The underlying purpose of the Asian Civilisational Dialogue was to explore the convergences, concordances, perspectives and values shared by Asian civilisations and to assess the prospects of Civilisational Dialogues in Asia among Asian countries. The idea was to delineate the contours of the Civilisational Dialogues in Asia, not only historically but also in contemporary contextual and futuristic perspectives. It may be recalled that the first Asian Relation Conference was held at the initiative of the late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The delegates were happy not only for being able to exchange views with one another, but also to have an opportunity of seeking a common Asian identity, which was difficult to perceive. I was asked to speak on "Cultural Diplomacy in Asian Civilisational Dialogue."

Traditional diplomacy: Diplomacy can be classified in several ways. Three types of diplomacy are generally regarded as the principally recognised ones. In the broadest term, diplomacy is interpreted in its original and traditional form. It denotes the art of conducting relations between Heads of State, Kings and Presidents (governments) through their personal (state) envoys known as diplomatic agents. This practice was introduced during the Middle Ages when communication from one country to another was difficult, time-consuming and, at times, dangerous. To facilitate communication and exchange of views between Heads of State and governments, the envoys and diplomatic agents played the most vital role, which none else could undertake with the amount of trust it called for. Evolution of this system in different designated categories, such as Ambassadors (Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary), High Commissioners, Consuls General, Consuls and Honorary Consuls took place in due course and has since been regulated by successive Vienna Conventions.

Economic diplomacy: The second category is popularly termed as Economic Diplomacy. This has been increasingly manifest in recent times, especially in the developing world. This deviation from the traditional form of diplomacy was prompted by the dire need for promoting welfare and providing a better standard of life for the people of the most developing nations. Under this method, the government argues, the primary objective of a nation is to provide its citizens with the basic necessities so that they can lead a decent life. Economic diplomacy is regarded as a veritable tool to serve that purpose by marshalling resources for the material benefit of a nation by way of promoting economic, commercial and industrial relations with foreign countries.

Cultural diplomacy: The third form may be termed as Cultural Diplomacy. This is the most ancient and basic of all diplomacies and encompasses more people, more nations, more ethnic and religious groups, and is designed for all times to come. Cultural diplomacy is something, which is, strangely enough, neither widely-known nor recognised as such. Yet, this has taken place through the subconscious mind of the mankind and will continue to do so in future. What then is the Cultural Diplomacy? This, in a sophisticated term, connotes a method of interaction of peoples of diverse origin, group, religion, affiliation, political philosophy, cultural diversity, social and material status and the like. How does this cultural diplomacy function? It functions through the operation of varied methods of activities that are difficult to define in a precise manner. From time immemorial, exchanges have taken place at different levels between peoples of differing groups and nations. They were generally royal and state messengers and envoys. But they also represented other sections of the people, tourists and travellers, monks and pilgrims, students and teachers, business and industrial people, artists and critics, men of letters and sports, and so on and so forth.

Such envoys as described above, constitute millions of undesignated ambassadors who help bring about unity, cohesion and a sense of fellow-feeling among people of such diverse groups. Their appreciation of shared values, their determination to resolve differences as well as commitment to noble ideals within a paradigm of common interests constitute the realisation of cultural diplomacy and fulfilment of its objectives.

Chronology of civilisations in Asia:/b>
Egyptian: The most ancient civilisation was found in Egypt with King Menes, the first king of a united Egypt, commencing his reign at the end of the 4th Millennium BC.

Chinese: The Chinese legendary history can be traced back to 2697 BC, the first year of Huang Ti, the Chinese Yellow Emperor.

Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian Civilisation dates back to the fall of the last Sumerian dynasty at 2000 BC. The list of kings is usually found from the reliable source of Ptolemy's Canon. The Assyrian chronology is known from 900 BC and the Babylonian with the accession to throne by King Nabonassar in 747 BC. It is interesting to note that the chronicle of the Babylonian civilisation was recorded by a Greek living in Egypt. This cites another example and tends to justify the historian assuming the role of a diplomat engaged in cultural diplomacy.

