Opening Session

Václav Havel
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me welcome you most cordially to the second Forum 2000 in Prague and to its opening ceremony today in this venerable hall. With your permission, I should like to say a few words about the genesis of this project.
When I became President, I began - for quite obvious reasons - to travel across the world. According to our Constitution, the President represents the state abroad. I visited perhaps fifty, perhaps eighty countries of all the continents. In all of them I met, time and again, with new faces of today’s civilization and all the problems that I had known from wise books appeared before me with new life and colour. Time and again, I told myself how good it would be if bright minds not only from different continents; different corners of the Earth; different cultures, religions and spheres of civilization; but also from different disciplines of human knowledge, could somewhere come together for quiet conversation.
What would be the outcome if an Islamic mufti, a Japanese buddhist, a famous American environmentalist, a Brazilian political scientist, a former or a contemporary politician, sat down at one table and spent three days in discussion? There are major United Nations summits on population, on the position of women, on the environment, etc. All these are gigantic events, but they always principally focus on one subject at a time. Rarely can we find an occasion where all these subjects intersect, and yet we know of the extraordinarily strong interconnections between them.
Later on, I was invited to several conferences organized by Elie Wiesel. He intended to hold one of his conferences in Prague and I felt that what I had dreamt of could be translated into reality in our capital, with his help and with the benefit of his experience. That is why Elie Wiesel and I organized a Forum 2000 last year, which was meant to be the kind of meeting that I described here.
I believe that the previous Forum 2000 was a great success. Many interesting personages attended, including the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Shimon Peres, Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan, many renowned experts from different disciplines, and several Nobel laureates. I found their discussion most interesting. It is true that it also had its weaknesses and deficiencies, from which we have - I hope - learned a lesson.
I had not expected that Forum 2000 could be repeated every year, but the Nippon Foundation, an eminent foundation of Japan, came to us with the initiative to hold the Forum annually until the year 2001. Thanks to the Nippon Foundation, we are meeting again this year and, God willing, we will come together again next year, and the year after that, and yet again the year after that. Having learned a lesson from the things that were perhaps not so good during last year’s Forum, we will hopefully make the succeeding Forums ever more interesting and more inspiring.
I think no one expects that this Forum - or this kind of a Forum - will directly influence the course of events in this world. Nevertheless, I believe that it is our duty to do everything in our power to articulate anew all the threats facing our civilization today and - being guided by a fundamental hope that gives our life meaning - to look for ways of averting all these dangers. We simply must exercise forethought, without calculating to what extent I, or we, or any one of us, will actually influence the way of the world. If we say that humankind today must assume a renewed responsibility for the increasingly globalized world and for global civilization, we must each of us begin with ourselves. This is absolutely clear to my mind.
Why are we holding this conference in Prague? Prague has for centuries been a junction of varying geopolitical interests. History - first European and in the Twentieth Century world history - became entangled within this city since the previous millennium. This is where wars began, or where they ended. Now that we are free, why shouldn’t this city - for so long a crossroads of interests and power ambitions - serve as a crossroads of ideas instead? This line of thought was also present somewhere in the background of the plan to establish a tradition of Forum 2000 conferences.
I believe that not only Prague but Central Europe, in its entirety, possesses a heightened perception of impending dangers, a certain gift of foresight. This is reflected in both the earlier and the contemporary literature produced in this region. Isn’t this gift also a commitment? Doesn’t it commit us to alert the world to the looming threats and to its own shortsightedness?
I do not want to take much more of your time - the real Forum, that is, the working Forum, begins tomorrow morning. This evening is meant as a ceremonial opening. Let me therefore reiterate my most cordial welcome to all of you, in particular to our foreign guests. I want to thank them for coming to Prague and to express my hope that this year’s Forum will match, or possibly even surpass, the success of its predecessor.
Thank you.

Yohei Sasakawa
Your Excellency, President Václav Havel, highly distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,
As one of the sponsors of Forum 2000, I am delighted to be able to return to Prague – the magical city of a hundred spires – and I am very grateful to have the great honour to say a word of greeting to you, the distinguished participants in this visionary Forum.
At last year’s conference, President Havel spoke about the meaning of Forum 2000, describing it as a search for what unites the world’s various religions and cultures; that is, a search for common sources, principles, certitude, aspirations and imperatives. He spoke of a need to cultivate human co-existence and to suffuse that pursuit with a spirit – what he called “a common spiritual and moral minimum”. I wish to say that the Nippon Foundation fully endorses the concepts and goals set for the Forum 2000 by President Havel, and we are honoured to be able to extend our support towards their implementation. This year’s theme, the prospects and problems of globalization, takes us to the next dimension of the Forum’s dialogue, the creation of a harmonious world for the 21st century.
I must say that I often find myself wondering about the meaning and the course of globalization, and whether the current wave of globalization will really reach all the far corners of the Earth. I cannot help but think: who is it that wants globalization, and who is promoting it? Will countries or peoples be sacrificed in its wake, and can a globalized world really be an ideal world?
