chance that ancient Egyptians worshipped and sanctified the
animals around them, such as eagles,
crocodiles and the white Beno bird whose power lies in its bitter-tasting meat that
other animals cannot chew or swallow. The
power which lies at the root of feelings of
superiority serves as the justification for
rising above other nations and also for correcting it when required. Many wall paintings in ancient Egyptian temples point to
this in their depiction of the captivity of
the Jews in Babylon.
The idea of superiority over others lies
at the centre of all ethno-cultural racism.
It is often fuelled by the fires of sedition,
whether within local societies or at international level. This idea of superiority justifies violence and aggression and is lin-
ked to cults of worship and the use of power

in an inhumane way.
Every political, economic or military
conflict is driven and fuelled by cultural
ideas. Aggression against others can be
based on the idea of being different from
them. And even though religion is a part
of culture, it can once again stir up violence and adapt it to its own requirements
because it is holy and absolute.
I remember how in the 1970s the
Egyptian government used to import live
sheep from Bulgaria to be sold and slaughtered as a sacrifice during the Islamic sacrifice festival, as ordained by the prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail. But the
Egyptian people refused to buy or slaughter these sheep, despite the fact they were
so cheap, because Bulgaria was a communist country and its people were infidels.
People made fun of these sheep because
they looked different to Egyptian sheep.
Another example: apart from during
the Second World War, when the British
had Indian troops in their army and Egypt
and India were part of the British colonies,
most Egyptians had never had any contact
with Indians. They soon began calling Indians stupid once they discovered that they
were pagans who believed cows were holy.
This situation seems to be religious, but
in fact it has a cultural core the hostility towards British rule. This seemingly
149
religious aspect is in actual fact of a cultural nature.

Cultural reference points formed by religion provide the perfect example of how
conflicts are fuelled. The Jews thought they
were Gods chosen people, while the Muslims took pride in the fact that they were
the nation that reached out to people, but
they still termed as strange anyone who
could not speak Arabic. The Persians were
also called strange, despite their cultural
superiority over the Arabs in the Middle
Ages.
Arab historians categorise the revolutions and conflicts caused by economic
and social problems that were triggered
by the Persians against Arab Islamic states
as racist revolutions against Islam. They
claim that these revolutionaries were morally degenerate, having sexual relationships and accepting public relationships
that were prohibited by Islam, and were
themselves infidels. Centuries later, the
British occupiers used these exact ideas
to stir up the Egyptian people against communism and communists.
And this is still going on today: after the
protests erupted in Egypt on 25th January
2011, political Islam used these arguments
against the civilian secular movement
during the subsequent first parliamentary elections and the referendum on the
constitution. Anyone who was secular or
civilian was an infidel and therefore morally degenerate by nature. During the
elections, the Islamists made it clear that
anyone who voted for the constitutional articles that were in their interests would go
150
to heaven, and anyone who voted against

would go to hell.
In some regions of the world where illiteracy and ignorance are widespread, the
popular culture that is infused with religion still provides the fuse for igniting
conflict. Conflicting powers usually play
on the elements of this culture to stir up
the masses and convince them that they
are the side that represents them and that
it is in their interests to fight against the
other camps. During the civil war in Sudan
which resulted in the division of Sudanese lands into two countries, the war and
subsequent partition was given a cultural
justification. But the fact that Sudan is a
multicultural country does not justify this
partition. The problem was and remains
the authoritarian government that is based on the fallacy of religious rule. This is
responsible for the problems and tragedies
that have beset this country that is so rich
in natural resources. The ruling regime did
and still does not only persecute people in
the south, but all citizens. Muslims and
Christians all continue to suffer oppression. Everyone turned to cultural differences
to fuel the conflict and conceal the economic reasons that lay at its core.
A culture infused with religion

During the protests on 25th January,
official media loyal to the Mubarak regime
ran a campaign against the revolutionary
and liberal movements that was based on
popular cultural references. One media
representative specifically focused on attacking Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, saying that ElBaradei was
out of touch with the Egyptian people. He
had lived most of his life outside Egypt and
worked for the United Nations. He knew
nothing about how farmers have to sit on
the ground and lame their ducks, force-feeding them with beans or corn and pouring
water down their throats to fatten them up
because there is no time for the ducks to
feed themselves naturally.
This was how the media tried to make
fun of ElBaradei, making out that he lived
in an ivory tower far removed from the
real lives of poor Egyptians. Then there
were the virginity tests carried out by some
army officers on girls who had been arrested for protesting in Tahrir Square during the 2011 uprisings. In this way, the army
tried to incite public opinion against the
demonstrators, as popular culture equates
moral virtue with virginity. It damaged
the reputation of these girls, meaning that
most families then prevented their daughters from joining the protests against military rule and calling for democracy.
This calls to mind how, during the student revolution in Egypt in 1972, many
illiterate young men clashed with the central security forces after some protesters
claimed that soldiers had been molesting
and harassing female demonstraters. This
aroused a great deal of public sympathy
During the civil war in Sudan,

everyone turned to cultural differences to fuel the conflict and
conceal the economic reasons
that lay at its core.
and support for the student protesters, as

molesting young girls is viewed as a very
serious crime.
It is clear that cultural issues are constantly being used to fuel conflicts. Another example is the first Iran-Iraq War during the time of Saddam Husseins rule.
The roots of the conflict go back many
hundreds of years to the rivalry between
Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and Persia (Iran). A primary ideological and cultural reason for the outbreak of the war
was the desire to control the resource-rich
province of Khuzestan the battle between
Arabs and Persians to liberate the majority
Arab population of Arabistan from their
foreign rulers. On the Iraqi side, this ideology was so successful that even Shiite
Iraqis made a significant contribution to
the war against Shiite Iranians.
However, culture can also be a positive
weapon for ending or mitigating conflict,
but lack of cultural knowledge about the
other can lead to a great many mistakes
being made. In the past, many young people have left the Islam world to study in the
western countries, living for some years
in the West, getting to know the way of
life and the local people. This produced
generations of people who had an understanding of others and escaped from intolerance.
This culture of getting to know the
other by travelling and gathering personal experience led to greater knowledge of
the West, its art and its culture. But today
it seems that this kind of curiosity about
the West has been subordinated to a gre-
151
ater project of national renaissance, and

the time of returning home with direct
experience of other cultures is over. Fewer and fewer young people now have an
opportunity to get to know other cultures
through direct daily contact. This is a totally different situation from those people
who move to the West specifically in order to bolster their cultural prejudices and
further convince themselves that the West
should be feared.
From the Crusades to modern Israel

Those who carried out the 11th September attacks on the World Trade Center in
New York were these new types of people
who come to the West to confirm their
prejudices. Many of these people believe
the West is evil, only looks after its own
interests and has hated Islam and Muslims
since the time of the Crusades. This stance
is intensified by the bitterness caused by
the history of Western imperialism and its
support for the state of Israel. Such people
feel that violence is their only form of expression, and their religious and cultural
points of reference lead them to fight with
the Taliban in Afghanistan or become pirates in Somalia in the name of religion.
They believe they are fighting a just war
against the (Western) infidels, seeing it as
a struggle for God and religion.
Unfortunately, the practical steps being
taken to combat what has become known
as international terrorism are not enough.
The problem is rooted in culture. It ari-
154
ses from a desire to obliterate the other

because the cultural significance of the
other should be obliterated.
Many years ago, I met an Egyptian in
Zurich who worked at the Swiss cultural
institute Pro Helvetia. He was happy to
meet an Egyptian writer who was been
hosted by the institute. But he told me
that he was going to send his 11-year-old
daughter to Egypt because he was worried
about her growing up in Swiss society. He
believed Swiss society was morally degenerate and that sexual relationships were
widespread between boys and girls. I said
to him: Yes, but you live in the West, and
your wife, the mother of your children, is
Swiss. You met her and married her for
love, so why cant you allow your daughter
to do the same?
This is a common example of a Muslim
man who should be a role model because he
is part of a modern culture. There are also
many examples of girls, the daughters of
third- and fourth-generation immigrants,
who wear the veil but do not speak Arabic.
They live in the West but retain their Muslim identity and culture. They are accepted
by open-minded Europeans.
Many students who attend American
and foreign universities are not anti-Western, but they retain their religious culture. They are keen to find an alternative
Islamic culture in the West. They are living
examples of a Western style with an Islamic identity: wearing jeans and make-up
does not mean they cannot also wear the
veil. They also do not find it a contradiction to speak English or French at home
while fasting and practising their religious customs. Political Islam also produces
thinkers who not only reject the other, but
also hate it and are prepared to use violence
against it. This was the case when a Danish
cartoonist made a drawing that insulted
the Muslim Prophet, or when a member of
the Danish parliament for no obvious reason chose to demonise Islam and Muslims.
There is no serious cultural dialogue that
provides explanations for this behaviour.
Absence of dialogue
This Muslim anger that is rooted in
Christians hatred of Muslims and their
hostility towards them during the Crusades will produce nothing but more young
volunteers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and other Arab countries
for the war with the Taliban. The absence
of dialogue provides a foundation for cultural and religious fanatics who believe
there is no hope for the West; there is then
no reasonable thinking or understanding
about others.
Those who favour political Islam ask
themselves why the West is remaining silent about the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar but was outraged at the genocide
in Rwanda. The only explanation the Islamists have for this contradiction is that
those being massacred are Muslims, and
the West hates Islam and Muslims. And
Their religious and cultural

points of reference lead them to
fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan or become pirates in Somalia in the name of religion.
perhaps some of these Islamists think it is

a good idea to plant a bomb or carry out an
act of violence in order to protest against
the Wests hostile attitude to Muslims. We
remember violent acts such as the attempt
to burn down the Danish embassy in Beirut as part of the protests against the Danish cartoons that insulted the prophet.
The absence of dialogue and lack of understanding of other cultures brings nothing
but more violence and more destruction
in the world.
The talks about Nile water that were
held after the revolution of 25th January
show that this problem is basically a cultural issue. The attitude of ignoring black
Africa that was prevalent among Egyptian
diplomats and civil servants and their cultural discrimination against the countries
of the Nile basin was the reason why these
countries reconsidered how the waters of
the Nile should be distributed, and particularly Egypts share. Egypt, the country
with the largest share, seemed to be indifferent to the problems faced by these other
countries. A good result was only finally
achieved after an Egyptian delegation that
included some of the 25th January revolutionaries travelled to these sub-Saharan
countries and assured them that the Mubarak regime and its representatives had
not only discriminated against the countries of the Nile basin but also against the
Egyptians themselves. Egypt is an African
country, but the Mubarak regime treated
Black Africa, and particularly the countries of the Nile basin, as though they were
a group of totally different nations.
155
Serious cultural dialogue and acceptance of the others culture form the foundation for culture as an effective element
in resolving international conflicts and
clashes between different groups. But this
dialogue has to be fair and we need to be
seeing with both eyes, not just one. Looking at the problems of others with a sympathetic eye is essential for constructive
and productive dialogue.
Some people wonder how the West can
criticise human rights in China while still
supporting repressive and dictatorial regimes, as was the case with Mubarak. They
also ask why the West has remained silent
about the revolution in Sudan and the oppression of the opposition by the Sudanese
regime, while concentrating on the Syrian
opposition and the massacres committed
by the Bashar Al-Assad regime. The attitude of the West is based only on interests,
not on empathy or objectivity. This precludes the kind of cultural understanding
that can bring to an end conflicts all over
the world.
Yes, the cultural element is important
and effective. And perhaps it can be the
basis for resolving some international conflicts but only if it is used objectively and
fairly.
Salwa Bakr lives in Cairo and is one of Egypts
leading writers. She campaigns in the media
for intercultural dialogue between the Arab
and Western worlds. Her novels and short stories focus on the situation of women in Egypt.
156
Heckling from the balcony All too often, art and culture are helpless in the face of violent conflicts. Nobody is going to write a book or carry out an academic
study while bullets are flying around their ears. But
it gives us the ability to bear the unbearable, not by
simply accepting it but by thinking about it and living
it. Austrian writer Andrea Grill gives an account of
her own experiences. By Andrea Grill
eople who write about armed conflicts without being part of them risk
being viewed as ridiculous or at best
entertaining onlookers by those who are
actually living in fear of their lives. They
are like the two hecklers on the balcony in
the Muppet Show: their mouths open and
close, but what use is any of it to someone
who is actually living in the midst of a violent, armed conflict? Is anyone going to
wave the white flag because of something
theyve read?
I know that the task I have taken upon
myself here is doomed to failure. As someone who lives and grew up in a safe and
prosperous corner of Central Europe, what
can I add to the art of retrospectively describing conflicts that I only know from
watching the news and reading reports?
Doesnt everything I have to say sound totally superfluous, coming as it does from
an onlooker? How can I have anything to
say when I was not there and have never
experienced danger?
I could study the word conflict and
reveal that it comes from the Latin confligere, meaning to collide or to fight. I
could draw on the reflections of philosophers over the last two thousand years. I
could emphasise the positive potential of
conflict and stress the importance of conflict per se for every kind of artistic endeavour and for human existence itself.
Culture, politics, business? What is the
best way of eradicating violent conflict?
I find I have two trains of thought that
are colliding and fighting within me. The
first of these is culture another of those words that comes from the Latin and
reveals something about itself. Cultura:
treating, nurturing, cultivating. Culture is
everything that needs humans in order to
exist: fields, conifer plantations, vineyards,
orange groves, motorways, cable cars, reservoirs, the moon landing, the satellites
circling Mars, technology, fine arts, literature, law, politics, morality, religion, business, science. Everything that is not nature.
Culture can be something that brings
groups of people together in the ways that
they cope with their lives; culture can be
the common element that sets the human
157
species apart from animals. Culture also

encompasses politics and the economy.
Politics is concerned with public issues,
with establishing and managing the state
and society, while the economy distributes resources. Art is also part of culture. And even conflict is part of culture.
The economy can distribute art like a
scarce resource. Politics can ban art when
it wants to force everyone in the country
to think the same way. But all three are
the result of culture, they are its offspring.
They are siblings that cannot exist without each other, that are mutually dependent, but that fight as only siblings
can fight. Because they know their relationship is forever. Even if they fall out,
they will always be related.
Unexploded mines lurking

in society
Children dont have conflicts, children
quarrel. Quarrelling is an active form of
conflict that settles the fight, and ideally only words may be used as weapons.
Ideally, a quarrel is a form of fighting that
leaves behind no physical wounds. It is
closely related to argument, but the latter
tends to remain in the academic sphere.
Adults too get involved in quarrels, but
they also experience latent, simmering
conflicts. They lurk in society like unexploded mines and no-one knows when
they will go off. There is no danger so long
as nobody moves. One false step could set
them off, so instead wed rather stay put.
158
In his book Time of Disorder, Petros

Markaris writes that when he asked a Belgian Green party MP why someone who
was unknown to the European public like
Herman Van Rompuy was elected as President of the European Council, he immediately replied: Because hes nice, goodnatured, avoids controversy and above all
he doesnt attract attention. This book
looks at the crisis in or in fact with
Greece and investigates the causes. I nearly added poor thing! in Greek. When
the Greeks say something good about someone they often add poor thing! on the
end, such as Hes a very genuine person,
poor thing!
Art thrives on contradiction, writes
Petros Markaris. Contradiction implies
disagreement. Literature provides a nature reserve where conf lict can live in
the wild; a conservation area for conf lict. Writers and philosophers allow
themselves an internal encounter and
fight with themselves, which means they
are taking themselves seriously. They are
quarrelling with others because they take
them seriously. Without contradiction,
without conflict, there would be no art
and no science: there would only be arts
and crafts.
A little further on, Markaris adds that
in the EU it is an advantage to be inconspicuous and to disguise tensions. In Europe, we, poor things, find that conflict is
smothered. Conflict decomposes and we
hold our noses in the silent hope that one
day it will be carried off by ants, worms
or other hard-working creatures.
Culture is like a cleaning product

But thats not the issue here. The issue
is the role of art within violent conflicts.
Does it have the power to promote peace?
Or reconciliation? In my mind, culture is
like a cleaning product such as Cif a thick
white cream that wipes away conflict like
a stain. Or I see it as a fire engine racing
along with sirens blaring and blue lights
flashing to extinguish the blazing conflict
with foam and water. Or it simply beats it
to death with a shovel there, its stopped
twitching.
In the play Allegretto Albania by Albanian author Stefan apaliku, one of the
characters is called Reconciliation. She is
the most ridiculous character in the play.
She always brings her charges useless objects that are the last things they need. A
family that has been trapped in their house
for months because of a blood feud receive an X-ray machine that nobody knows
how to use. Reconciliation is also a TV presenter and every evening on the news she
reports on the success of her humanitarian aid programme. In order to resolve the
vendetta, she installs a computer and internet connection in the familys house so
that the two families can thrash out their
problems by e-mail. The family in question dont mind what she does because
it brings some variety to their lives. But
thats all it brings.
In the play Allegretto Albania by Albanian author Stefan

apaliku, one of the characters
is called Reconciliation. She is
the most ridiculous character in
the play.
Concrete help is finally offered by a money-grubbing builder who just wants to get
them out of the house so that he can make
money by putting up a tower block. He arranges for them to escape to the EU at
least so it seems. They check the route on
Google Earth and leave the house.
The play is a good demonstration of
how outsiders unfortunately all too often simply fall into the role of someone
who is at best entertaining while trying to
as a mediator.
When I was young in the 1990s, every day hundreds and thousands of people
were being killed in an area that was closer to my home than my countrys capital.
I am of course talking about the wars in
the former Yugoslavia that later became
known as the Balkan conflict. I met people who had managed to flee to Austria
and I tried to help them and translate for
them. But I was still an outsider. Children sat around on the steps in my town,
looking at the sky for hours on end, jumping and ducking every time a plane flew
over. Bang! Bang!, they shouted, suddenly jumping around in circles. A bomb,
a bombs landed on his head, they cried.
I have to write about them, Im so sorry
for these children, their dead parents, the
raped women. I cant forget their eyes
no-one should ever have to see the things
they have seen. But how do we go beyond
simply feeling sorry for them?
In his book Infancy and History, the
philosopher Giorgio Agamben discusses
the destruction of experience. It finds its
necessary correlation not in knowledge
159
but in authority; that is to say in the word

and in the story, he writes. Nowadays
nobody seems to have sufficient authority
to guarantee an experience, and if they do,
they do not think to build the foundations
of their own authority on an experience.
So a characteristic feature of our times
would be inability to experience. And I
am a child of my time, so this way of looking at things doesnt seem strange. But
I still want to create my own experience.
I am trying to tell the story of a violent
conflict that had a concrete effect on my
life. When a friends elderly grandmother
grabbed a Kalashnikov and fired into the
air from the terrace of her house in Tirana, I knew I could no longer carry on writing my planned thesis. A small thing in
itself, but it had a very real effect on me at
the time. And this is what I want to write
about here real experiences.
Albania in 1997
One of these happened in Albania in
1997, when the collapse of several huge
financial pyramid schemes led to countless Albanians losing all their money. The
country quickly descended into anarchy
and gang warfare and the Albanian people armed themselves en masse. Their weapons came from huge arsenals that had
been built up during the communist era.
It was important to have a gun like my
friends grandmother in order to avoid
being summarily robbed or killed. Suddenly
160
the country seemed to have been plunged

into a period of history where local rulers
could ruthlessly exploit their rayon. But this
time the difference was that everyone could
be a king (and to some extent this is still true
of present-day Albania). Its just that some
kings were stronger than others.
My research project was funded by a
grant from the Austrian government.
Once the unrest in Albania came to light,
I quickly received a letter withdrawing my
grant and prohibiting me in the name of
my country to carry on with my research
because it was dangerous to life and limb.
During those months, I had a great deal
of telephone contact with my friends in Albania. Sometimes I could hear shots in the
background. My friends kept telling me it
wasnt so bad, I shouldnt worry, they were
not themselves in any danger, that things
were just chaotic. Some of my friends
made a name for themselves as journalists
or translators and accompanied visiting foreign journalists as they travelled around
the country.
I switched my research project to neighbouring Greece, and focused on an ecological study of the biodiversity of Mediterranean butterflies. As far as the study
was concerned, it didnt matter whether
or not I was carrying it out a hundred kilometres to the north-east. But for me it
really mattered. I learned Greek, suddenly
found myself living in a country that I barely knew and where I had never intended
to live, just a few hours drive from where
I really wanted to be. But it was quiet and
peaceful a good place to work.
The helplessness of art and culture

So why am I telling you all this? Because
Im afraid it is an example of the helplessness of art and culture in the face of violent
conflicts. Nobody is going to write a book
or carry out an academic study while bullets are flying around their ears. During
the First World War, many writers lined
up to romanticise the war. Some of them
volunteered to go to the front, and without
fail they created within the German-speaking world an ideological superstructure
for the war linked to the kind of courage,
bravery and honest combat that did not
exist. Even great writers such as Robert
Musil and Thomas Mann, to name just
two, did not speak out against the war
quite the opposite, in fact. Their enthusiasm for the war cost some of them their
lives. Georg Trakl, the expressionist poet
from Salzburg, was posted to Galicia as a
pharmacist (despite reporting to go to Albania). After being forced to tend to ninety
wounded soldiers, he died of exhaustion
and an overdose of cocaine.
A generation that had gone to school
on a horse-drawn streetcar now stood
under the open sky in a countryside in
which nothing remained unchanged but
the clouds, and beneath these clouds, in a
field of forces of destructive torrents and
explosions, was the tiny, fragile human
life. This is how Walter Benjamin described the state of helplessness that I mean.
I asked my Albanian grandmother:
During the First World War,

many writers lined up to romanticise the war. Some of them volunteered to go to the front.
what are the most important things in life?