Hindu: The Hindu civilisation's chronicles are based on two systems; firstly from antiquity with reckoning of some historical events, such as the birth of Lord Buddha and inscriptions of the Buddhist King Asoka (265-238 BC) and secondly by viewing the position of some heavenly or celestial bodies. This allows one to record history of the period of Mahabharata, and then from

Yugas starting from Dharma to Kali Yuga. Vedas and Upanishads also prove to be excellent sources of knowledge. A Nepalese era (878 AD) of some obscure origin was commonly used in Nepal until modern times.

Japanese: The principal chronicles describing the origins of Japanese history are " Nihon Shoki" compiled in 720 AD. These assembled information started several years before 660 BC, the year of enthronement of the first Japanese Emperor, Jimmu.

Persian: The reckoning of Persian history starts with identifying the first of the Persian kings, King Artaxerxes the First in 465 BC. It was found in narrations from the Bible and the Aswan Papyrus.

Indonesia and Malaysian Peninsula: Indonesia exhibits a rich diversity of cultural forms that range from those of the old Malay, which are preserved mainly in the remote interiors of Sumatra and Borneo, through the traditional Javanese and Balinese forms, which are heavily influenced by the Hindu epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Religion: The last of the great civilisations as epitomised by the three great religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- became the latest of all. Islam had its golden period under the Caliphates and also during the Ottoman era.

Assessment: None of these civilisations prospered and reached their peak of achievements in isolation. There had been exchanges both at horizontal and vertical levels and, as evidence suggests, they represented positive steps to enrich their own systems and secure benefit for their peoples.

It was, indeed, difficult to discover total and reliable evidence of all these civilisations through inscriptions, relics and other sources, but to acquire knowledge about the sources of contacts and interactions, information about the host of emissaries and adventurers that are required were also not available. Yet, one recognises the spirit and actions of the great travellers and adventurers like Marco Polo, Ibne Batuta, Atisha Dipankara, Fa Hsien, Hiuen Tsang, I-tsing, Sheng-Chi and others, who demonstrated extraordinary courage in scaling mountains and sailing through oceans to traverse hazardous lands for long years. In the process, they made immense contributions to human knowledge, enrichment of civilisations by effecting near-impossible interactions, and to the mankind as a whole. They and the numerous others, whose records of achievements were not chronicled, were the real emissaries, as they promoted cultural display with indomitable energy, perseverance, adventurism and, above all, a deep sense of commitment to their worthy but dangerous missions.

Samuel Huntington wrote on the possibility of clash of civilisations and the need for establishing a new world order. He portrayed the danger of civilisational clashes as a potent threat to world peace, and invoked the role of the civil society to come forward to avert it. The political, spiritual and intellectual leaders must work strenuously to establish an international order based on existing civilisations as the surest safeguard against disruption of peace and the waging of another all-destructive global war.

Conclusion: The most recent history of our mother earth almost made us witness a catastrophe of the nature Huntington had predicted. I speak of the events that led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, blatantly defying the United Nations and ignominiously casting aside the opinion of the world community. The war was waged in the name of anti-terrorist campaign on the global scale and the purpose was to eclipse the trend and growth of what was called Islamic Fundamentalism. All are well aware of the consequences of the war till now and the adverse impact it created on the vast multitude of populace in the world. It almost precipitated a clash among civilisations.

Fortunately, it did not go that far. Never before the Arabs, the Muslims, the Asians and the international community were so divided as they are now and that too, so intensely and overtly. Consequently, never before has arisen an imperative need for civilisational dialogues both within and between dialogues themselves. The strategy was to identify the common identity of Asian civilisations and to promote unity in addressing challenges of the time. The conference was the initial attempt to achieve that goal and sustained efforts would be needed in future to that end.

M.M.Rezaul Karim, a former Ambassador, is a member of BNP's Advisory Council.