When I ask myself such questions, far be it from arriving at any answers or conclusions, even more complex questions are conjured up in my mind. I am reminded of the “clash of civilisations” theory created by the Harvard political scientist, Samuel Huntington. I wonder whether the religious and cultural differences that abound among the world’s civilisations will cause them to clash and collide or, on the other hand, whether the civilisations of the world will be able to learn from each other and co-exist in the 21st century.
To ensure a “positive-sum” global society, I hope, as does Professor Huntington, to see the establishment of an effective international order in the coming century. To accomplish this, we must take care not to allow East-West differences to degenerate into East-West antagonisms. There is a wealth of complementarity – the building blocks of synergisms – even between the juxtaposed intuitive and rational modes of thought and action. Among religions, is there not a spirituality and goodness that is born out of specific faiths yet, being common to the human disposition, transcends diverse faiths? May I offer a minor but interesting example of this spirituality from the annals of Japanese history? Sen no Rikyu, the famed tea-master of the late 16th century Muromachi Period, created a genre of the tea ceremony that embodies both the spirit of Zen Buddhism and Christianity. The tea practitioner, even today, does not have to possess either faith to appreciate the transcending spirituality of this ceremony.
Eminent colleagues, there is, indeed, much embraced in common among the world’s peoples, and ample room exists to learn from each other about what is not. In the process of expanding our knowledge and understanding of one another, we can mutually enrich each other’s lives and cultures. It is my hope that over the three days of this conference you will be able to seek ways to form the synergisms – that is, the modes of globalisation – that will ensure a bright, peaceful and sustainable world for all in the next century.
Thank you.

El Hassan bin Talal (read by envoy Cecil Hourani)
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, dear friends,
Allow me, first of all, to transmit my warmest greetings to President Havel. It’s a source of particular pleasure, which I am sure is shared by all who will take part in the second conference of Forum 2000, that President Havel is again able to be present to inspire us with his vision and guide us in our debates.
Forum 2000 meets at a time when the effects of natural and human disasters are felt globally, especially among populations and societies incapable of, or not prepared to take part in, either forestalling or alleviating the consequences of floods, of financial collapse, of international, civil and ethnic strife. Europe, which many believed was immune to the kind of strife that afflicts large areas of the Middle and Near East and Africa, is the theatre – not many kilometres from Prague itself – of a renewed and bitter struggle between two nationalisms and two societies. The one insists on sovereignty, the other on self-determination. Half a million refugees in Kosovo stand witness to the failure of international and regional organisations to foresee or to prevent the conflict, or even to agree upon a common policy to find a solution.
The Darwinian theory of evolution has been regarded by some philosophers and social scientists as backing for the idea of progress, the notion that life is getting better on this planet. The destruction of ancient and traditional ways of life, the uprooting of long settled communities and the impoverishment of previously viable societies – which we still see taking place in the Near and Middle East, in Africa, and even in Europe – are proof that the intellectual progress of man, which has produced the astonishing technological achievements of the past 200 years, has not been accompanied by a concomitant progress in either the relationships between human beings or the relationships between human communities. This has led me to believe that the idea of development that seems to guide the political and financial policies of some governments and international organisations needs to be re-thought. The distinction between developed societies and underdeveloped, or developing, is becoming less and less useful. The so-called three worlds of development – the developed, the communist, and the developing – are disintegrating. Since the end of the cold war, they no longer exist as coherent collective communities. In terms of international political economy, an alternative concept of development is emerging. Scholars talk increasingly of a single agenda, rather than of theories of hegemony or dependency. For example, poverty is no longer compartmentalised as a Third World problem. It exists everywhere.
The focal topic of this conference is Globalization – Experiences, Instruments, Procedures. However, to build on experience and specify practical instruments and procedures, it is not enough to say that globalization has lost its way, or that it has become a Plato’s cave, or a cage from which we can escape only through tectonic upheavals. I am confident that a gathering such as this, of eminent persons, in Forum 2000 will help evolve an alternative escape route through that single agenda for world development. To do so, we must re-think relations between states, as well as relations between state and civil society. This is the first step in the long journey from civitas to humanitas. By these words, I do not intend to provide a uni-dimensional caricature of the task that lies ahead. Nor do I mean to be immodestly philosophical or utopian. To move from experiences to instruments and procedures, we must recognise that the recent turmoil in global markets has, in a sense, provided a unifying element among all states. It has demonstrated our collective vulnerability to the side-effects of globalization. But to seize upon this opportunity, leadership or other statesmanship is needed. In this respect, I wish to bring to your attention Jordan’s initiative in the United Nations in the early 1980s. Since the concept of a new international humanitarian order was first introduced, more than 120 out of 160 recommendations made in the report of the independent commission on international humanitarian issues have already been incorporated into national and regional policies, or have served as guidelines for action.