She replied: believe in yourself, and fight.
I am amazed by both parts of this answer.
The woman I call my Albanian grandmother was born 89 years ago in Istanbul. As a
child she came to Saranda, a fishing village on the southern coast of Albania that at
the time was part of the Ottoman Empire.
Her father was a general or high-ranking
member of the military, perhaps an admiral. In Saranda she met the love of her
life, the man she would later marry. They
moved to Tirana. They were both communists and lived in the woods as partisans.
They fought physically for what they believed in: an independent Albania, a socialist
Albania. When the socialists finally took
power under Enver Hoxha, grandfather
became a spy for the new government. But
this did not last and he soon fell out of
favour, spending the next 10 years in prison. His wife visited him every week with
their three children who were growing up
without him. It was a long and difficult
journey to the prison, and at the end of it
she was never allowed to see him alone. By
the time he was released, his children had
grown up and left home, his wife was an
old woman and he was an old man.
Arming ourselves inwardly

Grandfather died aged barely 70 from
lung cancer, and grandmother has now
lived alone for 19 years. Not a day goes by
that she does not talk about her husband,
the love of her life, whom she has in fact
161
been missing all her life. Most of the older

people that I know believe in God. But this
woman is perhaps the sole exception. She
amazes me. She still maintains her own socialism, despite the disappointments that
socialism has brought her. She believes in
herself. She fights.
It pains me to say it, but I dont believe
that art and science can prevent violent
conflicts. Culture used in its widest sense can help us to arm ourselves inwardly.
It can communicate experiences that we
dont have in real life. It can turn us into
people who are prepared to withstand the
kind of suffering and violence that we are
not naturally prepared to withstand. It gives us the ability to bear the unbearable,
not by simply accepting it but by thinking
about it and living it. Because it makes us
curious about what is outside ourselves.
Curiosity does not reach for its gun but is
the sister of affection. I cannot think of a
better way to end than to quote Elias Canetti, who believed being a writer was an
exercise in transformation: in its compelling experience of people of all kinds, of
everyone, but particularly those that are
afforded the least attention.
Andrea Grill, a writer, lives in Vienna. She
was awarded a PhD in 2003 with her thesis on
Sardinian butterflies. In 2007 she took part in
the Ingeborg-Bachmann competition in Klagenfurt. She was awarded fellowships by the
Literarisches Colloquium Berlin and the Schloss
Wiepersdorf. In November 2010 she received
an award as part of the 2011 Bremen Literature
Prize. Her recent publications include the novels Trnenlachen, (2008) and Das Schne
und das Notwendige (2010) and Happy Bastards, a collection of poems (2011), (all published by Mller, Salzburg and Vienna).
162
The language of music Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven provide solace amongst the sorrows of everyday life. In the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq
young Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis come together to
play a classical Western repertoire, along with a few
compositions by contemporary Iraqi composers. But
can music also create understanding and reconciliation? An artistic director describes his experiences.
By Vladimir Ivanoff
n 2010, around 60 musicians from

Germany, Yemen, Lebanon, Austria,
Morocco, Palestine and Syria came together in Bayreuth, Germany to seek out
traces of the Parsifal myth, its Jewish-Arab
roots and its musical treatment from the
Middle Ages right up to Richard Wagner.
One year earlier, 50 German, Iraqi,
Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian musicians were brought together by the music
of Bach. They took a new look at its baroque spirit and reinterpreted it within the
living traditions of Arab music and jazz.
Bachs Passions were set against the present-day situation in Jesus native land and
with the conflict between the Arab world
and the West. The baroque precision and
complexity of Bachs work contrasted with
the spontaneity of classical Arab music and
jazz: two traditions that have much in common, including their complex and highlystructured improvisation techniques.
In both these years, the musicians were
taking part in the Orient meets Occident
summer workshop. Faced with the religious, economic, cultural and political differences between the West and the Islamic
world that tend to dominate the world today, this workshop tries to show that music
is not just decorative but that it commands
respect on both sides as a medium that is
open to the world.
The potential for peaceful relations between East and West and between different
religions has become a platitude in todays
international cultural industry. A multitude of projects are trying to convey the
message that the countries on the northern
and southern shores of the Mediterranean
belong together and that communication
between different religions is possible.
Communication without constraints

The idea behind the Orient meets Occident workshop is different in one fundamental respect from the many other
musical projects that have sprung up
with intercultural and pedagogical aims.
With his highly-respected West-Eastern
Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim has
163
been advancing the Arab-Israeli dialogue

by bringing together young Arab and Israeli musicians to play a solely Western
classical repertoire. Middle Eastern artists
have come together within an established
European cultural repertoire, in the music
of Beethoven and Mozart. In contrast, the
conscious focus of Orient meets Occident is
on stylistic diversity. The Western classical
repertoire is confronted with styles based on
improvisation, such as jazz (both European and Arab styles); European music from
the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque
periods is contrasted with traditional Arab
music in all its regional diversity. New music
from the Arab world is placed on an equal
footing with the European avant garde. A
colourful mixture of diverse musical styles
serves to make the workshop participants
aware of the polarities of Orient and Occident, tradition and (post-)modern, native
and foreign; and encourage them to look
behind the stereotypes.
In musical terms, I understand the word
intercultural in a broad sense, as in fact
the saying that music is a global language
that everyone understands only has limited
truth in the real world of music. Different
musical traditions and styles have their own
very specific structures of communication
and organisation. So for example, a German musician who mainly works in the
area of classical chamber music might find
it very difficult to understand the musical
communication within an orchestra. Jazz
musicians and classical musicians tend to
speak totally different musical languages,
and even their verbal communication is a
kind of Double Dutch that to a large extent
is incomprehensible outside their particular
specialist areas.
But my experience tells me that musicians from the Arab world and Europe who
164
share similar musical backgrounds (such

as jazz) can communicate with each other
relatively easily and with few constraints
because they share a common musical language. In contrast, musicians from the same
country with different artistic backgrounds
often have major communication problems,
as is the case when baroque specialists and
members of normal classical Western orchestras try to play together or communicate verbally.
But these inhibitions can also harbour
a great opportunity, as musicians generally define themselves first and foremost by
their musical backgrounds. As a result, when
sharing musical and verbal communication
with people of a similar musical background,
issues such as political and religious differences are of secondary importance. A real
interest in making music together is generally a greater priority than the need for creating
delineations. If differences are verbalised at
a later stage, conflict is always mitigated by
their shared interest in music, even if it is
only to ensure that they can still play together. And if musicians are interested in getting to know a new, totally alien style (such
as when jazz musicians are introduced to
traditional Arab music), it is always curiosity
about the new musical language that comes
to the fore and that serves to mitigate any
potential areas of conflict.
The orchestras and stars of European classical music have created an identity that is simultaneously pan-European and global:
Cecilia Bartoli is an Italian who
sings European classical music
and is a global star.
European nations possess musical and

cultural identities that have grown up over
time: with their love of classical music, the
Italians are proud of Vivaldi and Verdi, while the French take pride in Lully and Berlioz
and the Germans in Mozart and Wagner.
Although traditional music has taken something of a back seat in todays modern
Europe, regional folk music is still alive in
most European countries and has its fair
share of enthusiasts. The orchestras and
stars of European classical music have created an identity that is simultaneously panEuropean and global: Cecilia Bartoli is an
Italian who sings European classical music
and is a global star.
Jazz, pop and rock are global music styles
that all have their roots in Western culture.
The Beatles are British musical icons, Xavier Naidoo is one of Germanys biggest
pop stars (regardless of his migrant background), Lady Gaga is an Italian-American
superstar who has had a global impact. But
who knows Oum Kalthoum, Asmahan, Farid al-Atrash and Fairouz? They are the last
(and in the case of Fairouz, the only still
living) exponents of a popularised but at
heart still traditional pan-Arab musical culture that was at its height in the 1940s and
early 1950s and that is equally well-known
and loved by older Egyptians, Lebanese, Syrians and Iraqis.
Western colonialism spread across Arab
nation states and robbed the Arab world of
its cultural unity and with it a large amount
of its trans-regional classical music culture.
For decades, it has been almost exclusively
Western-style classical music and globalised pop music that has dominated the Arab
world. The curricula of music colleges have
focused on Western classical music and, increasingly, jazz; while almost every Arab oil
state now has its own Western-style sym-
phony orchestra with corresponding concert halls and opera houses. In this way,
cultural policymakers, artists and their
audiences are largely unconsciously
transferring putative values from the area
of culture to the area of social planning and
policy.
Solace amongst the sorrow

As the presenter of a discussion programme on German radio, I once had the
opportunity of talking to some of the musicians from the National Youth Orchestra
of Iraq about what was important to them
and their dreams for the future. The orchestra operated along the lines of Daniel
Barenboims West-Eastern Divan: young
Iraqis, including Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis,
came together to play a classical Western repertoire, along with a few compositions by
contemporary Iraqi composers. Under the
lodestar of Western classical music, this was
intended to help in de-escalating conflicts
between various sections of the Iraqi population. Our conversation revealed the high
hopes that these young musicians projected
onto Western classical music. In short, they
believed that Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven provided solace amongst the sorrows of their everyday lives. For these young
musicians, and indeed for a proportion of
their audiences, this music possessed an
outstanding value that they linked in their
minds to social progress, political openness also in the West and a process of
democratisation that was worth fighting for.
Most of the Western classically-trained
participants in the Orient meets Occident
workshop were harbouring similar hopes.
Particularly since the Arab Spring, most
young Arab musicians believe that pop and
165
jazz music in both its global and regional Arab forms is a medium for freedom
and progress, the music of the future for
the Arab worlds new political and cultural order.
In contrast, musicians trained in the
Western tradition and their jazz and pop
colleagues almost without exception view
traditional Arab music as something that
it obsolete and outdated, representing a
step backwards and even religious fundamentalism. They consider this unisonous
tradition to be more primitive than the
polyphonic Western tradition. So, for instance, the Tunisian malouf is viewed as a
medium that supports the state (because
of its importance for tourism) and is hence
categorised as being part of the old political order.
This lack of regard and appreciation
for ones own musical (and in the broader sense, cultural) traditions is the main
cause of conflict in the Orient meets Occident workshop and also within my own
Ensemble Sarband, an intercultural chamber orchestra that I founded in 1986. Those
musicians who have been trained in the
Middle Eastern tradition lack self-confidence and under intense peer pressure often find themselves relegated to a musical
back seat. At first they tend to be much
more reserved in terms of getting their music across to the other musicians, and often
they simply sit on the sidelines rather than
joining in with discussions.
When representatives of regional musical forms (Syrians, Egyptians, Lebanese,
etc.) come together to play traditional Arab
classical music, this often leads to disputes.
Each country claims its pronunciation of
the Classical Arabic lyrics is the only correct one, and different musical details such
as intonation and embellishments are only
166
considered correct in the Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, etc.) form. As a result, musicians from the various Arab countries are
often at musical odds with each other. One
participant in the 2010 workshop suggested
the title Orient meets Occident should be
changed to Oriental Accident.
I believe this issue should be a focus of
this and other similar musical projects,
because traditional Arab musicians very
quickly discern appreciation for their
music amongst their colleagues and audiences. European participants are generally interested in getting to know more
about this initially strange, but ultimately
fascinating, world of music. They discover
that it is an ancient yet living, complex yet
still changing tradition that is the equal
of the Western classical tradition. Now at
least, many of our Arab colleagues with
a Western musical background (whether
classical, jazz or pop) who have in the past
hardly listened to the traditional music
from their own region but have almost invariably considered it to be inferior have
gained a certain degree of respect for it. In
certain cases it emerged that some of the
Arab musicians who had trained in the
Western classical tradition also had experience of traditional music but initially
were reluctant to broadcast the fact. Traditional Arab music is often very warmly
received by Western audiences at concerts
by Ensemble Sarband and performers at
the Orient meets Occident workshops. It
stands on its own two feet, and indeed audiences sometimes prefer it to Western repertoires because of its lively performance
style.
In contrast, audiences at concerts in
Arab countries are often initially somewhat suspicious of their own tradition.
This is because it is usually those on the
upper rungs of the social ladder who attend

concerts, and these generally tend to prefer
Western culture. But after the concerts I
have been surprised, proud and relieved to
discover that a truly Arab repertoire can
hold its own against a Western repertoire.
This positive reception from colleagues
and audiences creates a sense of pride and
self-confidence in traditional musicians.
A healthy degree of self-confidence and
an awareness of the fact that Arab musical
traditions and hence Arab culture in the
broadest sense can be positively received
and respected can produce far-reaching
consequences. It can create a basic panArab unity, despite the wide range of regional differences. It can allow the emergence of a confident Arab identity that goes
beyond nations and religions and helps to
mitigate the diverse tensions within the
fabric of Arab states and bring about greater equanimity in when communicating
with the West. Partners who are confident
in their own identity can talk to each other
as equals.
It also makes it easier for Western musicians, like Western audiences, to gain a
more equitable appreciation of Arab culture that goes beyond the mass-produced
Arabesk pop music that plays in the doner
shops of Europe. From playing with equal
Musicians trained in the Western tradition and their jazz and

pop colleagues almost without
exception view traditional Arab
music as something that it obsolete and outdated, representing a
step backwards and even religious fundamentalism.
partners from East and West, the musicians (and subsequently audiences, from
listening to concerts and recordings) learn
that diverse music styles and traditions are
equally valuable, even if the musical languages are totally distinct. The go beyond the
daily body counts broadcast in the media
to get to know artists from crisis zones
as people with their own ways of expressing themselves and with the desire and
the ability to communicate.
This is where I see opportunities for
promoting European culture: a truly polyphonic orchestra made up of young musicians from Europe and the Middle East,
where a dialogue of equals is possible without bowing to the dictates of dominant
European or Arab cultural values. This
artistic and pedagogical model could also
be applied to other conflict-ridden regions
such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
With a relatively small outlay of time and
money on the part of international cultural
institutes, a living and far-reaching medium could be established that is capable of
being heard by many ears and hearts that
perhaps remain deaf to other voices.
Vladimir Ivanoff has been artistic director of
the Orient meets Occident summer workshops since 2009. In 1986 he founded the
Ensemble Sarband, an intercultural chamber
orchestra. Its programmes bring together
musicians from very diverse cultures and act
as a bridge between past and present, linking
historically-informed European performance
practice with the living traditions of the Mediterranean. Working closely with other artists,
ensembles and orchestras (such as baroque soloists from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Modern String Quartet, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the Kings Singers, Mystre des Voix Bulgares), it investigates the differences between
cultures and religions and between historical
and contemporary concepts of the other.
167
Art and conflict Artists do not believe any more than

footballers that they can create world peace, even if
both culture and sport have a very integrating effect
on society. How can art have a positive effect and
what conditions are necessary to achieve this? A curator looks for answers in Afghanistan and Eritrea.
By Christian Schoen
Is art an active force that can have a global political impact, mitigate conflicts and
promote peaceful relations? This was the
opening line of an article in the Neue Zrcher Zeitung of 7th July 2012 that looked
at the project being run in Afghanistan as
part of Documenta 13. This art exhibition
takes place in Kassel, Germany, every five
years, and this time it also focused on the
Afghan capital of Kabul by staging an exhibition, symposiums and workshops in the
city. We feel inclined to answer the NZZ
writers question about the integrative and
peacemaking potential of art with a yes
170
because we want art to speak the language

of freedom all over the world.
In Germany we know what an important role art has played in helping us to
work through our own history. The debate stirred up by our avant-garde artists
and post-war American art at international
events such as the Biennale in Venice and
the Documenta in Kassel was all part-andparcel of dealing with our fascist past and
transforming our society.
But the author of the newspaper article gives an ambivalent answer to his own
rhetorical question. In general terms, he
is reluctant to deny the positive power of
art, but in the specific case of the Documenta initiative in Kabul he is not alone in
thinking it has been a failure because the
artistic projects in Afghanistan in themselves have not produced any lasting effects
for the local people. He also feels that this
attempt to build a bridge to Kabul is more
about cultivating the events image than
about concrete results.
This critical view of the Afghanistan
project throws up the following fundamental questions:
How do we come up with a project

that makes sense to everyone involved
in conflict zones that welcome the
collaboration of artists?
How can we unite the differing expectations of our project partners and
others?
What do we need to consider in order
to set clear objectives for everyone involved?
In any event, one thing is clear: before
art can be afforded a possible role within
socio-political conflict, it is necessary to
consider how every political conflict has
its own particular origins and takes its
own specific course. The word conflict
itself can be interpreted in various ways.
Of course it has a negative connotation,
but it also points to a positive process of
transformation within society.
There is potential for conflict everywhere, even in so-called free countries.
When talking about development programmes for other countries or regions,
we should first of all think about whether
we are ourselves walking the talk.
It is also necessary to clarify the word
art, so that we can be sure we are all on
the same page. Even if here we want to concentrate only on the fine arts, it is still
essential to know the historical, geographical and cultural background to a work.
Instead of producing objects,

many artists today focus on
structures linked to processes,
dialogues or performances that
have no or only a partial physical
manifestation.
Whether we are talking about the Buddha

statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, a baroque wall hanging in a French chateau or a
canvas by German artist Gerhard Richter,
we still use the word art. Although the
world has become smaller which has had
nothing to do with art and everything to do
with modern communications technology
and physical mobility cultural reference
points play a vital role in the way art is produced, and of course received.
So something that might be called art
in Europe might be totally incomprehensible as art to someone with a different
cultural background. This is particularly
true of strategies that have emerged from
Western art history and developed into
movements such as conceptual art, performance art or public art. Instead of producing objects, nowadays many artists focus
on structures linked to processes, dialogues or performances that have no or only
a partial physical manifestation. Even at
home, these expanded ideas of art often
have to be interpreted so that the public
can understand them. So it would be very
nave to hope that these kinds of artistic
formats would be understood as part of development programmes in countries such
as Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.
The challenges of terminology are even
greater when we bring cross-disciplinary
projects into the equation, where artists
work alongside specialists from other disciplines. The complexity of artistic strategies
and specific cultural comprehension must
always be respected. It should go without
saying that no one partner can claim to have
171
a superior understanding. The challenge

of finding terminology that everyone can
agree on goes hand-in-hand with the definition of ones own expectations and the
formulation of ones own goals.
A great deal of research is needed if we
want to decide which forms of cultural exchange, cultural dialogue and financial or
practical support actually make the most
sense in another country. How do we define sense in this context? Paradoxically,
the tired and often misused word sustainability cannot be used to describe art itself
in contrast to the art market. Sustainability is not a criterion for art. This would
seem to be a paradox when we consider
medieval and modern art history, as the
classical works of art were created with a
view to eternity. An exception here is architectural art installations and permanent
public art that can have a lasting effect on
the character of specific places both physically and intellectually.
Art is the daughter of freedom

The ability of art to open up spaces for
creative thought that cross subject matter, cultural or social boundaries without
having a set of clear objectives as is required in politics and business is something worth defending. The oft-quoted saying of Friedrich Schiller that art is the
daughter of freedom is happily bandied
about to emphasise our moral standards.
Where art can be created free from existential and material necessity and from
172
political, social and religious repression;

where the mind can have free rein: these
are the ideal breeding grounds for art and
also the places where art in all its varied
forms can be the symbol of a free and evolving society.
This may also have been the motivation
of the Documenta organisers when they
decided to include Afghanistan in their
programme. The problem with this kind
of project may have lain in the difficulty
of bringing together differing inter-disciplinary and cultural expectations. How
are the individual interests of the artists,
curators and academics involved different
from those of the overarching political interests? Of course the project also draws
the attention of the German and Western
public to the political (and military) engagement in the Hindu Kush, as positive reporting creates support at home and adds
to our understanding.
So the question is less one of whether
the Documenta has been focusing on its
own PR, but rather whether it has allowed
itself and Afghan artists to be manipulated? One of the curators of the Kabul exhibition, the Afghan artist Aman Mojaddedi
comments: Over the last three years there
has been a huge rush of international interest in anything to do with supporting
and financing activities in the area of art
and culture as part of a propaganda campaign. The USA, UK, France and other
countries have invested a great deal of money in these kinds of activities in order to
give the impression that the situation in
Afghanistan is improving. This is largely
due to the fact that they have to find a way

to justify the withdrawal of international
troops.
A discrepancy in expectations
This is where we see the clear discrepancy between the individual expectations
of the artists and curators involved and
those of their political mentors who also
hand out the funding. However, the chief
curator of Documenta, the Spaniard Chus
Martinez, insists she was guided by purely
artistic ideas.
And what are the expectations of the
NZZ critic? He assumes that art feels it
has to try to save the world, that the Documenta in Kabul is labouring under the
sweet illusion that Western art can be a tool
of nation-building; civil societys midwife
in archaic, war-ravaged corners of the globe. This reveals a certain danger of overestimating the role of the artist. Artists
do not believe any more than footballers
that they can create world peace, even if
both culture and sport have a very integrating effect on society. Even when Daniel Barenboim set up the West-Eastern
Divan Orchestra, made up of Israeli and
Palestinian musicians, it was not with the
expectation of resolving the problems in
the Middle East. But it is still a fantastic
idea that gives individual musicians the
opportunity to do something productive
Even when Daniel Barenboim

set up the West-Eastern Divan
Orchestra, it was not with the
expectation of resolving the problems in the Middle East.
together, and the simple fact that they are

playing together has a symbolic value that
goes beyond borders.
Afghanistan has been the focus of world
attention for many years. There is a political will to bring peace to the country,
alongside both selfish and unselfish interests on the part of the Western world
that are obvious to greater or lesser extents.
But the situation in other parts of the world
is very different.
In Eritrea, for example, it is only too
clear how difficult it is to engage with a
country where bilateral political and economic relations are almost non-existent;
with a country where political backing
and the attendant logistical and financial
support are totally lacking. In places that
may have a German or other European
embassy but no cultural institute such as
the Goethe-Institut in Kabul, the work of
humanitarian and cultural engagement is
left to the NGOs.
Fuelled by the vision of providing a
cultural underpinning for existing projects in the areas of healthcare or water
supply, about a year ago various German
associations and foundations came together to create an cross-disciplinary network for Eritrea. The My Eritrea project
was launched by the Pilotraum01 initiative in cooperation with the WINTA-Era
water foundation and the NGO HumanPlus. I feel very proud to be one of their
curators, along with my colleague, Serafine
Lindemann.
The commencement of this work with
national and regional authorities in one of
173
the poorest countries in the world is remarkable in that it makes culture an integral
component of its activities. The aim is to
strengthen the social infrastructure and
cultural identity of this young country that
gained its independence from Ethiopia in
1993 after 30 years of struggle.
In light of the countrys need for basics
such as water, food and medical care, the
shocking lack of hygiene, the precarious
political situation, and the simmering conflict on the Ethiopian border, a few eyebrows may be raised at the inclusion of art
in the programme. What is the use of art
when the country does not even have the
basics for survival?
But people have long been aware that
imported development aid only brings
lasting results if it is sensitively adapted
to the traditions, ethnic situations, social
structures and cultures of the recipient.
The initiative in Eritrea is based on a partnership of equals. It is not just the result
that matters, but the journey.
Artistic processes play a role within didactic programmes, for example when families waiting for treatment at the Orotta
hospital in the capital, Asmara, are taught
about basic hygiene using playful and artistic methods. The main thing is that German artists understand the concept and right
from the start provide the impetus for local
artists to adapt the various projects to suit
their indigenous concepts and styles. One
of the projects long-term goals, apart from
offering direct humanitarian aid, is to help
the Eritreans to review and preserve their
cultural heritage.
174
Consolidating the process

of democratisation
The country still defines itself through
its hard-won independence, which threatens to send its diverse indigenous culture
spiralling into oblivion. But we can look
forward with a healthy dose of optimism
to our long-term commitment resulting in
a consolidation of the necessary process of
democratisation, whether this is achieved
through individual projects focusing on
traditional music or the collation of folk
stories and fairy tales, or through providing organisational assistance to the National Archive.
But one thing must be stressed: any meaningful cultural work across borders has
to begin with a deep understanding of local
cultural history. This is where art and aesthetics have a role to play in creating identity. The long history of cultural studies in
Europe means that it is now our destiny
to use our specialist and organisational
knowledge to help build local institutions
within the framework of joint projects.
Targeted partnerships
The national and regional archives are
particularly important in this respect as
they have the job of preserving the cultural heritage. The best way forward would
seem to be to promote more strongly than
One of the projects long-term

goals, apart from offering direct
humanitarian aid, is to help the
Eritreans to review and preserve
their cultural heritage.
ever targeted partnerships between European universities, museums, foundations

or associations and partners in the crisis
regions who are involved in building or
re-building. Meaningful and effective cultural work requires open and transparent
handling of the expectations and objectives
of all partners; it must be flexible and take
into account cultural differences that may
affect issues such as the longevity of projects and associated planning strategies.
Cultural engagement as part of development processes in conflict zones will
always remain somewhat ambivalent. But
it should be borne by the basic characteristics that make art meaningful for us as
humans: our sense of opening ourselves
up to the other, the vision to mobilise our
minds and awaken curiosity. The curiosity
that is based on the freedom of the mind
provides the foundation for daring to do
something different.
Christian Schoen is a freelance curator for
international exhibitions. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Albrecht Drers Adam and Eve.
From 2005 2010 he was head of the CIA.IS
Center for Icelandic Art in Reykjavk. As Commissioner, he was responsible for the Icelandic
Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and
2009. He is currently working with Pilotraum01,
an initiative for cross-disciplinary projects and
for development cooperation and activities to
counter climate change.
175
4. Kapitel
176
The role of
EUNIC in
crisis regions
Democracy, multilateralism and decades of experience in peaceful co-existence Europe has a great
deal to offer and should be investing more heavily
in cultural relations around the globe as a way of
sharing these specific experiences with others and
helping to mitigate crisis situations. No organisation is better placed in this respect than EUNIC, the
network of European cultural relations institutes,
with its 2,000 branches around the world.
177
178
179
A buffer for pacifying the people Identity is not something abstract but is symbolised by objects, places,
a church, a mosque, a bridge places where everyone can relate to their own history. This history and
these memories form the foundation for the future.
This is why conflict intervention and cultural work
both have to place great importance on protecting
and reconstructing the cultural heritage.
By Delphine Borione
ince the middle of the 19th century,

