This LOOK at France, Europe, Globalization, the Planet and its Environment, Political Dialogue, and Dialogue in the Mediterranean offers the combined vision of politicians, writers, journalists, or intellectuals that can help us understand this complex world at the beginning of the 21st century. For taking an interest in France’s situation inevitably leads to a Look at the globalization process, the issues of the European Union, the Planet and its Environment, Political Dialogue, and Dialogue in the Mediterranean.
The reader is invited to set aside, for a time, partisan quarrels to which they might be sensitive if they wish to remain open to the richness of the debate of ideas prevailing in all political parties. The Look cast on certain public figures, chosen based on current events, will offer them a clearer idea of the strength of their commitment, their area of preference, the school of thought to which they belong, and sometimes the networks that support them. As the pages unfold, they will discover the complexity of political life, the limits of the mode of action despite the expression of the best intentions, the considerable weight of networks, examples of strategies dictated by political action, and in most cases, the sincerity of elected officials in performing their functions. An indulgent but uncompromising Look.
In this changing world that disrupts our bearings, political dialogue must be seen as the only solution to the challenges to be met. Environmental problems know no borders, affect all continents, and impact us irrespective of race, religion, or ideology. Interdependent, our collective responsibility compels us to work together for the future of our planet, aware that it is our common good. Reorganizing our society with the help of our political leaders to offer everyone the opportunity to find their place requires being clear-eyed about the reality of the forces at play.
Gathering skills beyond ideologies could allow us to face the future successfully. Political or religious quarrels must give way to creative energies and people of compromise, determined to facilitate DIALOGUE for better living together. A new era is opening. It is up to us to choose the best way to move forward in the direction of the general interest. Pollution-related damage takes no heed of our internal quarrels. It is time to move forward TOGETHER!
As the political lines are no longer impermeable, and political dogmas embrace the sense of uniform thinking, new political, economic, and social frameworks must emerge. The President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, wishes for this change of era to be embodied in his “politics of civilization,” first mentioned on television during his greetings to the French on December 31, 2007. His project is based on the importance of Political Dialogue and the indispensable Dialogue in the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of civilizations and humanity, stands at the center of all forthcoming strategic stakes. Our ability to reconcile opposites in DIALOGUE will determine the success of this already controversial civilization project. Dialogue in the Mediterranean is an invitation to share the best of our respective cultures while respecting our identities and ways of life. The Euro-Mediterranean process should facilitate economic exchanges and more equitably distribute wealth among the countries involved. While the Union for the Mediterranean is still being defined, the Mediterranean Parliament invites Dialogue on federative subjects with an aim for equality.
With more than 80% of our laws directly voted on in Brussels, the European Union plays a central role in our daily lives. If Europe has stalled since the failure in France and the Netherlands of the European Constitution project submitted to a referendum, the simplified Treaty will revive it until the next shakeup. Its convulsions are the spasms announcing its “discomfort.” Europe crystallizes all passions, and each stage of its evolution reveals the misunderstanding, mistrust, or psychosis it provokes due to its sometimes opaque methods. The massive rejection in 2005 of the “Bolkestein directive” is a typical example of this syndrome. The European Union needs a new impetus despite the plethora of associations that have been working for its success for years.
While many French people discover and fear Globalization, synonymous in their eyes with a decrease in their standard of living, most political and economic leaders in France are adapting to it with their networks, think tanks, or clubs they belong to. If globalization – a process that extends market economy principles globally – disrupts our bearings, it broadens our horizon and prompts us to rethink society differently.
The multiplication of think tanks gives an idea of the number of people pondering geopolitical questions, whether on a local, departmental, national, European, or global scale. Our political, economic, and social challenges require politicians to master increasingly complex and subtle concepts that cannot be reduced to mere advertising slogans.
Perhaps this book – a synthesis of the thoughts and visions of politicians, writers, journalists, intellectuals, from all political parties combined – will inspire the reader to actively participate in the upcoming world and find their place in it.
This “LOOK at France, Europe, Globalization, the Planet and its Environment, Political Dialogue, Dialogue in the Mediterranean” highlights the complexity of the present situation and provides reference points to help the reader adapt to the changes occurring in political, economic, and social domains.
Those who persist in understanding events through the manichean prism of the bipolarization of political life can only be disoriented by the upheavals we are witnessing in all sectors.
Traditional political parties offer the numerous think tanks, clubs, associations, or foundations that encompass the territory in almost every country a space for freedom that reveals the influence they benefit from.
The difficult birth in 2008 of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), one of the flagship projects of Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term, opens new perspectives in Europe and the Mediterranean countries where Political and Cultural Dialogue will play a central role. Indeed, the information available to the President of the French Republic leads him to think that in “Mediterranean, the world will play the worst of wars or the best of peace.”
Political Dialogue thus appears as the only reasonable path capable of resolving future conflicts. And the way it begins to be deployed in various forms, is it not proof of its effectiveness?
The European Union did not launch by chance, on January 8, 2008, from Slovenia, the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.”
Its objective is to contribute to reinforcing the identity of European citizenship through an expanded DIALOGUE between the multiple cultures that compose it. Or more precisely, its wish is to reveal the advantages of its cultural diversity by making the European Union an “intercultural society that goes beyond mere tolerance towards others.”
The Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) pursue the same purpose and complement each other.