Dear friends, I received the statement of the recent G7 meeting with mixed feelings. On the positive side, it provided a sense of direction for the forming of an international financial architecture. But, on the down side, it did not recognise the overarching challenges facing all of us in our disintegrating, or rather integrating, three worlds. I am confident that Forum 2000 can help to fill the vacuum, the lacuna.
Finally, I would like to say that I regret not being able to be amongst you in person today to listen to your contributions, but I do look forward to studying and reflecting carefully on the results of your deliberations.
God bless you all, salaam aleykum.

Jiří Musil
Mr President, Mrs Havlová, Mr Sasakawa, distinguished guests, dear delegates, I would like to open our conference with a few words on behalf of the advisory board, words concerning the very concept and the programme of Forum 2000, and also perhaps something about our intentions for the future.
We never wanted these conferences to take the shape of either formal political talks or a truly scientific conference of experts. These are conferences where we bring together people who are aware of all the difficulties and dangers, but also of all the hopes and possibilities this world needs. From the very beginning, we have always been determined to bring around one table representatives of the world’s major cultures and religions: philosophers, scientists, but also bankers, writers, politicians, and artists, all those who have something to say about the global issues facing us today.
We have always been concerned also to bring to the table people who will facilitate our understanding about different geographical regions of the world. Recently we have been thinking, once again, about the very sense – the very meaning – of these meetings, and it occurred to us that we could perhaps also start talking about the first buds of something that we could call a “new world civic society”. Here in Prague, we would like to open new avenues for this way of thinking.
The programme of our conference has developed a structure. The structure is as follows: we should have altogether five conferences here in Prague. After each of these major events, several smaller events will follow. In other words, the programme does not consist of these large events alone. For example, this year we organised a students’ conference – and this is something we would like to continue with. Today, at this conference, we also have some students present.
The first Forum, which was held in Prague in 1997, attempted to draw a big map of the world in which we live, as it were, and also to sketch some of the possibilities, dilemmas and responsibilities we now face. The 1998 Forum should enhance and deepen our analytical view of the world and should also assess all the hopes and risks of our world today.
We should also discuss the very meaning of globalization. We should also talk about whether globalization is not just a fashionable word. There are people who say that globalisation is a process that has been developing over a number of centuries now. If we took an analytical view of what was happening at the end of the 19th century, we could detect some of the elements of what we are seeing here today.
I also would like to stress that we have already started preparations for the 1999 Forum. The 1999 Forum should deal with possible models for the future integration of the world. It should be an attempt at modelling this world, drawing on some analytical works. As we are convinced that the integration of the world – if it is to have firm foundations – should rely not only on economic, technological and political pillars, but also on ethical and spiritual principles endorsable by all communities, we would like to devote Forum 2000 to a very complex question, that is the possibility of creating spiritual frameworks for an integrated world.
The programme of Forum 2000 conferences is conceived as a gradation; therefore, in 2001 we should conclude with a political appeal, perhaps what we might call the “Prague Declaration”, which would result from our common reflections.
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about Prague, and also to explain why we have taken up the task of planning and organising these conferences with so much enthusiasm. Prague is a seismograph of political earthquakes. There is nothing mythical about this. It is quite easy to comprehend, both due to the city’s location and its role in history. Prague is a part of a region where it has traditionally been possible to observe the relationship between the core regions of Europe and its peripheries. In today’s world of increasing contacts between different regions represented by world cultures, but also in a world where we are seeing more and more differences between different parts of the world, such an experience is of universal significance. To be a Central European, it traditionally meant to be in a position from which it was possible to perceive all the ideas and values that met here and it was possible to create new notions from these ideas and values. This creative receptivity and the ability to create new cultural idioms is now becoming a useful skill in our fast-shrinking world. To put it simply, I can say that the global processes are creating more and more of these “Central Europes”. This, of course, also brings about a world that is more interactive, a world that requires new ways of perception and communication.
The repeated historical experiences of Prague and Central Europe have borne witness to the fact that integration relying on hegemonic political and economic power alone could not function well unless it was based on truly democratic values. The acceptance of democracy as a model for orientation in the world as well as the acceptance of democracy in governing the relations between nations in a Masarykian sense requires something that goes beyond the purely technocratic, economic and pragmatic concept of the relations between countries and nations. Integration, if it is to be successful in the long term, must include a strong ethical component. A new Prague tradition is being born our of the Forum 2000 conferences. This tradition is directed towards the present day, but it is also ready to go hand in hand with the older humanistic roles played by this city. One of those traditions is all about giving practical help towards co-operation and integration in the democratic world.
I would also like to say that today, something quite symbolic happened. Today, Edith Stein was canonised and I think this is a major event, an event that we all should see in the context of the topics discussed at this Forum.
On behalf of the advisory board, I would like to thank you all for attending the conference and I would also like to wish you days rich in thought.
Thank you.