the nature of violent conflicts has
changed. They are no longer played
out by armies on the battlefield, but have
become conflicts between countries, regions, or even communities that affect
whole populations. Nowadays, conflicts
no longer progress in a linear fashion
but create a framework for the close intertwining of civil society and the military. This development can also be seen
in the growing number of parties involved. This no longer includes just armies,
but also NGOs, the civilian population
180
and businesses. It has also become clear

how nowadays crises have really become
symbols.
Culture in its broadest sense which
includes education, shared heritage and
language, as the latter generally represents an extremely strong badge of identity can become a target and even a cause
of tension during the course of a conflict.
Therefore it is important to include the
cultural dimension in both crisis prevention and conflict resolution. Cultural work as a factor in intercultural dialogue and understanding between peoples
needs to be strengthened in this respect.
Cultural heritage, whether this is of
a material or immaterial nature, is often targeted during conflicts because of
its symbolic value. So a primary goal of
those involved in conflicts is often the
destruction of whatever it is that gives
their opponents their identity. Their cultural heritage is therefore often attacked
and as a result it becomes impossible for
communities to restore themselves in a
lasting way. This was the case in Sarajevo,
where the warring parties attacked the library and even street signs, with the aim
of removing all traces of a multi-ethnic
community and shattering its very foundations. In the case of the destruction of
the Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, the Taliban went ahead with the
T he role of EU N IC
eradication of this symbol despite the intervention of Muslim clerics because they
could not identify with the statues and
simply could not accept their existence.
The same mindset was behind the destruction of Islamic mausoleums in the
north of Mali and its capital, Timbuktu.
Restoring and rebuilding cultural heritage that has been damaged during conflict helps to bolster resilience and heal
the psychological scars amongst the civilian population. Everyone has the right
to choose their own identity, but also the
duty to respect that of others. This identity is not something abstract but is symbolised by objects, places, a church, a mosque, a bridge places where everyone can
relate to their own history. This history
and these memories form the foundation
for the future. This is why conf lict intervention and cultural work both have
to place great importance on protecting
and reconstructing the cultural heritage.
In 1954 The Hague Convention laid
down the principles for protecting cultural property during armed conflicts.
But more still needs to be done. The UNESCO Convention of 1970 provided an
agreement on the illicit trafficking of cultural property during peacetime. Since
then, many institutions and organisations
have been working together to fight the
pillaging of cultural heritage. Interpol,
Unidroit (International Institute for the
Unification of Private Law), customs and
police in many countries, museum staff
and people involved in maintaining and
restoring cultural property have all been
working with ICCROM (the inter-governmental organisation dedicated to the conservation of cultural heritage) to restore
and return damaged cultural property
and scattered works of art to the peoples
where they originated.
As part of protecting cultural heritage and strengthening the rule of law,
the French foreign ministry has set out a
strategy of practical collaboration in postconflict situations. In order to increase
the protection of cultural property and
make a contribution to the fight against
the illegal drugs trade, the ministry has
organised regional conferences in the
Middle East and South East Europe as
a means of encouraging debate and sharing proven strategies. The aim is to set
up joint actions and networks involving
customs, the police and the judiciary in
order to promote collaboration and carry
out joint projects. These actions are also
designed to closely involve local people
in the protective measures and to press
forward with the renovation of cultural
property. Appropriation and inventorytaking of cultural property are the two
flagships of this strategy for the protection of cultural heritage.
This protection can also be an important economic factor and contribute to local development if, for example, buildings
undergo restoration. This has an effect on
urbanisation, rural development, cultural
activities and sustainable tourism. Positive effects can also be seen with regard to
the countrys image, symbols, well-being,
sense of social cohesion and attractive-
181
ness. For example, in 2009 the French and

Palestinian authorities set up a primary
solidarity fund to maintain and improve
the Palestinian cultural heritage in Bethlehem. Funding will also be provided for
a new museum close to the Church of the
Nativity in the heart of Bethlehems old
town. This will be the first museum to
display the history of the town, its inhabitants and the urban area, and is also
intended to act as an information centre
for tourists and pilgrims.
NGOs have also been set up with the
same idea of protecting cultural heritage
in times of conflict. These include the International Committee of the Blue Shield
and the French organisation Patrimoine
sans Frontires (Heritage without Frontiers). With the assistance of the German
and French governments, this latter organisation restored the Orthodox Church of
the Saviour in the Kosovar town of Prizren that was damaged during the war. It is
also worth mentioning the reconstruction
of the bridge in Mostar, a symbol of the
link between the two sides and also between the two ethnic and religious communities. The people of Mostar are proud
of their historic bridge and feel it represents the bond that unites them.
The Bophana Audio Visual Resource
Centre in Cambodia provides another example of the preservation of audio-visual
cultural heritage. The Centres stated objective is to gather, image after image,
snatches of life and a volley of voices. In
order to try to understand, to try to give
a name, a soul, a face and a voice to those
182
who had been deprived of them. To return to the victims of a murderous history
their destiny and their memory. To recover freedom of speech by integrating reflection about the past with the construction of the present (...). It is not only a
question of recovering memory, but also
of knitting up the elusive warp of a multiple and living identity, that of contemporary Cambodian society.
But despite all these initiatives, how
many traces of the past are still being
erased from our present-day world? How
many cultural properties have been pillaged, stolen or destroyed in warring countries or in places where the rule of law
has been trampled underfoot? How many
films, audio recordings and photographs
are being lost to the countrys audio-visual heritage because of a lack of opportunity to archive and digitalise? These
questions make it clear that there is still
a great deal of work to be done.
Equipped to face the future

Education can also be a significant factor in the link between culture and conflict. Education not only helps people to
develop their intellectual capabilities, but
in terms of economic, social and human
development, the right education can also
provide whole generations with the necessary tools to build a future that is not built
on destroying others or on conflict with
their neighbours. Once a violent crisis has
come to an end there needs to be focus on
ongoing education and its structures to

create a kind of buffer for pacifying the
people and as a means of accelerating the
process of rebuilding.
It has been shown that the more
quickly people can return to some semblance of normality after a crisis, the easier it is to diffuse tensions and create a
future for all concerned. This is why it is
so important for education to play a central role in any rebuilding process. Good
examples here would be Haiti and Kosovo, where the authorities ensured that
the school system was functioning again
as quickly as possible once the crisis was
over. This provides people with a sense
of normality and can help them to gain
self-confidence and regain trust in other
people. They should then be able to look
to the future in a more optimistic way.
And there can be no doubt that the
main constituent element of our relationship with others is language. Language is a
key component of our belonging to a community, a prerequisite for our existence and
a basic assumption underlying our social
ties. Any attack on language is therefore
an attack on people themselves and their
own sense of identity. A language dispute
can quickly escalate to such an extent that
it becomes the source of unrest or even war.
In 1976, for example, the demonstration by
For me, there is a connection

between a lack of reminiscence
work and a lack of democracy, a
lack of the rule of law and a lack
of development.
school children and students against the

governments decision to introduce Afrikaans as the official language in schools
ended in tragedy. Nor should we forget
the revolt by Albanian students in Kosovo who protested against being forced to
speak Serbian. Respecting multilingualism
or the language of a particular community
can be a major contributory factor in assuring peace and stability.
In general terms, the more a crisis contributes to the destruction of the physical
and material, as well as the psychological and moral existence of the people, the
more important it is to try to strengthen
ties forged through common identity or
even to create a new cultural identity. This
is where cultural work has an essential
role to play.
By setting up the Institut Franais cultural centre in Afghanistan, France has
been able to encourage film production,
the training of filmmakers and the development of a range of cultural activities.
The name of the centre was changed to
the Centre Sverin Blanchet in memory
of the film and documentary maker of
the same name who was killed in a bomb
attack in 2010. Blanchet, a highly committed lecturer at the Ateliers Varan (workshops for documentary film makers),
where the focus is on practical learning
by doing, paid with his life for his belief in the value of cultural engagement in
crisis resolution. He wanted to encourage
young Afghans in Kabul to make films based on the views of others. The subject of
the films was guided by the film makers
Rithy Panh, documentary film-maker and

founder of the Bophana Centre
183
declared wish to show people both inside

and outside of Afghanistan the difficulties, but also the riches, of their country.
Cultural activities help people to articulate themselves, to overcome the desire
for revenge or the feeling of being a perpetual victim and to develop a less negative
view of the world. Only then is it possible
to find a way back to normal life. It is for
this reason that France has stepped up its
cultural work in Iraq with the help of its
cultural centres. It wants to make a contribution to rebuilding the country, and
projects carried out so far include financial support for the renovation of the Iraqi
National Theatre and an upgrading of the
National Museum.
The five French cultural centres in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories
are making a valuable contribution to the
dialogue for peace between its peoples, a
dialogue that demonstrates the possibilities for the future. The German-French
cultural centre in Ramallah represents a
symbolic but at the same time pragmatic
example of cultural cooperation in a region where culture and tradition are decisive factors and where maintaining dialogue between the various communities
is a constant challenge. The French cultural institute in Gaza, whose new building
is due to be opened in 2013, is currently
the only active foreign cultural institution
there. The presence of a cultural institute
that is imbued with the spirit of freedom
and creativity can act as a kind of release
valve for pent-up emotions in all these
countries that have been rocked by cri-
184
sis, tension and conflict and can help to

create resilience.
Clowns without borders

Clowns sans Frontires is a French artists association that has been helping
children in emergency situations around
the world for eighteen years. The association includes volunteer artists, clowns,
musicians, acrobats, dancers, puppeteers
and actors who put on shows in refugee
camps, slums, prisons or orphanages to
help children and their parents to find
their way back to some form of normal
life after a war or catastrophe. Their work
augments that done by NGOs in crisis interventions and is carried out in cooperation with local organisations. Since 1994,
the organisation has planned and carried
out projects to help refugees and displaced
peoples in Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia, the
Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
Clowns sans Frontires is currently involved in two similar projects in Burma
and Thailand.
Cultural activity is also at the same
time a form of preventive diplomacy, so it
is a real tool for promoting understanding
between different groups and for conflict
prevention. The artists own sensibilities
can bring to light potential areas of tension, articulate them and thus serve to
defuse them. The role of culture in encouraging the exchange of ideas and intellectual open-mindedness also promotes
tolerance and understanding for the ideas
of others. Cultural projects also provide

an opportunity for quarrelling communities to work together on joint projects.
The German-French Elyse Fund for
cultural programmes in non-EU countries also provides a good role model for
strife-ridden communities. Two former
enemies are now working hand-in-hand
to support projects with a message of
peace that also holds the promise of reconstruction and cultural development.
German-French fund for cultural

programmes in non-EU countries
to promote reconciliation (Elyse
Fund)
Germany and France contribute equally to this fund, which supports cultural
projects in non-EU countries. It funded
many projects in the Balkans after the end
of the war as part of reconciliation efforts
in the region, including:
- Lectures on reconciliation in Bosnia
and Croatia;
- In Serbia, a congress on: Promotion of a youth exchange programme
in the countries of Southeast Europe
with the aim of advancing reconciliation, cooperation and European
integration;
- Establishment of a youth exchange
programme in the countries of the
former Yugoslavia.
Culture can become

a target and even a cause
of tension during
the course of a conflict.
Since 2003, an annual cultural project

has also been supported in the Palestinian
territories that has included the following
initatives:
- Since 2010, the establishment of a
mobile library (comprising a total of
1,500 French, German and Arabic
works) travelling between the West
Bank and Gaza;
- In 2011, the international circus festival in Ramallah, the first circus
festival anywhere in Palestine;
- Since 2005, publication of a culture
magazine in three languages.
In 2012, the Fund has been financing
a project to train theatre professionals in
Afghanistan with a view to supporting
theatre as a whole, along with school drama projects.
Another example of how people from
different ethnic backgrounds are being
brought together is the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, created by the Argentinian-Israeli director Daniel Barenboim and
the American-Palestinian literary critic
and author Edward W. Said. This orchestra brings together young musicians
from Israel, Palestine and neighbouring
Arab states with the aim of promoting intercultural dialogue and creating a common foundation for collaboration. With
its many concerts in Europe, America and
the Arab World, the West-Eastern Divan
Orchestra has consistently proven how
music can overcome political hurdles and
encourage people to listen to each other.
Cultural work is aimed at the heart,
mind and spirit and in this way it touches
185
the people it wants to reach, unlike propaganda, which only has a superficial effect
on its audience. A play can also send out
a strong signal: a good example of this is
the plays put on in the French cultural
institute in Afghanistan by Afghan actors
in collaboration with French theatre and
film director Ariane Mnouchkine and her
theatre company Thtre du Soleil.
The Shadows of War photo exhibition has also had a major effect. This project was organised by the Italian foundation Fondazione Umberto Veronesi to
encourage progress in the sciences. Held
in 2011 in the Maison europenne de la
Photographie in Paris, the work of top
journalists and photographers demonstrated the fear and futility that permeates
armed conflicts. Could there be any more
convincing argument than these images
for peace, dialogue and understanding
between peoples?
These cultural projects encourage economic development, the labour market
and income opportunities by supporting
arts and crafts, cultural production and
the creative industry. They help countries
to develop and, importantly, to regain
their sense of dignity.
What role can EUNIC play in this? All
the members of the EUNIC network are
convinced of the important contribution
that cultural work can make to security
and development by helping to mitigate
conflicts and crisis factors. This is why
their focus has been on the topic of Culture and Conflict and why they have sup-
186
ported the ifa project at its seminar of the

same name held in December 2011, along
with the publication of this annual review.
Indeed, the members are keen to work
together even more closely because they
understand the value of collaboration and
the power of solidarity between countries
that have historically been enemies. This
is the job of EUNIC to highlight the vital
contribution made by culture to economic, social and human progress. In this
way, the activities of the networks members and their joint projects help to reduce conflict in our society and safeguard
peace between peoples.
This is why it is essential that European governments and international donors
continue to provide financial support.
Despite being persuaded of the connection between culture and conflict, this
conviction is not always matched by appropriate levels of funding. Lets hope that
the work done by EUNIC will now receive
greater financial recognition.
Delphine Borione is Director of Cultural and
Language Policies at the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and President of EUNIC, the
network of European cultural institutes.
Far from the feasible If we are to give Europe a face

and throw Europes soft power into the pot in a world
full of conflict, then public debate is essential. The
worlds conflicts need to be addressed by European
policies on cultural and other issues. We are still a
long way from creating the necessary consensus on
this, let alone from being ready to take action. What
is to be done? By Gottfried Wagner
he old and new debate about culture and conflict in external and
internal cultural policy is rife with
both complaints and expectations. It is customary to bemoan the failures of cultural
and other policies during and after times of
crisis, conflict and potentially violent altercations. The tragedy of the exploitation of
culture is repeatedly stressed, such as was
the case during the Balkan wars at the
end of the 20th century. But there is also
the invocation of the holy cultural trinity
of hope for everything culture can achieve in the avoidance of conflicts and their
escalation, in promoting dialogue and, in
certain cases, in reconciling conflicts (as
happened in the South Tyrol).
As soon as political correctness is drawn
into the equation, it makes sense to take a
critical look at the relationship between

abstract theory and verifiable empirical
practice, between politics and real life.
In the business of democratic politics,
the emphasis always falls on the feasible
and that-which-must-not-fail, on worry
over what has failed and the will not to
(ever) again fail to invoke the benefits of
culture. Any reference to culture as a potentially negative force for destruction during a conflict often serves as little more
than an opening credit to the main feature,
which then goes on to show how beneficial culture can be if only it is used in the
right way.
It is worth noting how culture is once
again being exploited, this time in an optimistic scenario; but this is hardly surprising when we find ourselves in the sphere
of external and internal cultural politik
where politics predominates rather than
in the temple of the liberal arts.
This position then seems particularly enlightened when everything is done
right; when the true freedom provided by
culture, and particularly art, provides the
best guarantee of its ability to promote
peace and have a beneficial effect on conflict situations.
We know only too well how easily and
unexpectedly such situations can escalate;
we only have to look back at some of the
187
bleaker chapters of European history and

plays such as Hanns Johsts Schlageter
(1932/33) containing the line falsely attributed to Hermann Gring: When I hear
the word culture ... I reach for my gun
(Act 1, Scene 1). When faced with more
recent conflicts around the globe and their
cultural images it requires a great deal of
courage to use identity-based and hostile
arguments to counter the production of
the good.
A tangled situation
The list of philosophical writings and
essays in this respect is both long and enlightening. What we are lacking in any discussion of a realignment of external cultural policy at a time when we are seeing
the emergence of polycentric new orders,
and also above all in terms of constructing new European approaches, is an open
debate on the aporia of this question, on
the contradictions and potential taboos in
this context, so that we can avoid building
our new constructions on sand. We can be
motivated to do this by some of the factors
listed below (in no particular order):
Conflicts can provide the essential ingredients for growth. A societys progress
is based on protest and fierce struggles for
positions and interests; one culture follows on the heels of the next or new hybrid
forms are created. The road to progress,
like the road to hell, is paved with good intentions, but also often with conflicts that
leave behind many victims. It is necessary
to fight for democracy and strong economic systems, and cultural products that
will later form the core of the legacy bear
living witness to the physical conflicts; indeed, even scientific progress is subject to
188
victories and defeats, triumph and despair.

At present we are witnessing a battle
between the tired cultures that it is claimed are afraid of losing what they have and
the hungry and dynamic new kids on the
block: the starving, desperate people who
are quite literally shifting the fight towards
the prosperous north. Once again it is artists who are bringing us into the discussion with their words, images and sounds.
And once again, the most exciting theatre
is that which tackles the major issues of
protest and conflict.
Shakespeares hero courts the widow
of his murder victim at the graveside;
Lessings tale of intrigue and love exposes nothing but reveals everything about
privilege and the curse of social class on
affairs of the heart. Today, the keenly
committed teacher in the post-migrant
German play Verrcktes Blut struggles to
deal with young Turkish adolescents; their
battle is never fully resolved, their anger is
held up to the mirror of Sturm und Drang,
but at first they refuse to recognise themselves in Schillers robbers. The appearance of a gun shakes up the conflict; the
pistol becomes a tool that is used to enforce
the game and the understanding of the
greater good that it represents. What calls
itself the aesthetic education of humankind almost turns into a violent climax
but in a stroke of genius by the writer
in the end it triumphs in a most strange
and remarkable way.
Conflicts can provide the essential ingredients for growth.

A societys progress is based on
protest and fierce struggles for
positions and interests.
This is not to say that everything has

already been said, but the art lies in wringing meaning out of simple happenings
that we have still not or have never quite
managed to grasp; creating meaning is creating freedom. Set yourself free! is also
the secret agenda of aesthetic teaching that
always avoids fear and shame by a mere
hairsbreadth. The art lies in designing the
serious game. It is possible for new players to be won over by seriousness, for free
spirits to learn how to change some of the
more serious parts of life under the banner of freedom, but it is not exactly urgent.
So it takes at least a second glance to
understand it all, if it can be understood at
all. This also applies to the intention and
outcome of the honourable desire to bring
culture into the equation (or perhaps we
can say bring into play?) as a defence
against bloody conflicts, to act as a bearable way of dealing with terrible conflict
situations and their consequences. In the
furore over the Seven Deadly Sins, delayed or renounced gratification, sublimation or repression cannot or can only to a
lesser extent be initially balanced out by a
friendly but strong ego and an empathetic
super-ego and only at a high price.
On the other hand, doing nothing or
adopting an attitude of resignation cannot
be considered as humane cultural alternatives. This means renouncing meaning
for all and giving up on the free creation
of meaning in favour of a putative natural, revolutionary, zealously religious or
ethnically racist law. A relapse without
prospect of paradise (before banishment);
paradise can however also not promise
the most ingenious system, unless it is the
nightmare of totality. What remains and
here the high art of Freud and others are
reduced, at least verbally, to a post-modern
philosophy of life that is little more than

an advisors mantra is learning how to
handle conflicts in a cultural and cultivated way.
Culture then provides the space to deal
with interests that are rife with potential
for conflict, with antitheses, with other
ideas, with differences and similarities,
with old and new; culture is conflict and
it is also the right (or wrong) way of dealing
with conflict. Conflict relativises and gives dynamism to moribund relations and
to this effect art is continually creating new
conflicts. Art has never lost its dynamism;
it can itself be uncultured in the midst of
conflict; it can undermine the culture of
peaceful problem-solving; indeed culture
itself can mutate or be mutated into the
uncultured.
What makes it so difficult is the fact
that we as humans are quick to cast aside
what we think of as the burden of responsibility when we are overwhelmed by circumstances. This means we then have to
justify our violent impulses and invent
and tell stories to turn these impulses into
doctrine. Art has laid bare these stories a
thousand times, but it will have to do so
another thousand times. Any hope that
this would come to an end has faded over
the course of history; it seems hopeless to
even have this hope.
In Europe, perhaps the bloodiest continent in recent history, the second half of
the last century saw the creation of space
for a political culture of negotiation, for
the waiving of sovereignty in favour of the
common wealth. This was a unique event
in its history. The triad of democracy, the
rule of law and the social market economy
unleashed a massive energy. Productive
conflicts can be experienced and limited
in this way and bloody conflicts can be
189
avoided between the Member States. Many

people were brought into this culture, and
more still were excluded. A great deal of
what works internally has been gained
through externalisation: the outsourcing
of business models and conflicts.
Of late, the island of Europe has come
under massive pressure. The tide is building in favour of internal consensus and
external dominance; anxiety is spreading
and sophisticated negotiation processes
are increasingly turning into confrontational talks and populist policies; at the same
time, the power to tie the main economic
players into a set of basic rules that benefits everyone is waning. Faced with this
situation, many people and their elected
representatives are seeking out apparently safe harbours in a bid to find old ways
of freezing conflicts and creating aggressive isolation: the nation states that are no
longer what they once were. Complexity
creates fear. Reducing complexity will soon
create even more fear.
Cultural policy that is orientated towards democracy and peace often contributes to a conflict culture, both internally
and externally as a result of the disappearing demarcations between local and global, national and international. External
cultural policy can no longer ignore its
own contradictions and can no longer be
local. The processes of global interaction
and interdependence mean that it is now
cosmopolitan and becoming more and
more European.
Sound cultural policy which must be
both national and transnational can also
no longer simply be carried out under the
nave banner of the rhetoric of cultural
conflict. But it can also not stop encouraging those who have the power to uncover
the nature and problems of conflicts in a
190
cultural and self-reflective way: the artists,

intellectuals, cultural workers, the us and
them and their joint projects.
The European players

In practice, Europe is still experiencing
difficulties in coming to terms with joint
policies on culture and conflict, both internally and externally. Europe has tools at its
disposal that are not available to everyone.
In its latest round of reforms, the Council
of Europe relegated culture and education
further down the agenda of its core business of democracy and human rights. But
on the other hand, it hands out more powers when the various conflicting cultures
(the Member States) try to align conflict
negotiations, as has already been the case.
So the Cultural Policy Review programme
has stalled over certain issues (the report
on Turkey) and there were some remarkable incidents, as in the case of Russia. Interestingly, in this latter case the Council
did not try to produce a national and an
international report, but right from the beginning tried to produce one joint report.
When the first conflict arose amongst the
team of experts themselves and between
the experts and cultural policy, this led to
the removal of the critical member of the
international group. So far there has been
no public debate on this.
Other players include the EUs national cultural institutes and the EUNIC network. Of course we should not mention
how, at the time when the UKs EU policy
was doing an about-turn in the winter of
2011/12, the British Council had to step
away from the main events being run as
part of European external cultural policy
within the More Europe programme;
(contrary to the British mantra of liberal

debate, no event was held in London). We
also should not mention how the German
foreign ministrys 2011 paper on external
cultural strategy came about without the
input of the quangos whose involvement
and autonomy had until then been held up
as an example around the world. This resulted in several points being met with great controversy, including the assessment of
the power (and impotence) of culture during conflicts. We will just make a passing
reference to the fact that EUNIC remains
almost unknown amongst the European
public, in stark contradiction to the notion
of Europe as a civilian power. If we want
to give Europe a face (in all its variety) and
throw Europes soft power into the pot in
the interest of all citizens (both European
and global) in a world full of conflict, then
public debate is essential. It is good that
reality continues to arise of its own accord,
at times painfully, as in the debate about
the Art of the Enlightenment exhibition
in Beijing in 2011, and in the way the hosts
interfered in the composition of the expert
delegation from the West. But this reality
has some quite other conflicts in store that
need to be addressed by European policies
on culture and other areas. We are still a
long way from creating the necessary consensus on this, let alone from being ready
to take action.
Here the third European player would
be needed, the EU and its institutions,
and the European External Action Service (EEAS), an institution whose creation was held up by many as a prime example
of low-level conflict avoidance. According
to critics, the match between the Member
States (the Council) and the EU, and between the EEAS and the Commission has
ended up as a nil-all draw thanks to a state
of institutionalised ambivalence, rather

than the classic win-win situation. And
culture? This cannot be found in the EEAS
set-up, despite the fact that the Council
and the European Parliament have repeatedly emphasised the importance of culture in European external relations, and
the Commission highlighted it as the third
pillar in its programme for culture in an
increasingly globalised world. This is also
a striking example of conflict avoidance,
with the effect that in the meantime the
discussions (that we hope are enlightened) about conflict and culture can only
take place in the heads of a few incorrigibles, as is the case with this publication
from the Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen (German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, ifa). We are still a long way
from hitting the right note when it comes
to what is feasible.
Gottfried Wagner is an advisor to the Austrian
Federal Ministry of Culture and Education. For
many years, he was Director of the European
Cultural Foundation, Europes only independent, cross-border and pan-European cultural
foundation. He was also Director of KulturKontakt Austria, a European competence and
research centre for education, culture and art,
based in Vienna.
191
Beware of vaulting ambitions Although a painting can

never stop a bullet, a painting can stop a bullet from
being fired. Executing that painting and putting it
in place, however, is a specialised and complex affair.
The author wonders whether this is really EUNICs
business. By Yudhishthir Raj Isar
striking feature of the culture sector today is the degree to which

its institutional players cultural
operators, activists, advocates and organisations readily invoke cultural expression and practice as expedients, in other
words as instruments for the attainment
of other ends. Does this always make sense? Recent years have seen a succession of
causes external to culture itself to which
cultural actors have hitched their wagon,
often opportunistically, sometimes idealistically, but not always with the intended effect.
192
These causes have included culture

and development, culture and social
cohesion, intercultural dialogue, the
creative industries and, most recently, cultural diversity. Each of them has
generated its own narratives and these
narratives in turn have often been understood and deployed rhetorically in
rather loose and undifferentiated ways.
They have generated catch-all terms lumping together a range of different kinds
of practices designed to meet different
kinds of goals.
Culture in conflict resolution is one
of these discourses and it has become a
flourishing field of theory, practice and
research. Its specialist practitioners generally define their goals in clear and precise terms. This is not always the case
when such ideas are used discursively by
non-specialist individuals or organisations, many of whom deploy them as vogue terms that are dictated by a certain
political correctness. This becomes problematic when conflict resolution as such
is not central to the core mission or competencies of actors or organisations that
identify with these buzzwords or claim
to want to apply them. There are several organisations, even among those that
define themselves as devoted to conflict
resolution, such as those promoting interfaith dialogue, where a direct connection
to any kind of on-the-ground conflict resolution is far from evident.
Cultural buzzwords
The reader should not be surprised
to learn, therefore, that while cognisant
and highly appreciative of the potential
of the arts as vectors and tools of conflict resolution, I am far from convinced
that a body such as EUNIC should invest
its energies in this area, other than being
morally supportive of the opportunities
it offers. Because of this, and because I
am myself not directly conversant with
actual practice in the field, I was initially
reluctant to accept EUNICs invitation to
contribute to the present volume. Having
been persuaded to do so, however, I have
been afforded an opportunity to begin a
mapping of the field that will be presented briefly below. The evidence provided
by this preliminary survey reinforces my
initial doubts as to whether involvement
While cognisant and highly

appreciative of the potential of
the arts as vectors and tools of
conflict resolution, I am far from
convinced that a body such as
EUNIC should invest its energies
in this area, other than being
morally supportive of the opportunities it offers.
in projects relating to the use of the arts

in conflict resolution would be the best
use of either EUNIC or the bodies that
compose it.
Before I briefly make this dissident and
perhaps provocative case, however, I need
to make a brief detour to explain that,
when I refer to culture, it is not in the
broader sense of ways of life with which
the narrower understanding of culture as
the arts and heritage is increasingly conflated. Indeed, a range of players, and nation-states in particular, now invoke the
need to support, or protect or promote
the arts and heritage, not for their own
sake but because they embody or represent different ways of life that need to be
protected or promoted, to use the language of the 2005 UNESCO Convention
on the diversity of cultural expressions.
When the term is deployed in the ways
of life or group identity sense, the relationship between culture and conflict is
ambiguous from the outset. The baneful influence of the clash of cultures paradigm has caused many to see cultural
difference itself as a cause of conflict, without understanding that in all our contemporary societies politicised difference
has become a pawn of contests over the
control of power and resources, all of
which can so easily be culturalised. So
here it is rather difficult to speak of a role
for culture in conflict prevention and/or
resolution.
It is of course possible to promote dialogic exchange around the values and
ethos of different ways of life at the meta
193
level, as it were, through conversations

that take the form of dialogue between
cultures or inter-religious dialogue in
order to find common ground between
different ways of seeing and being in the
world.
But such practice, commonly referred
to and practised as intercultural dialogue, is not the positive use of culture in
conflict situations round the world that
EUNIC wishes to report on. And it simply
cannot be, since the culture that is being
used in this case is necessarily the arts,
together with ideas of heritage and collective memory, while institutions such as
museums serve as crucibles for such work.
It is these expressive areas of human activity that provide powerful sources of
energy and emotion, feeling and passion,
imagery and imagination, and sheer human desire for building bridges or searching for common ground.
Multi-disciplinary
conflict resolution
So what is this expert field of conflict
resolution, also referred to as peacebuilding, conf lict transformation, conf lict
prevention, conflict management, conflict mitigation, conflict reduction, crosssectoral conflict work and conflict sensitivity? As the American specialist Craig
Zelizer has pointed out, the domain of
conf lict resolution is multi-disciplinary, drawing on theory and practice from
disciplines as diverse as sociology, psy-
194
chology, international relations, law and

economics as well as from work on the
ground by practitioners (naturally, many
of these are artists when the techniques
are arts-based). The central goals of conflict resolution, he observes, regardless
of the particular disciplinary approach or
frame used, are to develop a greater understanding of the sources and dynamics
of conflict and to develop and implement
more effective responses to preventing,
managing, and reducing the effects of
conflict.1 Common to all approaches is
the figure of the mediator or the process
of mediation between individuals or
groups in conflict that helps the parties
to achieve some kind of mutually agreeable resolution of a conflict-ridden confrontation of some kind.
The bulk of these activities appear to
be initiated, funded or led by US bodies,
including well-known not-for-profit organisations such as Search for Common
Ground (which now has offices in more
than 15 countries), and governmental
institutions such as the Conf lict Management and Mitigation Unit of the US
Agency for International Development,
or intergovernmental entities such as the
United Nations Development Program
(UNDP).
European players are slowly becoming increasingly involved. One of these is Swedens International Development
Cooperation Agency (SIDA), which includes the topic in its culture and media
development cooperation activities. PanEuropean bodies understandably seek to
rival American agencies, notably in fields

where the latter have been pioneers. From
a European perspective, this is no doubt a
laudable objective. But is it the right one
for every category of organisation, and
more specifically EUNIC?
Today, a very diverse range of artsbased conf lict resolution activities are
being carried out by local and international organisations as well as many artists,
mainly within the framework known as
community arts, in which professional
artists collaborate with people who dont
normally engage in arts practice in a professional or full time way. These activities
can be summarised as follows:
Arts for peacebuilding largely
based on community arts, in which
groups from different sides of a conflict are gathered together to conduct
joint artistic products, sometimes
focusing on the conflict.
Social protest art although this
does not fit within a traditional model of peacebuilding, this type of art
is often used during higher stages of
conflict. Through artistic processes,
individuals seek to resist and protest
against violence through cultural
means. Work that uses the arts to
create awareness, understanding and
trust with regard to issues of cultu-
The baneful influence of the

clash of cultures paradigm has
caused many to see cultural difference itself as a cause of conflict
ral freedom that may be threatened

by oppression or discrimination can
also be included in this category.
Creative therapies these processes
largely focus on promoting the healing of individuals who have suffered
because of conflict and/or trauma.
Within this diverse range of arts-based activities, some projects may directly intervene in, or address the substance
of, a particular conflict in a community.
Art is often used to help people to explore
specific conflicts from multiple perspectives and envision alternative possibilities, or bring together groups that are in
conflict to address the relational aspects
of conflict.
The specific arts-based process may
not directly address the substance of a
conflict, but it may facilitate increased
understanding and interaction among
the parties to it. Other efforts are more
activist in nature and challenge unjust,
regressive or repressive social, economic
and political orders, while others aim to
help individuals and communities deal
with the potentially traumatic effects of
conflict. Recent and still ongoing efforts
of this type include initiatives in Palestine, the Great Lakes region of Central
Africa, South Africa and the countries of
the former Yugoslavia.
The theatre in particular has been a
force for the exploration and transformation of perceptions, understandings
and feelings. A typical example of the
195
use of theatrical techniques for creative

therapy is the support provided through
SIDA for the development of the dramatic arts among children and young people in the West Bank/Gaza by the Swedish University College of Film, Radio,
Television and Theatre. Although initially conceived following the signing of
the Oslo Agreement for the development
of a Palestinian cultural infrastructure,
the project now focuses on relieving the
deep trauma caused amongst children by
the increasing violence and deprivation
in their lives. Plays, drama training and
video animation courses help these children to talk about and work through their
experiences.
Although its positive impacts have,
alas, been completely wiped out by subsequent events, another example of a performing arts-based peacebuilding initiative was the Centre for Performing Arts
(CPA) founded in the Sri Lankan town of
Jaffna in the 1960s. During the civil war
it opened twenty centres across the country and many branches amongst exiled
Sri Lankan communities internationally
in order to involve young people in intercultural activities that promote peace and
mutual understanding.2
These activities included the traditional dances of different communities.
These were taken on tour to the various
centres, thus allowing these art forms to
be shared with communities that might
have different languages and religions.
They encouraged young people to create contemporary performances, often on
196
the theme of the conflict, and to perform

them to large audiences both within and
beyond their own communities. They
also comprised inter-community camps
where young people from different communities worked together on performance and arts projects. The aim was to
promote the interaction of cultural practices. Bringing young people together in
cross-cultural programmes was a means
of resisting the divisions in cultural forms
by encouraging joint practices in which
performances were created by drawing
on the skills of all participants.
Alternative voices
Initiatives on a broader canvas, also
often based on the performing arts, include such emblematic projects as the
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (named
after an anthology of poems by Goethe).
This youth orchestra, which is based in
Seville and is made up of musicians from
Israel, the rest of the Middle East, Iran
and Spain, was founded in 1999 by the
Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian-American academic Edward Said . One of the
young musicians in the orchestra sees the
venture, which Barenboim himself calls a
project against ignorance, as a human
laboratory that can express to the whole
The theatre in particular has

been a force for the exploration
and transformation of perceptions, understandings and feelings.
world how to cope with the other.3

The work of museums and sites of memory represents another type of conflictoriented effort that uses cultural objects,
documents and artefacts. The international network of peace museums, for example, stresses an educational role. Depending on their location and context, these
peace museums are sites for historic
narratives and survivor stories, centres
for conflict resolution and transformative
imagining or memorial and reconciliation
sites. Their common value is considered
to be their capacity to provide an alternative voice or resistance to the dominant
and dominating voices of violence.
Sites of Conscience
Along the same lines, mention should
be made of the international NGO Sites
of Conscience, created in 1999 when the
directors of nine historic sites including
the Gulag Museum in Russia, the Slave
House in Senegal, Memoria Abierta in Argentina, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in the US came together
to explore a shared question: how can heritage sites promote human rights? These
museums had little in common in terms of
the history or themes they represented or
the scope and scale of their properties, but
they did share a commitment to placing
heritage at the service of building lasting
cultures of peace and democracy. They
imagined a new type of space, which they
called a Site of Conscience, defining this
as a museum committed to three things:

to interpreting history through a site; to
engaging in programmes that stimulate
dialogue on todays pressing social issues;
and to sharing opportunities for public
involvement in those issues. They decided to work as a coalition, operating at
the intersection of historic preservation,
human rights, citizen engagement, education, and the arts. Their work also
fitted into broader initiatives aimed at
transitional justice or democracy-building, such as Truth Commissions and
other post-conflict programs. Tensions
and creative innovations have emerged
from these efforts in relation to three
specific issues: memorialising practice; memory wars; and the destruction
and reconstruction of heritage, memory,
and identity in post-conf lict contexts.
Distancing itself from essentialist formulations of race, ethnicity, or national identity, Sites of Conscience seeks to
shape heritage to construct a collective
memory of moral acts and choices of
cruelty, compassion, and courage and
offer a space for the ongoing interrogation of the nature of those choices, the
reasons for them, and what they suggest
for the future.4
I have included these types of institutions and activities in this brief overview
because their nature and the type of activities they undertake may be somewhat
closer to the capacities of EUNIC than
are the grassroots-based conf lict resolution activities that I began with. But
serious questions still remain.
197
Where is EUNIC in all this?

In the light of EUNICs mission to
improve and promote cultural diversity
and understanding between European societies, and to strengthen international
dialogue and co-operation with countries
outside Europe what kind of added value could its members bring to such efforts, other than the channelling of moral
and perhaps financial support mentioned
above? In those countries that are represented by these cultural institutes, there
must surely be specialised bodies whose members have the competencies and
commitments that would enable them to
do the job much more effectively. What
place or what justification is there for the
grouping to function as a conflict resolution organisation? What in fact would
this mean? If it is supporting the work of
organisations better qualified to carry it
out, then there is no problem. But should
they be adopting the role of a mediating
organisation that seeks to carry out democratic communal problem-solving of
the kind that is envisaged by conflict resolution?
This would require turning them into
what the American political scientists
Barbara Nelson, Linda Kaboolian and
Kathryn Carver called concord organisations, based on their research into 100
cross-community organisations in Northern Ireland, South Africa, the United
States, and Israeli and Palestinian groups
working in the US. 5 The researchers defined concord organisations as those that
198
bring together people with fundamentally opposing views or identities for the
purpose of promoting civil society while
recognising group differences, and they
argued that even liberal and (re)distributive regimes do not automatically convert conflict over domination into conflict over belonging.
They cited the work of Indian political
scientist Asutosh Varshney, who found
that it takes successful cross-community
organisations, including the Hindu-Muslim alliance in the old-style Congress party, to activate the advantages offered by
somewhat favourable structural relations.
He noted that Indian cities with more
cross-community organisations of all
kinds had lower levels of communal violence. Importantly, he also found that in
Indian cities cross-community contacts
by themselves, such as going to the wedding of a friend from another community,
are not predictive of lower levels of communal violence.
What is therefore needed to address
these sorts of situations in divided societies is precisely the kind of concord organisations that can bring together people with fundamentally opposing views
or interests in order to initiate dialogue,
witness activities, provide education and
training in conflict management and me-
We Europeans need to be lucidly self-reflective about our selfassigned mission of spreading

our positive messages, lest our
efforts unwittingly mirror colonialist Europes civilising mission of yesteryear.
diation, foster community service, and

so on. Are EUNICs members equipped
and/or mandated to do this, I wonder?
Aside from this last question, issues
also arise with regard to the laudable European humanitarian impulse that underpins the desire to do good elsewhere.
The idea being, in this case, that European players can intervene effectively in
areas of conflict that exist in other parts
of the world. One would of course need
to question the assumption that what I
have called concord organisations are not
something that we in Europe need, since
ours is a zone of peace. This is to forget
the conflict situations that persist along
the margins, or proximate outside of Europe, such as in the Balkans. And, more
importantly, this is also to ignore the ways
in which ethnic difference has become a
pawn to conflicts over power and resources in cities and suburbs right across Europe, something that cries out for effective
resolution within our own house!
But this caveat may be a little academic,
since it is clear that EUNICs mission targets the rest of the world. EUNIC exists
in order to forge a European whole that
is more than the sum of its parts, in other
words to forge a pan-European cultural
image. Building on thoughts I shared
with the 2011 European Cultural Forum
with respect to the role of cultural operators in democracy-building elsewhere, I
would like to reiterate in these pages that,
when we as Europeans seek to support
therapeutic work of any kind in other settings, we need to be acutely sensitive to
different understandings and priorities,

as well as to potential clashes of perspectives.7 No one size fits all solution can
even be remotely envisaged: peaceful
conf lict resolution, or democracy and
human rights, have all become universal
values to be sure, but there is no single
global formula for their application on the
ground. We Europeans need to be lucidly self-reflective about our self-assigned
mission of spreading our positive messages, lest our efforts unwittingly mirror
colonialist Europes civilising mission
of yesteryear.
A marked assymetry of position

While outsiders can make valuable contributions to conflict-resolution
work, it is vital that local peacebuilders
and civil society activists have a strong
say in development activities. In most
international development work, however, there is still a marked asymmetry of
position whenever Western experts come
in to help train, educate and work with
locals. However, in recent years there has
been a growing emphasis on collaborative
partnerships based on local contexts and
cultures. Peace studies expert Craig Zelizer highlights the increasing reliance on
direct South-South interactions between
conflict-ridden places, where individuals
from one conflict region may share their
experiences and expertise with those in
other conflict regions. One example is the
work of the organisation called Initiative
199
for Inclusive Security, which has helped

foster linkages and connections amongst women peacebuilders from the Sudan,
Colombia, Iraq and elsewhere.
Projects such as these oblige us to recognise both the potential and the limits
of the arts in conflict resolution, regardless of who carries out and who supports
such work. As a community-arts practitioner reminds us, although a painting can
never stop a bullet, a painting can stop a
bullet from being fired. Executing that
painting and putting it in place, however,
is a specialised and complex affair. Is this
really EUNICs business?
Yudhishthir Raj Isars professional experience straddles different worlds of cultural
practice and theory. He is currently Professor of Cultural Policy Studies at The American
University of Paris, Eminent Research Visitor
at the University of Western Sydney and founding co-editor of the Cultures and Globalization Series. He is a past president of the initiative Culture Action Europe.
200
http://wayback.archive-it.
org/2077/20100906203351/http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2007/06/integrating_com.php. Accessed 23 September, 2012.
James Thompson, Performance, globalization and

conflict promotion/resolution: experiences from Sri
Lanka in H.K. Anheier and Y.R. Isar (eds.) Conflicts
and Tensions. The Cultures and Globalization Series, 1. London: SAGE Publications.
See the Wikipedia entry on the West-Eastern Divan

Orchestra.
Sevcenko, L. (2011) Sites of Conscience: Heritage of

and for Human Rights in H.K. Anheier and Y.R. Isar
(eds.) Heritage, Memory and Identity. The Cultures
and Globalization Series, 4. London: SAGE Publications.
Nelson, B., Kaboolian, K. and Carver, Kathryn C.

(2007 Creating concord organizations: institutional design for bridging antagonistic cultures
in H.K. Anheier and Y.R. Isar (eds.) Conflicts and
Tensions. The Cultures and Globalization Series, 1.
London: SAGE Publications.
Y.R Isar, Civil society empowerment in third countries: are culture actors providing powerful voices
in support of democratization processes?, discussion paper for the European Culture Forum, Brussels, 21 October, 2011 (http://culture-forum-2011.
ec.europa.eu/index.jsp).
Keeping doors open in difficult times Lets be more

precise about the word culture. Lets be more confident and ambitious about what cultural relations
can achieve for the EU as a component of its external
relations. Lets allow the arts, education and intercultural dialogue to open doors and build trust between
communities and so help to prevent or resolve conflicts. By Robin Davies
ntil recently, before I joined the

British Council, I did not consider that culture had any special
or significant role to play in international relations least of all in the development of global prosperity and stability. I
thought culture was museums, art galleries
and theatre: something to look at. Only
recently have I begun to understand the
term culture, its importance to international politics and its centrality to the EUs
external relations.
I now realise that for much of my life I
have not only underestimated the power
of culture as a transformational force, but
I have also been confused about the term
culture itself. I find it clearer to distinguish between the anthropological and humanities concepts of culture. The former
social-science concept is about a collective

meaning that encompasses peoples shared
memories, identity, values, norms, beliefs
and purpose. The latter humanities concept interprets culture as an agent for creativity: the literature, songs, poems, music,
dances, plays, pictures, films, fashion and
architecture produced by those who reinforce or challenge their own communitys
identity through the arts.
These two concepts are intricately linked. The arts foster identity, creativity, belonging and purpose within cultural communities, and play a key role in promoting
understanding, sensitivity, and interaction
across communities. The arts also promote
cultural change, create flexible boundaries
of inclusion and enable an overlapping of
identities that prevents cultural difference
from becoming a source of tension and
violence. In this way, culture can generate
stability and a sense of security by infusing
individuals and communities with a sense
of belonging. However, culture can also
be manipulated into a negative force by
seeking to establish division. By including
only sameness and excluding difference,
culture can provoke tension and violence.
Much has been written about Europes
recent decline in the worlds pecking order of growing economies and influence.
However, in terms of population size, and
commercial, economic and financial influ-
201
ence, the European Union still has a global impact. Even in these austere times,
it still accounts for the greatest share of
world trade and still generates one-quarter of global wealth. Despite the presence
of larger and competing economies, the
EU is still the biggest provider of financial
assistance to poorer countries, and is increasingly involved in peacekeeping activities, conflict prevention and resolution,
and post-conflict reconstruction. The EU
has taken a leading role in dealing with the
consequences of global warming, the emission of greenhouse gases and in carrying
out research into cleaner energy.
Cooperation and integration

The EU brings stability and prosperity
to its citizens, is building close relationships with its neighbours and spreading
the advantages of open markets, economic
growth and democratic political systems.
The EU does not seek to impose its political systems, economic principles or western values on others, but welcomes any
democratic wider European country as a
potential member, pooling resources in the
common interest. As it expands, the EUs
hallmarks are cooperation and integration.
The EU provides the largest share of all
development assistance delivered by the
major industrialised countries. Its objectives include eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable development, improving
physical and social infrastructures and
strengthening state institutions. The EU
delivers its aid in many ways: through direct cooperation with governments, the
implementation of individual projects (often through NGOs) humanitarian aid, assistance in crisis prevention and support
to civil society.
Under its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the EU defines the types
of diplomatic and political activities it can
undertake in conflict prevention and resolution. Influential in an increasingly interconnected planet, the EU seeks to support
economic development and political stability in the wider world. The EUs interests
go beyond trade and traditional development assistance. They cover support for
economic reforms, health and education,
infrastructure programmes, research and
development and environmental policy,
providing a framework for discussing democracy and human rights.
But the EU exports more than just the
incentives, tools and skills for political
development and economic integration.
It also exports European culture and I
mean here both the anthropological and
the humanities concepts of the term culture. The EU exports a social and cultural framework within which stability, development and prosperity can flourish.
It also exports culture as a creative agent
that portrays and communicates this framework.
Our increasingly globalised world reduces the significance of political borders
and cultural barriers and opens the way
for cultural differences to be understood
There is more to culture than

meets the eye in a museum or
art gallery.
202
and shared agendas to be established and

engaged. At the centre of the social and
cultural framework exported by the EU
through its funded programmes and projects across the world are universally recognisable and accepted norms of behaviour
and values, such as the rule of law, liberal
democratic social order, the protection of
human rights, and the acknowledgement
of cultural diversity and respect for other
cultures.
Going beyond narrow definitions

The scope of cultural relations extends
far beyond any narrow definition of culture as merely arts and heritage. Such a
narrow definition does not encompass all
the tenets of what can be achieved through
the vehicle of culture within international
cultural relations. And, placed alongside
the more traditional and familiar vehicles
of international relations diplomatic, political, trade and economic cultural relations are often overlooked as a powerful
contributor to stability and prosperity.
Collectively these values and norms represent European soft power the cultural influence that shapes the heart of European external relations and that should
aspire to convey these values and norms
to the outside world through a process of
intercultural dialogue. Intercultural dialogue involves the promotion of the mutuality and trust that provide the foundation for
successful international relations. While
hard power is the ability to coerce (through
military or economic means) and manipulate, soft power is the means to attract
and work towards mutual understanding.
Traditionally, the success of the unification process of the European Union has
relied principally on political and economic cooperation. The cultural dimension
has been somewhat neglected. But since
the end of the Cold War and with the increasing effects of globalisation, culture
is moving to centre stage. Cultural relations, in terms of intercultural dialogue
and the building of trust through a process
of mutual understanding, are an essential
component of both European integration
and European foreign policy. They bond
civil societies, not just government elites.
Because of this bonding power, cultural relations have a growing influence on
conflict prevention and resolution. NATO,
with its emphasis on preventing conflict
rather than responding to it, has developed
its Comprehensive Approach to include
the cultural angle to peacebuilding, because cultural difference often lies at the heart
of conflict language, religious belief and
historical narrative all represent passionate
reasons to fight for the survival of a cultural identity. However, culture can also
represent the only way to bring people in
conflict together.
Today education, sport, art, literature,
music and dance are all cultural instruments used by mediators, cultural bodies
and governments to reconcile warring factions and to build sustainable peaceful relations by identifying common interests
and values. Culture divides, but it also he-
203
als. Culture is the soft power of attraction

that builds bridges between communities.
Here are some recent examples that serve to illustrate the important role played by
culture in many conflict zones:
Book Cafes in Zimbabwe have become
places where people can meet for safe debate and discussion and not just about
books. Thats the point.
A shocking photographic exhibition set
up by young peace activists in Nairobi portrays and relives, very publicly, the recent
Kenyan post-election violence. Todays Kenyan youth stands and stares and swears
never again.
From small beginnings, the Afghan
Womens Network now has thousands of
members, developing practical projects
and activities in their local communities, and giving women a real voice in the
countrys embryonic governance. Before
2007 the national culture there prohibited
decision-making by women.
In Palestine and Israel the sport programme Football for Peace brings divided
communities together, tackling cultural
differences off the field as energetically as
tackling each other on the field. Sport has
become a vehicle for wider intercultural
dialogue and mutuality.
In the immediate aftermath of the intercommunity conflict in the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), a transethnic Slav and Albanian network brought
young people together to develop joint educational and cultural projects. By 2005 it
had spread right across the country and was
encouraging cross-community collaborati-
204
on within a post-conflict situation.

In the aftermath of the Balkan wars,
the Bosnia History Trail project was set
up to engage young people from Serb, Bosniak and Croat communities in tracing
their shared cultural heritage a powerful way to value the others history and
perspectives.
Throughout Europe, students are constantly being encouraged to take part in
higher education exchange programmes,
and international students receive grants
to study at European universities. Education is culture too.
A sense of community
These are the types of activities and
programmes where the EU is increasingly
focusing its investment. The essential rationale for including cultural components in
the EUs external policies and relations lies
in the power of culture, arts and education
to foster a sense of community by means
of education and intercultural dialogue. In
foreign relations, this is a way of protecting
the diversity of cultures, traditions, languages, cultures and different forms of artistic expression. The European Union itself
is a collection of diverse cultures. Its gro-
The European Union itself is a

collection of diverse cultures. Its
growing cultural footprint ensures that this model is applied
at a time when elsewhere other
cultural identities are wrestling
with each other for dominance
and survival.
wing cultural footprint ensures that this

model is applied at a time when elsewhere
other cultural identities are wrestling with
each other for dominance and survival.
The European Union is an example of
how fiercely antagonistic nations can gradually transform relations through increased interdependence and a sense of common destiny. Within the diversity of their
cultures, they share ideas, norms and values that together constitute an abstract
culture, in which Europeans see themselves as partners. This is a cultural practice worth exporting.
The development of cultural components for EU external relations and policies
allows the Union to accentuate its role as a
partner for third countries and to support
multilateral diplomacy rather than unilateral action. The strength of the European Unions soft power lies in its readiness
to seek dialogue on matters of difference
in order to reach mutual understanding,
rather than resolving conflict by military or economic means. Culture is not a
sector or sphere of society that is distinct
from economy or politics but rather an integral part of them. Cultural experiences
allow individuals to engage intellectually
and emotionally and can provide personal
connections that can outlive or override
political disagreements. It is no coincidence that visits to cultural institutions are
a permanent feature of diplomatic trips
this is where people-to-people relations are
built, before the political discourse begins.
Culture offers more than meets the eye in
these cultural institutions. Culture keeps
doors open in difficult times.

Over the last two decades, cultural relations have become progressively more influential as we have moved away from the
predictabilities of the bi-polar Cold War
to the vagaries of the multi-polar world of
today. Cultural factors play a larger part in
defining our sense of identity: our language, religion and historicity. People perceive
and measure each other against a cultural
yardstick. And as the effects of technology, wider access to news, ideas and knowledge and globalisation permeate every
community, opportunities for contact and
exchange grow. And because of this intercultural activity, cultures are meeting,
mingling and morphing in an increasingly
interconnected world.
We can no longer think of culture as
being detached from mainstream politics
and international relations. Understanding of, mutual respect for, and engagement with the others culture are in fact
at the very heart of political dialogue and
foreign relationships. The EU is in a position to exploit the rich opportunities of
cultural relations to enhance prosperity
and stability worldwide.
Robin Davies joined the British Council in
2009 and is Head of the Councils Partnership
and External Relations team in Brussels. Prior
to that, his career included serving in the Royal
Navy, where he planned operational routes for
destroyers and frigates, working as a Naval/Defence Attach in Moscow and the Hague and
as a strategic planner at the British Ministry of
Defence and at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.
205
Little strokes fell big oaks Cultural Institutes may not

resolve conflicts, but with courageous and thoughtprovoking programmes they can prepare the ground
for breaking down stereotypes and prejudices so that
societies can start to tackle sensitive issues.
By Martin Eichtinger
2011
was the year of democratic movements in the Arab

world. These movements were supported
by a new generation of Arab citizens who
dared to challenge old regimes in order
to make their dreams about an open society come true. 2012 will be the year that
shows whether they have succeeded in
their longing for more freedom and democracy. As the regions neighbour, the
European Union has to ask itself just what
it has contributed to these citizens efforts.
As a representative of a country that
was one of the founding fathers of the
European Network of Institutes of Cul-
206
ture (EUNIC), I would like to take a closer

look at a new role for cultural diplomacy
that has developed over recent years in
parallel to the institutes primary goal of
supporting young artists and creative and
innovative talent.
Since the establishment of the EUs
External Action Service, a series of very
fruitful discussions have taken place, acknowledging the positive role of culture
in the external relations of the European
Union and the potential of cultural diplomacy in foreign relations. While some deplore the fact that cultural relations do not
figure among the EEAS tasks and that EU
embassies do not include cultural officers
amongst their staff, others still believe in
the nation states monopoly when it comes
to cultural representation.
The world of culture is much too complex and diverse to fit into administrative
organisational structures. Artists, cultural networks and civil society organisations in the field of culture now cooperate
internationally thanks to the communication revolution. They do not behave like
a big orchestra that can be conducted by
anyone, but act more like molecules in the
atmosphere, performing random move-
ments, while at the same time constantly

joining together to form new structures.
Cultural institutes have adapted to this
new world of cultural cooperation. The
focus has shifted from a culture of representation to a culture of participation in
the global cultural dialogue. And in addition to serving as a springboard for the
participation of artists and creative individuals or groups in international cultural exchanges, cultural institutes now
consider it part of their remit to be involved in cultural diplomacy. These days the
programmes of European cultural institutes increasingly reflect the political and
social developments between countries
and people.
Many cultural institutes have already
become involved in intercultural and interreligious dialogue. I believe it is high
time that the European cultural institutes,
under the EUNIC umbrella, faced these
challenges together: we need to change
gear and transform our words into action.
The decisions made at the recent EUNIC
General Assembly in Brussels are a step
in the right direction. However, we need
to move more quickly and decisively and
start implementing our first flagship project in this field, which we have been discussing since the summer of 2011.
Diverse societies do not have to

be divided societies; cultural and
religious differences do not produce exclusion unless they are
hardened by discrimination.
In doing so, we have to ask ourselves

some fundamental questions:
- Where do we want to go, i.e. what are
our objectives?
- Where do we start and how do we
divide up the work between EUNICs
member institutes, given their differences in size and budget?
- How do we achieve the desired results?
Thanks to their structural independence from political institutions, including those at European level, cultural
institutes (i.e. EUNIC member institutes)
can operate more freely and can successfully supplement the role of the EU, as well
as national embassies or trade missions,
as open meeting places for civil society
and platforms for cooperation between
people. Furthermore, their cultural activities in the host countries usually gain
a higher profile than the work of other
official representative bodies.
But intercultural and interreligious
dialogue and cooperation is not an easy
undertaking. We have all experienced the
complexity of culture there is a great
deal of potential, but also a degree of risk.
Culture as such is not a universal value
and can even be a source of conflict. Intercultural relations force us to constantly
deal with the Janus-faced nature of culture.
Confrontation between various cultures almost always results from a conflict
of ideas, and yet it is precisely this conflict
of ideas that can lead to creativity and,
Jorge Sampaio, High Representative President Sampaio,

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations at UNAOCs Annual
Forum in Doha/Qatar 2011
207
once again, to culture. We actually need

creativity and culture to unite diversity.
Diversity be it ethnic, religious, cultural
or linguistic is a reality in our societies.
It has in fact become the core element of
our European identity and is reflected in
our common motto United in Diversity, something which should always be
our top priority.
But of course it is still important to
have the right expectations. We will not
bring about democracy and human rights
or actually resolve conflicts just by bringing creative people together. We cannot take the place of the fire brigade.
Anything we do will seem like a drop in
the ocean, but as we know, little strokes
fell big oaks!
Cultural institutes may not resolve conf licts, but with courageous and
thought-provoking programmes they can
prepare the ground for breaking down
stereotypes and prejudices so that societies can start to tackle sensitive issues.
Cultural institutes need to aim for tolerance and mutual respect while trying
to be the driving force behind the promotion and safeguarding of diversity. At
the same time, we must make sure that
our activities are based on mutual respect
for our global partners. We need to avoid anything which can be interpreted as
neo-colonialism, expressions of superiority or lecturing.
We should strive to engage a wider audience, including citizens and civil society, and not just cater to elites that are often
out of touch with sections of their own
societies. For this reason, it will be incre-
208
asingly important to create high-profile

projects and to ensure that the successes
of the cultural institutes receive regular
coverage in the mass media.
Two immediate challenges

As we are directly affected by developments in our neighbouring states, it makes sense that this is precisely where EUNIC is thinking of launching its first joint
flagship project. The socio-economic differences between us and our neighbours
to the south and east are certainly a potential source of conflict, especially if we fail
to take advantage of the huge opportunities offered by the Arab Spring. We face
two immediate challenges: firstly, we need
to establish a sustainable dialogue with
the new governments and secondly we
need to offer the benefit of our experience
in building peaceful societies through cooperation between governments and civil
society. In doing this, we need to ensure
that we take into account the differences
between individual countries and societies. There is no one size that fits all when
it comes to cooperation.
We can point to some lessons learned
from recent history with respect to the
dangers inherent in a lack of willingness
to cooperate as equal partners, as illustrated by the fascinating brochure published
We will not bring about democracy and human rights or

actually resolve conflicts just by
bringing creative people together.
by Poland on its road to democracy and

EU membership.
As a starting point, we should prepare a clear roadmap of the joint steps
that should be taken and ensure that we
all have the necessary tools to proceed.
More than anything, we need a high degree of intercultural competence and
professional empathy (including trained
mediators), along with the willingness of
those involved to cross existing divides.
In particular, we need to make sure that
our partners really feel that we are all on
an equal footing.
As EUNIC member institutes differ
widely in terms of organisational structure, budget and personnel resources, we
need to organise our joint endeavours in
such as way as to allow for different forms
of participation. It is more important to
have maximum participation than to exclude members, just as long as there is a
clear commitment to making a fair contribution, even if it is only in kind. We
will be much stronger if we move forward
together.
Sit down and listen

In a conflict, it requires courage not
just to stand up and speak, but also to sit
down and listen, as Winston Churchill
once put it. Sitting down and listening
is the sine qua non for successful dialogue. And dialogue remains the only way
of bringing us all safely to the end of our
road together. I fully believe that, in terms
of conflict resolution and prevention, the
promotion of dialogue through all layers

of society is a powerful instrument for
raising awareness, fostering mutual understanding and combating negative stereotypes and hostility.
Let me emphasise in this context
Austrias commitment to the dialogue
between cultures and religions. Austria,
and in particular Vienna, has a long-standing tradition as a hub for dialogue and
exchange at both national and international level. As early as the 1980s, we had
already instigated various initiatives, such
as a regular Christian-Islamic dialogue.
Cultural dialogue should be based on
the universal application of human rights
and fundamental freedoms, the respect of
which is a precondition for a peaceful and
diverse society. Therefore, it is of utmost
importance to also recognise the importance of interreligious and intercultural
dialogue in the context of the successful
integration of minorities for the benefit
of our societies as a whole. After all, integration is one of the most pressing issues
facing our societies in a changing Europe,
if not the most pressing.
Migration and integration will be one
of the key leitmotivs of the 5th UNAOC
Annual Forum, which is to take place in
Vienna in the spring of 2013. Let me express my hope that EUNIC as an organisation will not only be able to participate
in UNAOCs Fifth Annual Forum, but
also to present the initial results of its activities in the area of promoting dialogue
between cultures.
The feeling of arriving as a migrant in
a foreign country, of experiencing lingu-
209
istic and cultural barriers or simply being

perceived as a minority in any society can
all lead to insecurity and, in the worst
case, to marginalisation and aggression.
This is an experience that migrants have
in common with all members of minorities, whatever their religious or cultural
background.
Special attention should be paid to the
development and support of women and
youth during any dialogue. Among various national and international initiatives, we are currently organising a training
seminar for Turkish women in Austria
who will later act as dialogue guides and
mentors in their communities. The main
topics will be gender issues, education,
migration and media. Our seminars aim
is to create bridge-builders within and
between communities and to establish a
sustainable network of women engaged
in dialogue activities. This concept could
also easily be transferred to the international arena.
So in my view, the way forward for cultural institutes is to embark on a constructive dialogue with our neighbours at all
levels of society, both at international level and with the migrant communities
within our own societies in Europe. While
continuing the successful cooperation of
our EUNIC clusters around the world on
joint cultural activities, we also need to
get involved in the new challenge for cultural diplomacy: its contribution to securing global peace, conflict prevention and
post-conflict mediation through dialogue
between different cultures and religions.
It is a noble task, but also a difficult
one. It is a long-term project that often,
unfortunately, offers very little in the way
of immediate results. Its effects are generally not that easy to measure and are
210
often only seen in the absence of conflict

and war. However, this should not prevent anyone from being whole-heartedly
involved in the project.
Based on EUNICs principles, we need
to continue to work on flagship projects
aimed at furthering cultural exchange
and cooperation between people and fostering tolerance and respect for each
other or, in a nutshell, to promote the
very ideal behind the idea of Europe: to
foster unity in diversity and to support
diversity in unity.
Martin Eichtinger is Director General for Cultural Policy at the Austrian Federal Ministry
for European and International Affairs.
A domain of peace From the Age of Enlightenment

to an Arab street, it has taken a long time to cross the
Mediterranean. Finally, Europe can return the treasures of wisdom, philosophy and science to the Arab
shores where they originated. By Luciano Rispoli
he wind of freedom that is blowing

amongst the Arab peoples is first
and foremost a wind of culture.
Culture is essential for freedom, for the
different approaches to democracy and for
the very process of making demands. These different cultures worked together and
characterised the moment of revolt among
the Arab people. If the Arabs are to achieve
their freedom and opportunities for expression from a symbolic immolation
in Tunis to a bloody conflict for liberty in
Syria, and not forgetting the war in Libya
then they need to learn from European experiences of freedom and peace and from
democratic, if sometimes contradictory,
dialogues. From the Age of Enlightenment
to an Arab street, it has taken a long time
to cross the Mediterranean. Finally, Eu-
rope can return the treasures of wisdom,

philosophy and science to the Arab shores
where they originated.
Europe is now looking at the Arab world
with new eyes. The time has finally come to
understand what it is rejecting. And what
perhaps is too dominant in our societies:
absolute power, the dominance of money,
the supremacy of one caste over another,
the withdrawal of culture and its privatisation with the sole aim of making money.
It is not that trade in itself is harmful. It
is also a creator of social standards. But it
becomes dangerous as soon as it monopolises and colonises minds. In all cultures,
uniformity is a killer.
In Europe today, one culture rules above all others: results. Yet, failure and futility are eminently fertile. Failure is a materialisation of the right to be different and
art of the right to be unnecessary. Today,
culture is only experienced and viewed as
a vehicle, a means to an end. As a subject,
it is disappearing from official discourse
and programmes. Today it is also expected
to bring development, along with projects,
growth, harmonisation, not to mention
harmony. And if it wants to attract funding, it has to bring results.
Culture, held hostage by collective security, should regroup and try to work together. Culture, held hostage by economics,
should serve the interests of the creative
211
industries. Culture, held hostage by war,

should play its part in the prevention and
resolution of conflicts via policy directives.
Lets assume that the era of art for arts
sake is over, as is culture for cultures sake.
Nevertheless, the fact that politics considers culture as an instrument proves the
central importance of this social medium.
The wind of freedom is blowing through
the Arab world while European economies
are running out of steam, and social norms
are being toppled and reinvented from reality. But despite this, culture is proving its
essential significance through its creativity
with no preconceived ideas and its lack of
ultimate purpose other than to exist. Culture is a glue that holds society together, a
collective project that allows the sharing of
common standards. Culture is enriched by
changes and constant evolution.
There is culture and cultures. They endlessly intersect and challenge each other.
Cultures, murderous identities to borrow
the title of a famous essay by the LebaneseFrench writer Amin Maalouf, disappear
behind culture, which prepares and creates
the space of the word or of silence, permitting believers to change their minds and
unbelievers to worship whatever they like.
Culture, a domain of peace, is made up
of values or experiences that we Europeans
would like to see shared worldwide. Culture as a reassuring factor that upholds individual and collective freedoms and the
certainty that the other has a right to be
different. In this respect, culture goes beyond its cultural actions in terms of promoting events and experiences and is fundamentally universal.
EUNIC is an association that brings together all the national cultural institutes
of the European Unions Member States. It
has an ambitious objective: to use culture
212
to raise awareness of the European experience. The experience of putting an end

to centuries of war; the experience of promoting dialogue and pooling knowledge;
the experience of plurality; the experience
of individual rights and collective solidarity existing side-by-side. This sometimes
includes the experience of failure, but above all it is the will to build something together while our destinies are inexorably
interlinked.
Promoting the experience

of plurality
EUNIC has established five main priorities that are being disseminated and implemented by some eighty clusters worldwide:
1. To engage with civil society, with
the help of clusters in the major countries
of the Arab world, in order to encourage
the exchange of ideas on a range of topics
such as the media, cultural operators and
their cross-training, networking of cultural spaces and the establishment of legal standards designed to protect cultural
workers. EUNIC approaches the MENA
region (Middle East & North Africa) with
full awareness that our peoples already interact and live together. This peaceful coexistence is essential, although some extremists on both sides are doing their best to
destroy it. Political and/or religious extremism is the enemy of culture.
2. To pursue a dialogue with China,
a great cultural power and partner in all
the areas relating to culture. This should
include everything from creation to coproduction, from marketing to distribu-
tion, from reciprocal influence to mutual

discovery. In 2012, EUNIC and China are
holding their fifth intercultural dialogue.
The main topic of this dialogue is cultural
activities and urban development and the
subtopics are:
The protection and exploration of
local cultural resources and development of cultural brands for cities
The role of culture for urban sustainable development
Creative industries and (contemporary) art education
Community culture and urban
vitality
Alongside these dialogues between European and Chinese experts and artists,
workshops are also contributing to a better understanding of our different and valuable experiences in Europe and China.
3. To make environmental culture a new
social standard, in the process encouraging
development and health.
4. To link the cultural actions to the idea
of growth in the economic sense. Culture
has to be understood as a sector of the
economy that is given the full attention
of governments and public authorities at
national, European and global level. This
part of the economy is subject to specific
regulations and must be protected more
than any other sector because it creates
wealth, employment and improved living
conditions.
5. Finally, to promote culture as a powerful tool for conflict prevention and, in
some cases, in the processes of conflict resolution.
This fifth goal also places a considerable

weight of expectation on the EU. The EUNIC network is calling for a better, more
structured, and more sustainable collaboration with the Commission and the External Action Service. Our network holds
firm to the idea of improving relations via
dialogue with its partners, and this is given concrete form in the organisation of
events, conferences, co-productions and
cultural dissemination in order to create a
greater understanding. The EU delegations
also value the collaboration with EUNIC.
Cultural diplomacy really exists

Today, EUNIC is feeling fairly optimistic. Europes cultures are visible
throughout the world and in EUNIC the
EU has a strong tool for promoting this
cultural visibility and showing that the EU
is not just a tool for technical, political and
economic administration, but also even
predominantly a fantastic cultural experience. The joint projects of the National
Institutes and the clusters ensure Europe is
clearly visible and transcend Europes technocratic and strictly economic image. Cultural diplomacy really exists, and is being
carried forward by the cultural actions of
the Member States.
It is also increasingly being borne by
the way the EUNIC clusters are working
together and defending our shared inheritance. After all, with its 80 clusters
all around the world running hundreds of
activities that reach millions of citizens on
all five continents, EUNIC is delivering a
clear message: Europe is about the hope of
being together, respecting our differences
and turning them into strong, stable and
sustainable power; a peaceful power. There
213
have been no wars between EU members

since the beginning of this adventure. A
great deal has already been done, and we
should be extremely grateful to the founders of the EU. But more still needs to be
done, particularly in the area of culture. A
visible economic programme needs to be
launched in order to support the EUs external cultural activities abroad. As a powerful institution, the EU which should
not be confused with national cultures and
domestic cultural policies must promote
peace, stability, development and health by
supporting cultural actions.
We are told that culture is expensive, so
we are always asked to prove its benefits.
The EU has an important role to play in
this respect by putting forward the idea
that culture cannot be haggled over. Although Member States have no intention of
delegating their domestic cultural policy
to the EU, there is still a strong need for
an EU cultural policy. This means having
a clear view of the European experience
so that we can promote it abroad, but also
having enough culture professionals to do
this, along with long-term funding. Failure to spread our successes via culture paves the way for possible wars, ethnic and
social struggles and ultimately the risk of
losing the advantages gained from 60 years
of joint effort.
214
Can we seriously imagine, even for a

second, what our world would be like without culture? No words, no music, no
paintings, no sculptures, no theatre, no
literature, no stories, no entertainment...
in other words, nothing that we could have
in common. Could we seriously envisage
a Europe that does not promote culture
through cultures? Culture protects against
the worst enemy that lies within us. It provides us with money and deters us from
the worst. It holds us, so we hold onto it.
It makes us, constructs us, and in return,
we shape it, day by day.
Luciano Rispoli worked for the France Tlvisions Group for 12 years as director of the
MENA region. He was then posted to Turkey
for four years as media attach for Turkey, Central Asia and the Caucasus region. He joined
EUNIC in November 2011 and until early 2012
was Director of the Permanent Secretariat of
EUNIC Global.
Food for the soul In South Sudan, poverty and hunger are widespread as a result of decades of civil war.
Caring for refugees returning from neighbouring
countries and other parts of the Sudan represents a
major problem. Local fighting continues to flare up.
Illiteracy remains at over 80%. What role can culture
place in this kind of context? Interview with Dr Jok
Madut Jok, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture, Republic of South Sudan.
Ruth Ur: Its almost one year since

South Sudan declared independence
on 9th July 2011. The world watched in
amazement and excitement as the worlds
youngest country was born and a new
sense of optimism emerged after almost
50 years of war. But this first year has not
been an easy one, with conflict erupting
both on the border and between tribes,
and the break down in relations with the
North resultingin drastic austerity measures issued by the government in Juba.
As Undersecretary in the Ministry of
Culture, how do you see the role of culture in contributing to nation-building
in these challenging times?
Jok Madut Jok: My view is that if a new
country must have infrastructure, deliver social services and be able to provi-
de food for its citizens, it is just as important that it celebrates its cultures and
promotes its arts, so that its soul is also
nourished. Feeding the soul of the nation is even more important in circumstances such as now, when the economic situation is dire. If we assume that
a sense of nationhood and citizens pride
in their new country emanates from the
countrys ability to deliver services to
them, we should be able to assume that
under austerity measures, when the
country cannot provide any services,
any programmes that attempt to imbue
the citizen with a sense of pride and tie
them more strongly to the polity, will
be even more important now. It is as if
to say that if we cannot give our people
any services, let us at least offer them entertainment and preserve their cultural
practices and values, and provide them
with opportunities to refine their talents,
all in the interest of building a collective
national identity.
Ruth Ur: Putting to one side the idea of
culture as entertainment, I wonder how
you balance the need to build a collective national identity with the potential
of culture to ask questions (rather than
seek answers) and as a means of addressing the trauma of war and unresolved
conflicts?
215
Jok Madut Jok: Indeed, culture performs myriad functions beyond the preservation and celebration of traditions. As
a country that was united more strongly
by the opposition to North Sudan and
by the common goal of liberation rather
than by any sense of historical oneness
between all the people, South Sudan had
always assumed that this unity of purpose would form the foundation of nationhood upon independence. However,
when independence came, the country
quickly found itself as little more than a
mere geographical entity, having over 70
ethnic groups that see themselves as different from one another. There was need
for a concerted effort to build its national
unity and national identity, and the most
obvious way to do this was through an
equitable display, celebration and promotion of its cultures, building on cultural commonalities and pointing out
that cultural diversity is an asset, not the
liability that it has proven to be in many
other African countries.
Ruth Ur: Id like us to go back to this
question of South Sudanese culture. Is
there really a South Sudanese culture
that differentiates itself from the separated North or indeed from neighbouring countries? And how do you see your
work contributing to a positive identity
for South Sudan that is not merely defined in opposition to the North?
Jok Madut Jok: Cultures cannot really
be totally distinct from one another, regardless of the distance between people
216
or the history of bitter conflicts. What

one finds more often is that cultures engage in influence and counter-influence.
So
distance or closeness between cultures
is not what matters. What defines South
Sudanese practices as uniquely South Sudanese is the fact that these are practised
within its territories, and so long as the
country gives all of them equitable access
on a national stage, they would all become just different components of South
Sudanese culture. Whether a cultural
practice is indigenous to South Sudan
or was borrowed from somewhere else,
so long as it is practised within South
Sudan and its practitioners attach value
to it and consider it an important component of their identity, no one would
argue against it, but it would be promoted equally. Another thing that is undeniable is that there are more similarities
between the different South Sudanese
ethnic nationalities than between one
ethnic group and neighbouring groups
across the borders. The work of the Ministry of Culture is to create the national
symbols that citizens can rally around
as the core unifying practices, to promote the commonalities between ethnic
groups, with a view to creating a national
identity that every citizen can subscribe
to whilst remaining loyal to his or her
ethnic group.
Ruth Ur: As you say, South Sudan is the
size of the Iberian Peninsula and has over
70 ethnic groups and languages. Does the
concept of a nation state and a national

identity therefore really make sense or is
it simply a colonial paradigm imposed on
a largely tribal society?
Jok Madut Jok: Though some communities in the territory that is now South
Sudan were tribal kingdoms, there is no
doubt that the concept of a nation state
with a centralised authority was historically foreign to most ethnic communities
in South Sudan. The notion of a nation
state was introduced by the European
empires, who, in the process of carving
up the African continent, created the
Sudan out of an amalgam of ethnic nationalities. But the idea of a nation state is
here to stay and having a sovereign state
necessitates that its leadership forges its
political unity, social cohesion, stability
and prosperity. Since the state is now a
reality and the people who live in it must
coexist, it is crucial to find the symbols
that bind them together to form a nation. The trick is that whatever the political leadership picks as the components
of this countrys identity must be symbols that every citizen sees themselves
represented in, and that means inclusivity and equitable representation. We must
be conscious of our own past. Some of the
most significant factors in South Sudans
decision to secede from the Sudan were
The notion of a nation state

was introduced by the European
Empires, who, in the process of
carving up the African continent, created the Sudan out of
an amalgam of ethnic nationalities.
a feeling of exclusion from the symbols

of the countrys cultural identity and the
favouring of Arab Islamic identity.
Ruth Ur: Despite significant oil reserves, as well as other natural resources,
tragically South Sudan remains one of
the least developed regions in the world.
Looking at the economic potential of
culture, what do you think might be a
key growth area for South Sudan and
how might this be exploited to generate
wealth?
Jok Madut Jok: First of all, we are fully aware of the fact that oil is a finite
resource and diversification of our economy is not only necessary, but essential
for our survival. All potential sources
of income are currently being explored,
both by the state as well as by individuals and communities. Secondly, like in
the rest of black Africa, the South Sudanese produce a variety of crafts and
functional arts. A great many products,
from pottery to basketry to agricultural
implements to war objects and religious/
spiritual objects, are not produced for the
sake of art but instead are artistically
made for everyday use. So in addition to
their convenience in daily life, they are
also valuable trade items, with potential
to supply tourist markets and exchanges
between tribes. Unfortunately, many of
these traditional crafts are under threat from the global market, particularly plastic and aluminium from Asia. It
is the view of the ministry that if these
crafts were to be maintained as part of
217
the heritage of South Sudan, they will

not only preserve the unique culture,
but also generate income for their producers. We must be reminded that we
might not accord them the value they
represent for us until we no longer have
them, and then it would be extremely
difficult to revive that culture. To reduce
the possibility of loss, we are now in the
process of collecting samples of every
one of these items from every tribe and
arranging them into a mobile exhibition
that will exhibit them to South Sudanese
communities in ways that provoke debate
on the nature of culture and nation. At
the end of the travelling exhibition, we
will then display them in museums in
Juba, Wau and Malakal, grouping them
not by tribe but by function. This will
reveal the commonalities between all the
tribal traditions, reduce discord, increase
tolerance for difference, promote coexistence and could eventually demonstrate
a degree of national unity.
Ruth Ur: One of the things that most
struck me in Juba was the discrepancy
between talent and creativity on the one
hand and the lack of basic infrastructure
for culture on the other. Even finding
spaces for rehearsals or exhibitions is difficult because of inf lated rental prices.
Considering the years of war, the lack of
infrastructureis hardly surprising, but
I wonder, in such a challenging context,
where does one start? Or perhaps one
could look at it another way, lets say
its 2015 and we are looking back. What
218
would you like to have achieved?

Jok Madut Jok: It breaks my heart every time a young talented artist comes to
my office to tell me that she is unable to
exhibit her paintings due to a lack of galleries or cultural centres. Or another is
looking to rent a section of a restaurant
to convert it into a theatrical stage, or a
young musician cannot perform his art
due to lack of venues. What used to be
South Sudans only cultural institution
in Juba, Nyakorun Cultural Center, was
leased off to a private business before the
end of the war, and it is no longer available to artists for free. In this situation,
South Sudan cannot reach its potential
as a great nation if it does not offer its
artists the opportunity to promote their
talent and promote the arts in general
as a medium of dialogue between generations and ethnic groups and as a way
of dispelling the stereotypes between
tribes that foment inter-tribal violence.
To give arts and culture the opportunity to be the language of cohesion, it
is important that South Sudan and its
development partners invest in cultural
infrastructure, beginning with establishing a national cultural centre, a performing arts centre in Juba that will facilitate a cultural dialogue between tribes
and with neighbouring countries. It is
our conviction in the national Ministry
of Culture, Youth and Sports, that while nation-building projects may not be
a panacea against ethnic violence, they
are surely very important components of
any effort to bring stability to the coun-
try. Another crucial investment that is in

our plans, but unattainable due to lack
or resources, are theatres in Juba, Malakal and Wau, followed by a theatre education programme, as this is a valuable
vehicle for the promotion of coexistence,
hygiene, and many other social values,
especially if we start with school children
so that they grow up with these ideas.
Ruth Ur: In a nation where 51% of the
population lives below the poverty line
and illiteracy remains at around 85%,
what would you say are your priorities
concerning cultural policy?
Jok Madut Jok: We are working together with the Ministry of Education on
some of the basic requirements for a democratic educational system. The most
crucial area is a curriculum and teacher
training that emphasises instruction
in native languages, at least in the lower grades. A curriculum and textbooks
that build in the local culture and surroundings encourages children to stay
in school. The next thing is a school arts
programme, including a school theatre
programme, which could be utilised as
tool for conveying messages about peace,
the importance of girls education and to
promote the values of coexistence and
the shared history of the struggle for
freedom.
It breaks my heart every time

a young talented artist comes to
my office to tell me that she is
unable to exhibit her paintings
due to a lack of galleries or cultural centres.
Ruth Ur: Culture is the primary means

by which different groups, societies and
communities express their common values, beliefs and traditions. It can bind
people, but can also lead to division and
friction. Sometimes those of us working
in the cultural field need reminding that
culture is not always a force for good!
Can you say something about how you
see the relationship between culture and
conflict?
Jok Madut Jok: Where culture is
blamed for conflict, it is easy to see that
it is really not culture that is causing it,
but instead it is either a feeling of exclusion from the national stage or attempts
at imposing one culture onto members
of another culture. Otherwise, on the
whole, culture is a very valuable vehicle
for promoting coexistence. For example, in South Sudan there are some tribes
that engage in wrestling as a sport. These are the groups that also happen to be
competing for resources and fighting one
another. In recent years, we have tried to
promote wrestling as a national sport,
trying to get the tribes to transfer their
competition from shooting each other to
wrestling each other. The more we can
encourage these types of friendly interactions and dialogue, the more we will
be able to break down stereotypes and
increase tolerance.
Ruth Ur: Thats a fascinating idea. Im
interested in hearing more about your
views on how cultural interventions can
promote stability and social cohesion.
219
Do you have any other compelling examples, either from South Sudan or elsewhere?
Jok Madut Jok: Of all the cultural practices that I have observed between different groups, it seems to me that the most
successful cultural item that mediates
between people is language. The more
people know of each others languages,
the less antagonistic they are to one another. If South Sudan were to invest in a
language policy, whereby, say, the native
language of any tribe is considered the
national language, followed by English
as the language of government and higher education and then a lingua franca
such as Juba Arabic, the country would
be more likely to emerge more united
within a generation. I have also been
impressed by the United States National Endowment for the Arts whose slogan is great nations deserve great arts.
The idea is that no matter how diverse a
country may be, culture would be less of a
problem if each is given equal space, and
culture would be seen as contributing instead to the colourfulness of the country.
Ruth Ur: The EUNIC network has already established a presence in Juba and
there is even a highly successful European Film Week, which takes place at
the Institut Francais on the Juba University campus. Both the British Council and Institut Francais have offices in
Juba, whilst others operate from centres
in Nairobi or Khartoum. What role could
you envisage for the European cultural
220
organisations in promoting stability or

do you think our contribution lies elsewhere? What Im asking is, given the
challenges, where do you think we could
really make a difference?
Jok Madut Jok: Initially, we placed a
lot of hope in European cultural organisations both in terms of financial assistance as well as expertise in cultural
preservation, exchange, display and promotion, but we have become aware of the
budgetary cuts that some of them have
gone through. This makes it difficult for
individual agencies to support big cultural projects in the developing world on
their own. But there is still a great deal
that Europe can accomplish in South
Sudan, if programmes are coordinated
and shared between agencies. This would
prevent duplication and the possible thin
spreading of capacity. Our priority areas
would be school theatre and arts programmes, a cultural centre in Juba and
tying arts and culture programmes to
education. This would do preservation
work, peacebuilding work and encourage
and develop talents at a very young age,
as well as providing young citizens with
stories that tie them to their nation and
promote tolerance towards difference.
Ruth Ur: Earlier this year, with help
from the British Council, the South Sudan Theatre Company came to London
to take part in the Globe to Globe festival
Culture gets unquestioningly

blamed for actions that are intrinsically more to do with gendered power relations than
with cultural prescriptions.
with a production of Shakespeares Cymbeline in Juba Arabic. One South Sudanese member of the audience wrote to us
saying, The euphoria generated by the
performance among the diaspora is only
second to the declaration of South Sudan
as an independent nation on July 9th,
2011. It was nice to see, for once, that the
negative image of South Sudan in the media, represented by a starving child, who
is too weak to even chase our flies from
their face, replaced by that of smiling
casts of Cymbeline. The play has also
made South Sudanese to start questioning the apologist phrases being churned
out to cover our many failures. Phrases
like: We re a new nation starting from
scratch or its variant that Rome was
not built in a day! sounds increasingly
hollow, when set against the accomplishment of South Sudan theatre, which four
months ago, did not even exist! How do
you think you can build on experiences
such as these to alter perceptions both
within South Sudan and outside?
Jok Madut Jok: The first thing we did
when the group returned from London
was to have them perform here in Juba,
one show for dignitaries and another for
the public, with a view to developing a
public appreciation for the arts. It is now
common to hear people saying that they
had no prior appreciation of theatre but
are now interested in seeing more of such
performances. We are trying to take advantage of this momentum to establish a
South Sudan Theatre Company through
parliamentary legislation, which would
become a government-supported company, but independent of the government in

terms of raising its own funds, in order
to encourage play-writing and the performance of a variety of topics that have
been raised throughout South Sudan in
politics, economics, social order, security, hygiene and conflict. There is now
a widespread conviction that theatre is
not only a medium to reshape the image
of the country internationally, but also
to comment on our own society in ways
that are corrective, to say nothing of its
entertainment value. It is now our task as
people who work in the field of culture to
see into it that this momentum is not lost.
One significant way of maintaining that
momentum and increasing peoples appreciation of theatre is the establishment
of a national theatre in Juba and the renovation of existing theatres in Wau and
Malakal. Furthermore, to produce the
material for the theatre, it is important
to build on the play-writing culture that
already exists here and conduct annual
prize competitions for writing plays, poetry and short stories. This is the material that would become the fodder for the
theatre company.
Ruth Ur: Since you took up your post,
you have worked tirelessly to build capacity within your Ministry of Culture and
to develop an infrastructure for culture
in your country. But your professional
background is in maternal and reproductive health. Im wondering how do you
see the connection between your acade-
221
mic work and your role in the Ministry

of Culture?
Jok Madut Jok: What led me to studying womens health were a number
of practices I had observed throughout
Africa that negatively affect women,
practices that are claimed to be cultural prescriptions. For example, womens
health is affected every day by gendered
violence, early marriage for girls, wife
inheritance, labour expectations, and
reproductive expectations. To understand womens health, it was important
for me to study the social and cultural
norms that relate to it. What I came to
learn from this is that culture gets unquestioningly blamed for actions that are
intrinsically more to do with gendered
power relations than with cultural prescriptions. If cultures are meant to be
adaptive, to enable their members to
cope with change, then their negative
impact on women seems to make them
maladaptive. For example, bride price
has always been favoured by most communities because of the role it plays in cementing social relations and marriages.
But people are increasingly critical of this
practice for its role in womens negative
experiences in marital settings, whereby
men may see their wives as property they
have paid for and who can therefore be
abused if they do not conform to certain
expectations. Bride wealth may also be
partly related to child marriage, with disastrous consequences for maternal mortality. Another example is the perception that women are only best as mothers
222
and wives, and that they count for little

else. This mindset is responsible for the
lack of access to education for girls and
to jobs outside the home for women, for
the health consequences of frequent births, and for the physical abuse if they
try to step out of these bounds. This is
why engaging in culture could result in
the promotion of positive practices and
perhaps the shedding of practices that
more and more members of society are
beginning to criticise.
Ruth Ur: Finally, many people know
little more about South Sudan than its
tragic history of conflict. Can you think
of one object or story that might give
readers a different view of your country?
Jok Madut Jok: Yes, the image that the
world has about South Sudan has often
focused on war and its citizens as victims of Sudanese state violence, much
of which is true. But even though we
have been of the most war-torn countries in the world since WWII, the humanity and resilience of the people of
South Sudan has always been unmistakable. Only people who lived or worked
in South Sudan during the war would
really understand when we talk about
the basic values that helped our people
to sustain their values of generosity and
sharing. I remember the 1990s when famines were rampant, when foreign aid
workers would arrive to deliver humanitarian aid and the people they came to
rescue would struggle to find a goat or
sheep or a bull to slaughter in honour of
their guests. While there are many cultural items unique to South Sudan that
I can mention to you, it is really norms,
traditions and values that are the most
ubiquitous symbols of South Sudans cul-
ture. For example, South Sudan is home

to something anthropologists refer to as
the cattle complex. This is a reference
to a cultural region that includes the
Nuer, Dinka, Murle and Mandari tribes
that raise cattle as the mainstay of their
livelihoods. But because the cattle are
central to every aspect of life, from marriage to payment of poll tax to school
fees for children to purchasing market
commodities, the cattle themselves have
become seen as the most prized cultural
items. South Sudan has more cattle than
people, and the cultural norms that surround the cattle resources are complex,
funny and nuanced in a way that makes
it a true cultural resource.
Interview conducted by Ruth Ur
Jok Madut Jok is Undersecretary of Culture at

the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports in the
Republic of South Sudan and Associate Professor of History at Loyola Marymount University
in California. His book entitled Sudan: Race,
Religion and Violence was published in 2007.
Jok Madut Jok is a co-editor of the The Sudan
Handbook (2010) and recently co-founded
a South Sudanese research organisation, the
Sudd Institute.
Ruth Ur is Director of Programmes and Partnerships, Wider Europe at the British Council.
During her 15-year career at the Council she
has been Head of Arts & Development and
held posts in Israel and Turkey, as well as being
involved in curatorial work. She has helped
with the launch of a major study on Artistic
Practices and Social & Political Change in Libya,
Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, which is being
carried out by the University of York and is due
to be published at the end of 2012.
223
EUNIC Annual Report
Opening the doors for Europe: EUNIC In the past there has
been a lack of a common, coordinated EU strategy for the
role of culture in the continents external relations. EUNIC,
the network of European cultural relations institutes, has
jumped in to fill this gap. With its 2,000 branches in over
150 countries around the world it ensures that the cultural sector has a strong, independent voice and that there
is recognition of its value as a means of promoting greater
understanding between people, societies and nations.
EUNIC was formed in 2006 as a network of national cultural institutes

and ministries based in the various
EU member states. At present there
are 27 members from 24 EU countries. EUNIC is one of the largest cultural multilateral networks in Europe.
EUNIC members work in the arts,
languages, education, science, intercultural dialogue, capacity-building
and development sectors. They seek
to facilitate cultural co-operation, to
create lasting partnerships between
professionals, to encourage greater
understanding and awareness of
the diverse European cultures and
to encourage increased language
learning.
EUNICs members are present in over
150 countries with more than 2,000
branches. This worldwide presence
and the similar aims and objectives
of the various cultural institutes resulted in a large degree of cooperation even before the establishment
of EUNIC as a legal entity at the
headquarters level. National cultural
institutes came together in different
cities around the world to organise
events and common activities, such
as European film and music festivals,
European Book Days, European Day
of Languages, etc. EUNICs members
have an international reputation as
Europes leading cultural relations
practitioners.
224
The EUNIC network is:

An active network: encouraging
members to implement shared
projects
A learning network: sharing ideas
and practices between members
A partnering network: working
with partners including European
institutions, civil society organisations and partners around the
world,
An advocacy network: raising
awareness and increasing the
effectiveness of cultural relations
between people worldwide
As an international association with
legal status, EUNIC was formed to
work in a more strategic way towards
common goals. It is now possible
for EUNIC to act as a partner of the
European Commission, European
External Action Service and other
European institutions in defining and
implementing cultural policy for Europe and the EUs external relations.
The objectives of the EUNIC network
are to advocate a strong and independent voice for the cultural sector
and for the value of culture in promoting better understanding between people, societies and nations.
EUNIC set up a permanent secretariat

in Brussels in November 2011. The office, run by two full-time staff, provides support to the EUNIC Heads and
EUNIC Board of Directors by ensuring
prompt implementation of strategic
decisions taken at the Heads level.
The secretariat also has a dual role
that involves advising the Heads of
institutes on EUNIC-related issues
and being the first point of contact
for clusters and EU institutions.
The EUNIC permanent secretariat
deals with communications, research
and advocacy to support the whole
network. It acts also as a coordinator of common projects and ensures
that all the partners share necessary
information and have the same level
of understanding in order to achieve
meaningful results. The mission of
the EUNIC secretariat is to bring visibility to the actions of EUNIC clusters
around the world and provide them
with information and help on how to
access funding for projects.
Clusters the networks of EUNIC
members in a given city, region or
country constitute the most important part of the network. It is the
clusters that are most active in developing and running various events
and activities in different locations
around the world.
By September 2012, the EUNIC network had 82 clusters, the majority of
them outside the European Union.
Clusters established within the last
few months include Mexico, Georgia,
Thailand, Turkey, Albania, Greece
Thessaloniki, Egypt, Palestine and
Ghana. Another three new clusters
are in the process of being established and are expected to be up-andrunning in early 2013.
A cluster event or project requires
the involvement of at least three
members of the cluster in order to
obtain the EUNIC label. It is the clusters that decide what type of events
and projects they want to run. Very
EUNIC Annual Report 2011/12
often the programme depends on

local circumstances, opportunities
and the expectations of audiences in
the country where the cluster operates. Some clusters develop very
complex and diverse programmes,
while others focus on a small number
of activities.
One interesting example is the Generation 89 project initiated by the
Prague cluster and supported by the
European Commissions Citizenship
Programme 2007-2013. It brought
together 140 young people from
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Romania and the UK to share their
experiences and expectations for
the future. They had one thing in
common: they were all born in 1989.
In 2010 they met in Warsaw, Bucharest, Brussels and Prague. They had
the chance to speak about what has
happened in their countries in the
past and their expectations as European citizens. Together they drafted
the Generation 89 declaration. The
Generation 89 project has been selected for inclusion in a booklet of
iconic projects from the EUs Europe
for Citizens programme. (Generation 89 can be found on page 46,
as part of the section entitled Civil
society in action. The brochure has
been published online and will also
be available in print.)
Strengthening creative industries

in South Africa
The EUNIC Cluster in South Africa has
developed an initiative with the main
objectives of strengthening the relationship between the EU and South
Africa in the field of creative industries and supporting the development of this sector of the economy
in South Africa. This project is a result
of a successful application for fun-
ding under the EuropeAid European

Union - South Africa Trade Development Agreement Facility. One of the
elements of this programme is the
promotion of dialogue to strengthen
policy debate between the EU and
South Africa. Target groups include
South African government departments, parastatal organisations,
constitutional bodies and civil society actors, along with EU institutions
and EU strategic partner countries.
The Arts and Culture sector was included as a dialogue area within the
Dialogue Facility for the first time in
2012. The EUNIC cluster in South Africa has taken the opportunity to form
a consortium with Arterial Network
a pan-African network of NGOs,
creative industry companies, festivals and individual artists engaged in
the creative sector and Visual Arts
Network, the industry body and development agency for the Visual Arts
in South Africa.
The principal activities over the lifecycle of the project are: research into
the trade, policy and legislative frameworks between the EU and South
Africa; workshops based on the findings of the research; seminars for
a wider group of practitioners and
civil society; a conference for key stakeholders from the EU, South Africa
and other African countries; and dissemination of the recommendations
from this programme of events.
The total budget for the project is
188,000, with the EU contributing
150,000. The co-funded element is
shared between the EUNIC cluster
members: the British Council (lead
applicant), Camoes Institute,
Goethe-Institut, French Institute, Italian Institute, and associate members

the Embassies of Austria and Spain.
One of EUNICs main interests lies in
multilingualism. On 26th September
each year, many EUNIC clusters organise events celebrating the EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES to promote
multilingualism. In 2012, the clusters
were especially active and creative
in the events they organised for the
day. Here are just a few examples.
EUNIC in Almaty, Kazakhstan
organised an event called CAF.
EUROPE, which included an exhibition on European education,
theatrical and musical performances, a prize-giving ceremony and a concert. About 1,000
people attended CAF.EUROPE
where they were able to watch
a theatrical performance by the
Bremen Musicians in five languages, take part in a song competition and play typical national
games from various different European countries. A competition
was organised for the best video
on the subject of Two Faces of
Europe to celebrate the European Day of Languages. The winner
of the competition was awarded
a trip to Europe by Czech Airlines.
EUNIC in Turkey organised an
event called Languages Open
Doors. On 29 September, the
cultural institutes and consular missions in Istanbul, representing 12 different languages,
celebrated the European Day of
Languages in the Sismanoglio
Megaro of the Consulate General
of Greece by offering fun language games, a treasure hunt in the
historic district of Pera, traditional
and contemporary dances, short
films, and surprises for children
and grown-ups alike.
225
EUNIC Annual Report
EUNIC in Spain prepared a

ground-breaking cultural and
linguistic marathon, giving the
people of Madrid the chance to
take part in over 40 original and
engaging activities. The aim of
the event was to promote the
study of languages, to raise awareness of lesser well-known cultures and to encourage everyone
to think about potential travel
destinations and to discover new
artists and talents, as well as food
from other cultures. During the
evening of 27 September, foreign
cultural institutes and European embassies in Madrid opened
their doors and hosted film screenings, concerts and performance
shows, dramatisations, poetry
readings, storytelling sessions,
book swaps, exhibitions, guided tours, food tasting sessions
and, more importantly, language classes where participants
could learn about grants to study
foreign languages and have the
chance to win prizes.
TRANSPOESIE is an event created
in 2011 by the EUNIC in Brussels
cluster in collaboration with the
STIB transport association and
the Loterie Nationale. It is now in
its second year and aims to give
poetry pride of place on the Brussels metro. 24 European countries
have joined forces to present 24
poems in their original language
on the Brussels metro, with the
poems also translated into French
and Dutch. The 2012 edition of
TRANSPOESIE began officially on
26 September, to mark European
Languages Day.
In 2012, EUNIC in Russia launched
another Curatorial Exchange Programme for young Russian curators,
which offers internships in European
museums and galleries. The project
226
gives its participants a unique opportunity to advance their careers, to

study the European art market and
build new professional contacts in
Austria, Germany, France, Romania,
Sweden, the UK and other countries.
Young Russian curators have been
offered internships in leading European museums and contemporary
art galleries for periods ranging from
3 weeks to 2 months in leading museums and contemporary art galleries in Europe. A generation of young
Russian curators now work both as
freelancers and for cultural institutions in Moscow and numerous
other dynamic cultural centres in
Russias regions. They will be decisive
in shaping the exhibitions and cultural life of the country in the future
and in modernising and developing
exhibition centres, biennales and
institutions.
Optimising regional and global

cooperation

How can EUNIC further improve its
work? In the period from July 2011
to December 2012, EUNIC organised
five Regional Meetings for EUNIC
clusters in different locations aimed
at enhancing regional co-operation,
exchanging expertise, ideas and best
practices and planning future joint
activities. Regional Meetings are usually organised in collaboration with
the EUNIC clusters in the country,
city or region in which the meeting is
to take place.
In the second half of 2011 there were
two EUNIC Regional Meetings, one
for the whole Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and the other for
clusters based in Europe.
The MENA meeting took place in Rabat in Morocco from 20-21 September, while the European meeting was
in Tallinn, Estonia from 5-6 October.
Three meetings took place in 2012.
The first meeting organised for clusters from North and South America
was held in Lima, Peru from 22-24
February 2012. The second for the
sub-Saharan region was in Lagos, Nigeria from 11-12 October 2012, while
the third meeting held for the MENA
cluster took place in Beirut, Lebanon
from 14-16 November 2012.
Preparations for the European Regional Meetings 2013 in Warsaw and a
meeting for clusters in Asia are currently under way.
EUNIC members and clusters come
together in varied groupings to develop joint projects and new directions based on common goals and
interests. At present EUNIC is running
projects related to multilingualism,
culture in external relations and culture in the context of development,
conflict and sustainable development.
At the EUNIC General Assembly in
July 2012 in Paris, EUNIC members
decided to create a special fund to
support inter-cluster activities that
are directly related to topics that are
of strategic importance to EUNIC,
such as culture in external relations
or multilingualism.
A selection of EUNIC global and
inter-cluster projects is presented
below.
In autumn 2012, Poliglotti4.eu, a EUNIC-led project co-funded by the European Commission and developed
within the Civil Society Platform to
promote multilingualism in Europe,
entered its final stage. What has become clear is that the success of the
new multilingualism strategy partly
depends on the active involvement
of civil society.
EUNIC Annual Report
The Commissions Communication

Multilingualism: an asset for Europe
and a shared priority, adopted in
September 2008, foresees two platforms for a structured dialogue with
stakeholders from the civil society
and business sectors. The aim is to
create a forum for the exchange of
best practices for civil society stakeholders, gathering relevant information from the culture, non-formal
and informal education and learning
sectors, as well as from the media, in
order to bring multilingualism closer
to the citizen.
The poliglotti4.eu project brings
together 9 member organisations
from the Civil Society Platform. The
project combines PR events, networking and research in three subject
areas: early language learning, adult
education and social services. The
project covers more than 10 European countries.
Ambassadors for multilingualism

In addition to successfully setting up
the comprehensive website www.
poliglotti4.eu, EUNIC members
around Europe as well as various
project partners have also recruited
Multilingualism Ambassadors to lend
their voice and image to the cause of
multilingualism and the promotion
of language learning and language
diversity in Europe. These Ambassadors work in the fields of education
and language learning or have reached their current positions in the
fields of entertainment, politics or
economics on account of their knowledge of several languages.
Videos of 22 Ambassadors from 11

European countries can be viewed
on the poliglotti4.eu website. On the
website, where content is now available in 65 languages, there are also reports on project events and research
that has taken place to date. The
website will remain online for at least
5 years after the end of the project
in order to guarantee the continuity
of the project, ongoing networking
activities and the exchange of best
practices, ideas and experiences.
Poliglotti4.eus closing conference
One continent, many tongues:
a spotlight on Europes linguistic
wealth took place in Parma in Italy
from 15-16 November 2012. The conference brought together experts
and multilingual talents from across
Europe and highlighted Poliglotti4.
eus project achievements. The conference, which was part of the Parma
Theatre Festival, has also given a
voice to those Europeans who live
and work in multilingual Europe and
who represent a range of fields including science, arts and culture, education, economics and politics.
In May 2012, the Language Rich Europe networking project, set up to
discuss and develop better policies
and practices for multilingualism,
released the initial draft of a research
publication that analyses trends in
language policies and practices in 24
countries and regions across Europe.
The survey covers languages in education, the media, cities and business. Tilburg Universitys Babylon
Centre for Studies of the Multicultural Society carried out the research in
collaboration with partner institutions and experts in participating
countries.
Over the coming months, the networks of language stakeholders in
each country will come together in
a series of workshops to discuss the
findings and develop recommen-
dations for European, national and

regional levels. The outcomes will be
presented to policy makers in Brussels in March 2013.
Some of the studys key findings include the following:
There is a shortage of language
teachers in some countries/regions,
and special recruitment campaigns
are required.
While traditional modern foreign
languages such as English, French,
German and Spanish are commonly offered in primary and secondary
education, very few countries offer
students the opportunity to learn
languages from outside Europe.
Learning languages through subjects such as Geography and History
is becoming more widespread, but is
far from common practice.
Of the companies surveyed, 83%
use language skills as a factor in recruitment.
Two-thirds of the cities surveyed
report that they are able to offer a
number of public services in three
or more languages, while 37% make
it a policy to include language skills
in staff job descriptions and 29%
provide language training to staff.
According to the survey, the 5 cities
(out of 63) with the most developed
language policies are Barcelona, Krakow, London, Milan and Vienna.
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EUNIC- Annual Report
The aim of the Language Rich Europe

project is to promote greater cooperation between policy makers and
practitioners in Europe and to ensure that languages and cultural exchange continue to be encouraged
at schools, universities and in society.
The project is co-funded by the European Commission and managed by
the British Council. The main issues
to be explored through the project
include:
How do we address the apparent
shortage of language teachers?
How can we motivate people to
learn languages at all stages of
their lives?
How do we ensure a broad range of languages is offered in
schools?
How can we teach other languages through subjects such as
Geography and History?
How can cities ensure that they
are meeting the language needs
of their citizens and visitors?
How can companies get more involved in language education?
Dialogue with China: more creative processes

The tradition of organising a Cultural
Dialogue China-EUNIC goes back to
the year 2008, when the very first of
the meetings took place in Beijing,
China. Two other conferences followed in 2009 and 2010, in Copenhagen and Shanghai respectively.
The 4th edition of the Dialogue was
held in Luxembourg from 26-28
October 2011. Unlike the preceding
three events, the Cultural Dialogue
China-EUNIC 2011 moved away from
the standard programme of key
speeches and presentations and put
greater emphasis on more creative
processes, interaction between the
participants and face-to-face discus-
228
sions in small working groups during

the conference.
What made the Cultural Dialogue
China-EUNIC 2011 such an outstanding and extremely effective event?
First of all, it was due to the general
structure and methodology of the
conference. Twenty artists and curators from China and Europe were invited to Luxembourg a week before
the event in order to work in three
different workshops the Photographers Workshop, the Installation
Art Creation Workshop and the Design Works Creation Workshop. The
works that were created were displayed on the first day of the conference
and all the artists actively participated in the programme activities, contributing their own insights and explaining the project work carried out
in the course of the previous week.
On the first evening of the dialogue meeting, there was a successful
attempt at combining the worlds
of arts and finance in the shape of a
conference called Art and Finance,
attended by more than 200 people.
Days two and three were dedicated
to Cultural Heritage Protection and
Urban development, Functions of
Cultural Centres in the Process of
Urban Re-construction, The Role of
Creative Industries in the Strategy
of Sustainable Urban Development
and The Role of Arts in the 21st Century.
The last slot on the agenda was
reserved for a presentation on the
Europe China Cultural Compass,
effectively an instruction manual for
anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the sphere between East
and West.
Preparations for the 5th session of

the Cultural Dialogue China-EUNIC
are in full swing. The main theme
will be Cultural Activities and Urban
Development. This time the event
will take place in Xian. It will be
organised by the Chinese National
Academy of the Arts (Beijing), the
Tang King Market (Xian), the General
Office of Xian Municipal Government, the Shaanxi Provincial Culture
Department, the Xian Academy of
Fine Arts, EUNIC Heads and EUNIC
clusters in Beijing.
But this was not the only initiative involving China. Do we mean the same
thing, when we say the same thing?
This was the key question posed at
the beginning of the Europe-China
Cultural Compass project initiated by
EUNIC partners in China, the GoetheInstitut, the British Council, and the
Danish Cultural Institute. After a year
of research, including over a hundred
interviews and discussions with cultural practitioners with experience
in collaboration between Europe
and China, the outcome was a publication that included not only a
glossary of selected key intercultural
vocabulary, but also a huge amount
of information relevant to cooperation issues: background knowledge
on Europe and China, information on
how cultural sectors work differently,
case stories from cultural practitioners, a project cycle analysis that
crystallises challenges, learning and
practices, and an extensive chapter
on resources.
The Europe-China Cultural Compass
project is part of an ongoing dialogue between Europe and China. It
responds to the need to document
this dialogue and reflect on it. The
goal is to continuously improve the
process. This EUNIC initiative aims to
contribute to the understanding of
cultural cooperation between Europe and China. The intention is to help
prepare cultural practitioners for the
EUNIC Annual Report
process of collaboration. To meet the

different needs of those two target
groups, two separate publications
were produced: one in Chinese and
one in English. The job of developing the concept and creating the
Compass was given to an intercultural working team headed by Katja
Hellkoetter as editor-in-chief. Experts
in the team included Shen Qilan, Katelijn Verstraete, Emilie Wang, Judith
Staines, Yi Wen, Roman Wilhelm, and
many more external authors and
contributors from China and Europe.
The editorial board was headed
up by Peter Anders (Director of the
Goethe-Institut in Beijing), Eric Messerschmidt (Head of the Danish Cultural Institute in Beijing) and Joanna
Burke (British Council, China Director,
Cultural and Education Section of the
British Embassy in Beijing).
Launch of the EUNIC MENA project

The Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) region is of particular interest
to EUNIC. The EUNIC MENA project
addresses issues such as democratic
empowerment, cultural policy and
the creative economy and includes
regional and national projects in the
MENA region. EUNIC, the European External Action Service and the
European Commission support the
project.
The project was launched at the Euromed Forum on Creative Industries
& Society that took place from 13
to 15 May 2012 in Jordan. The Forum
brought together around 170 representatives of the creative industries
from the MENA region (Algeria,
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,
Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia) and the

European Union. EUNIC clusters in
the MENA region and EUNIC members in Europe sent delegates to
the event. All sectors of the creative
industries were represented: advertising; architecture; crafts; cultural
heritage; design; education & leisure;
software; fashion; film, video and
audio-visual production; literature,
libraries and publishing; music; performing arts & entertainment; television, radio & internet broadcasting;
and the visual arts.
The Forum was organised in a creative and highly participatory format
using Open Space Technology (OST)
to bring the various stakeholders
together to seek and discuss a joint
solution. The performance group
Improbable from London supported the process, with participants
putting forward potential topics,
discussing them in groups and identifying needs and expectations. In
this way each participant was able to
contribute to the design of the longterm EUNIC MENA Project. The final
report lists all the issues raised and is
available on request.
EUNIC will use these recommendations as a guide in designing the
long-term MENA Project. It should be
launched by the end of 2012 and will
be implemented by EUNICs Global
Office in Brussels in cooperation with
EUNIC clusters in the MENA region.
The aim of another EUNIC publication, a brochure entitled Culture and
Development - Action and Impact,
is to demonstrate the fundamental
role culture has to play in the area of
development. The brochure contains
a description of projects that have
used culture as a way of making a
significant contribution to socio-economic development. The brochure is
the result of a fruitful collaboration
between the European Commission,
the British Council, the Federation
Wallonia-Brussels and EUNIC. The 36
projects represent a wide variety of

cultural activities and initiatives in
developing countries and are being
implemented by various actors including members of EUNIC, the European Commission, national development agencies and local partners.
They illustrate good practice in terms
of impact on the development of
the communities concerned and the
many shapes, forms and dimensions
in which culture is embedded in the
development process.
Catalyst for change

This new version of the brochure
focuses on the Mediterranean region
and so dovetails nicely with EUNICs
interest in engaging in dialogue with
the civil society in the Middle East
and North Africa region in support of
a peaceful transition to democracy.
Major pro-democracy events have
recently taken place there and culture has proven to be a catalyst for
change, for freedom of expression
and for democracy. Supporting the
creative sector and cultural diversity
in the region also promotes stronger
collaboration and professionalism for
those actors in civil society who are
actively involved in changes to create more widespread democracy.
The online version of the brochure
was agreed on at the Culture and
Development Network meeting organised by the British Council and
UNESCO in October 2011. A clear
message emerged from the meeting:
the need for stronger collaboration
and professionalism. It is also for that
reason that the online version of the
brochure was created to enable
information-sharing and to encourage future collaboration.
229
EUNIC Annual Report
Culture and Development Action

and Impact was presented by the
European Commissions EuropeAid Development and Cooperation (DG
DEVCO) and the British Council on
behalf of the collaboration at the EUNIC Forum on Creative Industries and
Society in Jordan in May 2012.
Culture in external relations - preparatory action

EUNIC Global is an associated partner in the consortium made up of
four national cultural institutions and
specialist organisations that won the
bid for the EU preparatory action
Culture in external relations. The
aim of the preparatory action is to
collect data and information through
mapping and consultation in a large
number of states in order to analyse
the resources, strategies and opinions relating to the role and impact
of culture in external relations. The
mapping will define concepts that
relate to culture and diplomacy issues. Countries covered by the project include 27 EU member states,
ENP countries, Croatia and 9 strategic
partner countries.
EUNIC strongly supports the More
Europe campaign, an external cultural relations initiative launched in
December 2012 that aims to convince policy-makers to place cultural relations one of the strongest assets
that Europe has at the heart of the
EUs external affairs. Based on best
practice evidence and research, More
Europe calls on Member States, civil
society and EU institutions to work
together to combine their visions,
pool resources, and coordinate their
activities.
230
Conflict resolution through cultural and civil society initiatives

With the help of Germanys Institute
for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa),
the EUNIC network now has growing
expertise in the field of conflict and
culture. On 7 December 2011, 80 experts from the fields of conflict transformation, cultural affairs, civil society and EU foreign and security affairs
met in Brussels at the invitation of ifa
and EUNIC for a roundtable discussion on Conflict resolution through
cultural and civil society initiatives?
The roundtable discussion focused
on the role of cultural institutes in
promoting peace in conflict and
post- conflict regions, in establishing
cultural dialogue and in working to
rebuild civil infrastructure through
creative and educational programmes.
The meeting was divided into two
parts. In the first part of the discussion, cultural activists and experts
in conflict resolution and peacebuilding shared their experiences, presenting best-practice projects and
expressing their views and demands.
In the second half, experts from the
fields of cultural relations, EU foreign
and security policy as well as from research organisations focused on the
role of cultural institutes in European
foreign policy.
Basically, the conference examined
the long-term impact of cultural and
civil society initiatives and the effectiveness of cultural and educational
tools for conflict resolution.
During the conference the participants tried to answer a number of

important questions such as: in what
ways can EUNIC best use its cultural
relations expertise and extensive
networks for conflict resolution?
How might these networks better
cooperate and work together with

civil society initiatives? How might
they communicate their knowledge
to decision makers in order to develop a more effective, integrated approach to EU peacebuilding efforts?
In order to better coordinate different ideas and approaches covered

during the roundtable discussion, a
EUNIC working group on culture and
conflict was set up as part of the ifafunded programme Civil Conflict Resolution (zivik) with the aim of drafting a policy paper for EUNIC to help
effectively communicate this field
of expertise to political decisionmakers on a European and national
level. The group is trying to create
a deeper understanding of work
in and on conflict through cultural
projects. It is gathering together
examples of projects in order to generate general good practice criteria
for working in/on conflicts through
cultural activities.
Culture and Sustainable Development Culture|Futures

Culture|Futures, the project linking
culture and ecology, has organised
a number of exciting events in the
last few months. Project leaders
were able to involve cultural institutions, municipalities, individual
actors, young people and other stakeholders in activities taking place
in different locations around the
world. The Culture|Futures project
was launched in 2009 by the Danish
Cultural Institute in cooperation with
EUNIC, the British Council,
EUNIC Annual Report
the Goethe-Institut, the Italian Cultural Institute and other organisations

active in the field of culture and sustainable development.
In December 2011, Culture|Futures
organised a conference called: EcoLeadership though Culture in Durban during the UN Climate Summit
COP17 in South Africa. The conference was co-organised with the Municipality of Durban, the Ecological
Sequestration Trust and the Danish
Cultural Institute in co-operation
with many other partners. The programme featured keynote speeches
and panel contributions from some
of the worlds best known specialists
and activists which underlined the
solutions needed to resolve the challenges faced by the African continent
in relation to urban and regional development.
The conference delegates discussed
the vision of an ecological age
and the role of culture in making it
a reality. The speakers and participants were also looking for ways to
inspire institutions working in the
field of culture and cities in Africa to
become leaders in socio-ecological
activities. The conference was a
first step in creating an international
Culture|Futures network for cultural
institutions, individual actors, cities,
regions and other stakeholders active in the field of eco-leadership.
In 2012 Culture|Futures organised
events aimed at the younger public.
In June, the project ran a Backstage
Sustainability Workshop at the Roskilde Festival and in September it
launched a student competition Cocreating Sustainable Solutions for
the Future.
EUNIC. The aim of Literature Nights

is to offer a platform for European
countries to present their contemporary writing in translation and to
present new European literary voices
in a creative way. The European Literature Night concept is based on the
assumption that literature is a unique
and creative tool that reflects the
elementary dialogue between individual voices and cultures through
a shared reading experience. Literature is a tool for mutual understanding that helps to break down communication barriers.
In 2012, literature was presented in
its various forms in a number of European cities including Amsterdam,
Banska Bystrica, Berlin, Bratislava,
Budapest, Bucharest, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Yerevan, Kutna
Hora, Kiev, London, Lvov, Madrid,
Milan, Munich, Prague, Riga, Sofia,
Stockholm, Warsaw, Vienna and
Zilina.
A few examples of Literature Night
events are given below, perfectly
illustrating the creativity and energy
that was unleashed among the organisers.
In Dublin, Ireland, the Literature
Night took place on 16 May and its
aim was to promote European cultural heritage by presenting different
writers, including the well-known
and those just starting their careers.
Each participating country was represented by a translated piece of a
novel, poem or short story, read by
well-known Irish people at various
unusual places, such as churches,
museums, pubs or cafes.
All the venues were within walking

distance of each other and the public was provided with a map of the
readings and venues so that they
could move easily from one place to
another.
The Munich Literature Night dealt
with a very unconventional topic,
that of Roma literature, which existed
in oral form only until the 20th century. Stories, fairytales, traditions and
language were passed from mouth
to mouth and from generation to
generation. However, there have
been significant developments in
written Roma literature over recent
decades with novels, poetry, theatre
plays and memoirs being published
in the Roma language or in translation. Roma literature has emerged as a
strong part of European literature as
a result. The works presented at the
event were translated especially for
the occasion in cooperation with students of Slavonic studies in Munich.
The Literature Night in London
brought together European writers
who were shortlisted by members
of the public and appropriate institutions. The authors read extracts
from their works and discussed their
books, inspirations, and the wider
literary context of the countries they
come from.
In Yerevan, the British Council in
Armenia organised the Literature
Night in cooperation with European
colleagues, as part of the Yerevan
World Book Capital 2012 celebration programme. Actors read extracts
from Czech, Romanian and UK literature translated into the Armenian
language.
European Literature Nights

The European Literature Nights initiative is being coordinated by the
Czech Centres in cooperation with
231
Fashion Road: Dialogue across

Borders
Fashion Road: Dialogue across Borders is a two-year collaborative project in which fashion designers from
different European countries and
Armenia look to the past for ideas
and inspiration. They are studying
traditional costumes from Armenia,
the UK, Germany, Romania, Denmark
and the Czech Republic, exploring
the role of those costumes in contemporary society, and discussing
the ways in which people associate
those costumes with their national
identity and heritage. Key to this
project was meeting other designers
and having the opportunity to view
clothing in a cultural context and to
use modern technologies and approaches to present their interpretation of each countrys culture and
identity.
The project was officially launched
on 4 and 5 May 2011 with an international seminar followed by the
residency programmes in Armenia
for the European designers and in
Europe for Armenian designers. The
designers were paired to work together to prepare their collections,
which would contextualise the cultural heritage, values and traditions
of the participating countries explored during their time abroad. The
collection was put into an exhibition
in Armenia and in the participating
European countries.
232
The collection prepared by the designers raised understanding and

appreciation of European cultural
values and identity among the Armenian public, as well as of Armenian cultural history and heritage
among Europeans. It also served as
a forum for discussions about the
importance of cross-cultural cooperation and exchange as well as the
fusion of cultural traditions and heritage with modern trends and technological developments for more
creative and innovative approaches
to fashion.
Members of EUNIC
Austrian Federal Ministry of European
and International Affairs
Balassi Institute
British Council
Bulgarian Ministry of Culture
Centre Culturel de Recontre Abbaye de
Neumnster, Luxembourg
Culture Ireland
Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture
Czech Centres
Danish Cultural Institute
Estonian Institute
Finish Cultural and Academic Institutes
Flemish-Dutch House deBuren
Foundation Alliance Franaise
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Goethe-Institute
ifa German Institute for Foreign Cultural
Relations
Institut Franais
Instituo Cames
Instituto Cervantes
International Cultural Program Centre Lithuania
Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Romanian Cultural Institute
SICA Dutch Centre for International Cultural Activities
Slovakian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Slovenian Ministry of Culture
Societ Dante Alighieri
Swedish Institute
Wallonie-Bruxelles International
Presidents of EUNIC
2006 Sir David Green British Council
2007 Emil Brix Austrian Federal

Ministry for European and

International Affairs
2008 Hans-Georg Knopp
Goethe-Institut
2009 Finn Andersen

Danish Cultural Institute
2010 Horia-Roman Patapievici

Romanian Cultural Institute
2011 Professor Ana Paula Laborinho

Instituo Cames
2012 Delphine Borione

French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
EUNIC clusters activities between

July 2011 and December 2012
Multilingualism
September 2011, EUNIC in Warsaw, International Translators Day Born in Translation
September 2011, EUNIC in Kazakhstan, European Day of Languages
September 2011, EUNIC in Senegal, European Day of Languages
September 2011, EUNIC in Norway, European Day of Languages
September 2011, EUNIC in Warsaw, European Day of Languages in Warsaw
September 2011, EUNIC in Lebanon, European Day of Languages in Lebanon
September 2011, EUNIC in Morocco, European Day of Languages
September 2011, EUNIC in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, European Languages Day
in Zenica
September 2011, EUNIC in Canada, European Day of Languages in Toronto
September 2011, EUNIC in the Czech Republic, European Day of Languages in Prague
September 2011, EUNIC in Estonia, European Day of Languages in Tallinn
September 2011, EUNIC in Athens, European Day of Languages
September 2011, EUNIC in Hungary, European Languages Cocktail Bar
October 2011, EUNIC in Rome, One Europe Many languages - New opportunities
October 2011, EUNIC in Uzbekistan, Teachers Day in Tashkent
October 2011, EUNIC in Vietnam, European
Languages Days Conference in Hanoi
November 2011, EUNIC in Bordeaux, 10th
Day of Languages - language and culture
December 2011, EUNIC in Warsaw, Read in
Translation
February 2012, EUNIC in Washington, European Conversation Club
February 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, Writing in
European Languages contest
March 2012, EUNIC in Estonia, conference
- Languages of Smaller Populations: Risks
and Possibilities
March 2012, EUNIC in Rome, Europe - Italy:
the challenge of multilingualism
May 2012, EUNIC in Venezuela, Interactive
White Board,
May 2012, EUNIC in Melbourne, European
Language Festival in Anakie
June 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, Fans Dictionary for volunteers communication during
Euro 2012
June 2012, EUNIC in Athens, Launch of the
Language Rich Europe Framework for Language Policies and Practices in Athens
September 2012, EUNIC in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, European Languages Day in
Mostar and Sarajevo

September 2012, EUNIC in Canada, European Day of Languages in Toronto
September 2012, EUNIC in Colombia, European Day of Languages in Bogota
September 2012, EUNIC in the Czech Republic, European Day of Languages in Prague
September 2012, EUNIC in Estonia, European Day of Languages
September 2012, EUNIC in Hungary, European Languages Cocktail Bar
September 2012, EUNIC in Jordan, European Day of Languages in Amman
September 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, European Day of Languages in Dakar
September 2012, EUNIC in Spain, Open
Doors at the European Cultural Institutes European Day of Languages
September 2012, EUNIC in Turkey, European Day of Languages - 12 Languages in
One Day
September 2012, EUNIC in Chicago, European Professional Development Day
September 2012, EUNIC in Morocco, European Day of Languages in Casablanca
September 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, European Day of Languages in Warsaw
September 2012, EUNIC in Romania, European Day of Languages
September 2012, EUNIC in Serbia, European
Day of Languages
September 2012, EUNIC in Berlin, The art of
speaking a language: Multilingualism and
its opportunities
September 2012, EUNIC in the Netherlands,
European Day of Languages by EUNIC in
the Netherlands
October 2012, EUNIC in Lebanon, European
Day of Languages in Beirut
October 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, International Translators Day in Krakow and Warsaw
October 2012, EUNIC in Krakow, International Translation Day
October 2012, EUNIC in Vietnam, European
Language Days
European Literature
January December 2011, EUNIC in Canada, LISEZ LEUROPE - Contemporary European Literature in Montreal
July 2011, EUNIC in Warsaw, SpokeNWord
Festival - Slam Poetry from different countries
August 2011, EUNIC in Cordoba, FLiCba +
de 140: code name for new literature festival in Cordoba
September 2011, EUNIC in Sweden, joint
EUNIC stand at the Bok&Bibliotek Book Fair,
Gothenburg
September 2011, EUNIC in Canada, International Literature Festival in Montreal
September October 2011 EUNIC in Brus-
sels, Project TRANSPOESIE 2011

October 2011, EUNIC in Warsaw, Reading
somewhere else, 2nd edition in Warsaw
October 2011, EUNIC in Serbia, Book Fair
2011 in Belgrade
October 2011, EUNIC in Finland, Helsinki
Book Fair 2011
October 2011, EUNIC in Morocco, Open
Days at Libraries in Rabat
November 2011, EUNIC in New York, Crime
Scene: Europe - New Literature from Europe 2011
November 2011, EUNIC in Romania, European Comics Festival
November December 2011, EUNIC in
Tanzania, Dar Slam Poetry Championship
Festival
February 2012, EUNIC in Morocco, International Fair for Publishing and Books SIEL
(17th edition) in Casablanca
March 2012, EUNIC in Vienna, European Festival of Poetry in Vienna
March 2012, EUNIC in Athens, Six Voices, Six
Women short stories for the International
Womens Day in Athens
April, 2012, EUNIC in Spain, European aid for
book publishing - round table in Barcelona
April, 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, Reading somewhere else, 3rd edition
April, 2012, EUNIC in the Netherlands,
City2Cities: International Literature Days
Utrecht
May 2012, EUNIC in Romania, European Literature Night in Bucharest
May 2012, EUNIC in the Czech Republic, Literature Night in Prague
May 2012, EUNIC in Vietnam, European Literature Days
May 2012, EUNIC in London, European Literature Night IV in London
June 2012, EUNIC in Croatia, regional multimedia literature festival KROKODIL in
Zagreb
June 2012, EUNIC in Hungary, European
Literature Night
June 2012, EUNIC in Denmark, Festival of
European Contemporary Playwrights
August 2012, EUNIC in China, Beijing Book
Fair
August 2012, EUNIC in Cordoba, 2nd Crdoba International Literature Festival
September 2012, EUNIC in Algeria, XIII International Book Fair in Algeria (SILA)
September - November 2012, EUNIC in
Brussels, Project TRANSPOESIE 2012
September 2012, EUNIC in Berlin, The Superreal World Graphic Novels of Europe:
Vernissage and Graphic Novel Day
September 2012, EUNIC in Berlin, Europa
literarisch: Norman Manea from Romania
by EUNIC in Berlin
October 2012, EUNIC in Vienna, Literature
Night in Cafes in Vienna, EUNIC Week
October 2012, EUNIC in Canada, EUROPE@
233
EUNIC Annual Report
IFOA Toronto
October 2012, EUNIC in Canada, International Festival of Authors in Toronto
Oct ober 2012, EUNIC in Morocco, Open Day
at the Libraries in Rabat
October 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, VIII
SpokenWord Festival
October 2012, EUNIC in Serbia, Book Fair in
Belgrade
October 2012, EUNIC in Berlin, Europa literarisch: Hkan Nesser from Sweden by
EUNIC Berlin
October November 2012, EUNIC in Melbourne, Myth, Magic and Mystery public
reading in Melbourne
October November 2012, EUNIC in Lebanon, Fair for Books in the French Language
in Beirut
November 2012, EUNIC in Rome, Cinderella
as a cultural text - international conference
in Rome
November 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, Reading
somewhere else, 4th edition
November 2012, EUNIC in New York, Artistic
Fictions/Fictional Artists: New Literature
from Europe 2012
Arts
Visual Arts
May September 2011, EUNIC in Estonia,
International Media Art Exhibition in Tallinn: Gateways. Art and Networked Culture
in Tallinn
July - September 2011, EUNIC in London,
Active Witness/Photo Summer Exhibition
August 2011, EUNIC in Norway, the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund
September 2011, EUNIC in Norway, Oslo
culture night
October 2011, EUNIC in Estonia, art exhibition Tadeusz Kantor. Polish Avant- Gardist
and Theatre Reformer in Tallinn
October 2011, EUNIC in Croatia, The Great
Five film programme at the Zagreb Film
Festival 2011
October December 2011, EUNIC in Warsaw, Taboo in Childrens Art in Gdansk, Poznan and Warsaw
November 2011, EUNIC in Romania, Prague
through the lens of the secret police
November 2011, EUNIC in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mini-INPUT Seoul - International
Public Television Screening Conference in
Sarajevo
November 2011, EUNIC in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mini-INPUT Sydney - International Public Television Screening Conference
in Sarajevo
November 2011, EUNIC in Hungary, Behind
234
the Celluloid Curtain film screenings

November - December 2011, EUNIC in
Sudan, European Film Festival 2011 in Khartoum and Juba
November 2011, EUNIC in Rome, travelling
exhibition Childhood - Tracks and treasures in Rome
December 2011, EUNIC in London, Robotville EU
December 2011, EUNIC in Lithuania, The
Celluloid Curtain Europes Cold War in
Film
January 2012, EUNIC in Norway, Troms International Film Festival
February 2012, EUNIC in London, Ready
Steady Doc/Documentary Film Festival
March 2012, EUNIC in Norway, Eurodok The European Documentary Film Festival
in Oslo
March 2012 March 2013, EUNIC in Slovakia, EuroFilmClub in Bratislava
April 2012, EUNIC in China, Caochangdi
Photo Spring
April 2012, EUNIC in China, Symposium
on Public Cultural Policies: European and
Chinese Perspectives on Supporting the
Visual Arts
April 2012, EUNIC in New York, Disappearing Act IV European Cinema
April 2012, EUNIC in South Africa, City of
Gold Urban Arts Festival in Johannesburg
May 2012, EUNIC in Venezuela, Virtual Library/EUNIC Membership Identification
May 2012, EUNIC in Kazakhstan, EUNIC Almaty Film Festival
May June 2012, EUNIC in Ireland,
Climate|Culture|Change - screenings and
discussions in Dublin
May 2012, EUNIC in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), European arts and culture
Week in Palestine
May 2012, EUNIC in Bosnia and Herzegovina, European Film Week in Sarajevo,
May - July 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, Young
Film Critics Forum in Gdynia and Wroclaw
June 2012, EUNIC in Vietnam, 4th European
Documentary Film Week
June 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, Image and
Life Festival
June 2012, EUNIC in Ukraine, European
Short film festival in Kiev
July 2012, EUNIC in South Africa, Durban
International Film Festival
August 2012, EUNIC in Namibia, EUNIC Film
Festival Somewhere Else - Searching for
a Home
August 2012, EUNIC in China, EU China
Roundtable on Digital Publishing in Beijing
August 2012 January 2013, EUNIC in
Berlin, Exhibition and Accompanying Programme: Olympia: Myth Cult Games
September 2012, EUNIC in Norway, Oslo
Culture Night
September 2012, EUNIC in Rome, audiovisu-
al translation event in Rome

September 2012, EUNIC in South Africa, Moshito Music Conference in Johannesburg
September October 2012, EUNIC in China,
EUNIC Beijing Design Week
September October 2012, EUNIC in the
Philippines, 15th edition of Cine Europa
Film Festival
September October 2012, EUNIC in Croatia, Media-Scape Biennale Zagreb
October 2012, EUNIC Berlin, Mythos Olympia The Documentary!
October 2012, EUNIC in Berlin, Europes
Golden Bears
October November 2012, EUNIC in Melbourne, photographic exhibition Memories of a Pilgrimage in Melbourne
November 2012, EUNIC in Vietnam, Hanoi
International Film Festival
November 2012, EUNIC in Ethiopia, European Film Festival in Addis Ababa
November December 2012, EUNIC in Ethiopia, workshop for moviemakers
November December 2012, EUNIC in
Sudan, European Film Festival 2012 in
Khartoum
Performing Arts
September 2011, EUNIC in Croatia, DUGAVE
Street Art Festival in Zagreb
September 2011, EUNIC in New York, Moving Sounds - Annual Music Festival
September 2011, EUNIC in Brazil, AMEO
Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra: Music
from another planet
September 2011, EUNIC in Venezuela, European DJs in Caracas
November 2011, EUNIC in Washington, concert by European Jazz Motion
December 2011, EUNIC in Zimbabwe, The
Flame: Celebrating World Aids Day
February 2012, EUNIC in Zimbabwe, Live
Vibe: The Smoke That Thunders
March 2012, EUNIC in India, Culinary Festival
April 2012, EUNIC in Croatia, EUNIC Cultural
Fellowships awarded to emerging cultural
leaders from Croatia in Zagreb
April 2012, EUNIC in Washington, outreach
activities for the European Union Youth
Orchestra
April 2012, EUNIC in Vietnam, Hanoi Sound
Stuff
April 2012, EUNIC in Japan, European Baroque Music Festival
May 2012, EUNIC in Senegal,Festival Interfrences
May 2012, EUNIC in Estonia, Tallinn Treff
Festival in Tallinn
May 2012, EUNIC in Hungary, Europe Day
Festival
EUNIC Annual Report
May 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, Salam Music

Expo
May 2012, EUNIC in Washington, Eurovision
Song Contest Party
May 2012, EUNIC in Brazil, 8th European
Week
May 2012, EUNIC in Slovakia, Concert for
Europe in Bratislava
May June 2012, EUNIC in the Philippines,
Focus on European Contemporary Dance:
International Dance Festival Manila
June 2012, EUNIC in Hungary, Scandinavian
and Baltic Midsummers Day
June 2012, EUNIC in Brussels, BreXpat Manneken Speak - Fte de la Musique in
Ganshoren
June 2012, EUNIC in Lebanon, music festival
in Beirut
June 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, Festa2H
June 2012, EUNIC in Turkey, Night of European Culture in Istanbul
August 2012, EUNIC in Hungary, Park in
Progress
August December 2012, EUNIC in Denmark, Copenhagen Art Festival
September 2012, EUNIC in Vietnam, Festival
of Contemporary Dance
September 2012, EUNIC in China, Beijing
Fringe Festival
September 2012, EUNIC in China, Music and
Design aka M.A.D.
September 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, Summer
Opera
September 2012, EUNIC in New York, Moving Sounds - Annual Music Festival
October 2012, EUNIC in Berlin, XXIII Berlin
Early Music Days
October 2012, EUNIC in Norway, European
Jazz Nights
October 2012, EUNIC in Turkey, Art in Movement
November 2012, EUNIC in London, EUNIC
celebratory concert: Inspired by Debussy
in London
Culture in External Relations
EUNIC in New York, Visa Advocacy Initiative
(ongoing project)
June July 2011, EUNIC in London, Cultural
Diplomacy Seminar
March 2012 November 2013, EUNIC in
South Africa, Dialogue Facility in Arts and
Culture project
April 2012, EUNIC in the Czech Republic,
EUNIC conference Culture + Culture and
Diplomacy
May 2012, EUNIC in Serbia, Diplomatic Academy presentations on cultural policy
June 2012, EUNIC in London, Cultural Diplo-
macy Conference in London

October 2012, EUNIC in Vienna, Pointing
the Way international workshop on the
dialogue between cultures in Vienna
November 2012, EUNIC in Hungary, Conference Dialogue between China and Europe
November 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, More
Europe Conference in Warsaw
Culture and Development
May and September 2011, EUNIC in Brussels, Learning and Development workshop
in Brussels
September 2011, EUNIC in Morocco, conference - Debate on Culture and Development in Morocco
October 2011, EUNIC in Brussels, Culture
and Development Network meeting
July 2012, EUNIC in Tunisia, Three times fifteen? Debate on the role of cultural centres
in local development
Creative Industries
October 2011, EUNIC in Slovenia, Slovenia in
fashion - the first Slovenia fashion week
January 2012, EUNIC in Algeria, A Bridge
between the two Shores: meetings between young creators from Europe and
Algeria
June 2012 October 2012, EUNIC in Romania, Dialogue across Borders a series of
events in Romania, Germany, Denmark and
the Czech Republic
From October 2012, EUNIC in Jordan, EUNIC
MENA Creative Industries
November 2012, EUNIC in Jordan, Creative
Jordan Platform for Visionary Ideas
November 2012, EUNIC in the Czech Republic, Culture + Creative industries in Prague
November 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, participation at the International Conference on
Creative Industries in Africa
From October 2013, EUNIC in the occupied
Palestinian territories (oPt), cultural discussions in Ramallah
Discussion forums, lectures, workshops,
conferences and projects
2011 2013, UNIC in India, EUNIC Lecture
Series
July 2011, EUNIC in Japan, Embracing Solidarity and Diversity in Community Projects
July August 2011, EUNIC in South Africa,
Crossings 2nd edition of Crossings, an
international workshop for young artists in
Johannesburg
September 2011 autumn 2012, EUNIC in
Brussels, series of events relating to Getting Smaller About the Advantages of
Shrinking in Europe
- Is Europe getting smaller? About nationalism in the EU

- Centre and Periphery - historical developments and current perspectives
- Multiculturalism in times of crises - is multicultural society a failed political notion
in Europe?
- Collective memory, changing identities
and cultural transformation in shrinking
states
- What about the European dream?
October 2011, EUNIC in Melbourne, Series
of lectures on European issues
- The Euro Crisis, Causes and Possible Solutions
- Maonomics and the Chinese Economic
Miracle
- The Victory of Communism with a Profit
Motive
- The Implications of Transnational Crime
and Money Laundering
November 2011, EUNIC in South Africa,
Architecture Studio 4th edition of a workshop and public events with architects and
architecture students
November 2011, EUNIC in Vietnam, Open
Academy Europe workshops and lectures
January December 2012, EUNIC in Russia,
Curatorial Exchange Programme for young
Russian curators 2012
February April 2012, EUNIC in Ireland,
How Migration Challenges Notions of Society series of lectures in Dublin
March June 2012, EUNIC in Serbia, series
of debates on cultural policy and cultural
centres in Belgrade
April 2012, EUNIC in Warsaw, conference on
textbook design
April 2012, EUNIC in the Netherlands, The
European Responsibility for Culture conference
May 2012, EUNIC in Brussels, EUNIC InterCluster Meeting in Leuven, Belgium
May 2012, EUNIC in Senegal, Launch of EUNIC in Senegal Breakfast Meetings
May 2012, EUNIC in Stuttgart, Crisis as an
opportunity? What values does Europe
follow? International panel discussion in
Stuttgart
June 2012, EUNIC in Egypt, focus group discussion on creative industries in Egypt
June 2012, EUNIC in Romania, Night of the
Cultural Institutes open night
October 2012, EUNIC in Mexico, Cultural
activities in prisons why, symposium and
workshop
November 2012, EUNIC in the Philippines,
European Higher Education Fair 2012:
Brighter Prospects
235
Editorial information
Published by: EUNIC, Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen
(ifa, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) and
the Robert Bosch Foundation, in cooperation with the British Council,
the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation
Project Editors: William Billows, Sebastian Krber
Editor, English Edition: Gill McKay
Editorial Assistance: Katrin Mader, Kamila Gawronska, Helena Kovarikova
Graphic Design: Eberhard Wolf
Address ifa: Charlottenplatz 17, 70173 Stuttgart
Printers: ConBrio Verlag Regensburg
English translation: Neil McKay, Gill McKay
The views expressed in the articles within are those of the respective authors.
Photo credits, photo spreads: Frankie Quinn, Belfast
(www.frankiequinn.com)
Photos of authors: p.77 Jens Schulze
ISBN: 978-3-921970-84-3
Dac h z e i le
CULTURE REPORT
CULTURE REPORT
Culture is a mouthpiece and seismograph that reflects

the mood of society. When a society is driven by
political conflict, culture can create space for encounters, dialogue and understanding. The geopolitical
situation of the 21st century requires a revival of
cultural diplomacy. The international community
finds itself faced with a string of violent conflicts that
are emerging from within individual societies.
Europe has much to offer thanks to its experiences
of democracy, multilateralism and decades of
peaceful co-existence, and it should be investing
more heavily in cultural relations around the world.
It needs to share its specific experiences with
others in order to help mitigate some of these crisis
situations. How can we make the best possible use of
culture as a positive force? What external cultural
policies does Europe need to bring to the
worlds crisis zones? And what is the best way for
EUNIC the European network of national cultural
institutes to get involved?
978-3-921970-84-3
E U N I C-Ye a r b o o k 2 012 / 13
CULTURE REPORT EUNIC YEARBOOK 2012/2013
E U N I C Ye a r b o o k 2 012 / 2 013
E U N I C Ye a r b o o k 2 012 / 2 013
Challenges for Europes Foreign Policy
Vol.: 5

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Dac h z e i le

Culture is a mouthpiece and seismograph that reflects

CULTURE REPORT EUNIC YEARBOOK 2012/2013

Challenges for Europes Foreign Policy

Chapter 1: The potential of culture

Chapter 4: The role of EUNIC in crisis regions

Lifting the veil

He points to concord organisations that

There is no doubt that culture can help to resolve

Beyond the cultural smokescreen For as long as a

ince the 1990s, and especially since

terests are not objective per se, but tend

Competition between particular

There is no doubt that objective

this fact of being different is often used

The political culture of a society or group becomes a key factor

under certain circumstances can get out

plications. If, for example, members of

Ethnic identity becomes a matter of

architecture (Hermanns Memorial) all

le, where, for example, specific cultural,

in religious and cultural terms, but they

Rejection of the West

the West and Western culture. Antipathy

symbolised for a time by the occupation of Iraq.

Secular and political origins

and thus turned into ideology, making it

Intercultural dialogue cannot

it can be used to counter the culturalisation and manipulation for ideological

ly tailored to the needs of the situation,

reign cultural policy has played a positive

It should not simply be a question of giving foreign cultural

with conflicts and allow different points

tional opportunities can provide a basis

More culture in global politics Europe needs to invest

he debate on the cultural components of the EUs external action is

in a globalised world where transnational

EU to do what others are now preaching:

Early warning and early action

it erupts into reality. This can take many

When things go well, the media dont

The work of detecting risks of

communities and help them move beyond

Preventive power or an instrument

The second issue that Europeans need

Culture can restore hope to

wide in order to capitalise on its existing

museums, theatres, houses of creativity

Damien Helly has worked for the EU think

Signification spirals and moral imagination Culture

the Moral Imagination is a major work

phany and chance discoveries to occur.

arings. It gives people tools that enable

the end a We that is in the possession of

In this complex and chaotic

and influencing the behaviour of the actors as individuals and groups.

Culture as the missing link

that should not be thrown out with the

conf lict, they can advance to a point