An Ambitious Greek Diplomatic Initiative that was swallowed up by “geopolitical” Scylla and Charybdis: My article on “The Forum of Ancient Civilisations as ‘soft power’ of progress against the deadlocks of the elites” from April 2017!

What made me remember this now, prompted by the online clash between Chinese and Turkish X accounts over issues of history and culture? An Ambitious Greek Diplomatic Initiative that was swallowed up by “geopolitical” Scylla and Charybdis: My article on “The Forum of Ancient Civilisations as ‘soft power’ of progress against the deadlocks of the elites” from April 2017! Below follows [for historical reasons] the text of the article verbatim as it was then: The Forum of Ancient Civilizations as “Soft Power” of Progress Against the Deadlocks of the Elites [which remain the same] GC10 Organisation, Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Forum of Ancient Civilizations

The international system, as it has taken shape since 1945, rests on international organisations that prioritise the economy and (military) security. The IMF and NATO constitute the two cornerstone (fundamental) pillars upon which the (then) new (post-war) global system was built. Today, the global system is in a crisis that tends to evolve into a deadlock. The intensity of global competition is increasing, with the unprecedented challenge to Western primacy in the (real) economy and trade (especially by China), but also with the crystallisation of the new ethnocentric Russian model that claims a role and a voice in the global system—a role and voice that does not appear to be accepted by the primary (United States) and secondary (regional) Western systems. The above generate and compose an unprecedented and dangerous crisis with global dimensions. The proposal to create the Forum of Ancient Civilisations, although novel in relation to the post-war structured international system, incorporates almost the entirety of the cultural “know-how” that has been developed over the centuries of human history. The idea of the Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Kotzias, for the establishment of GC10 includes the states with the ten most ancient civilisations in the world: China, India, Iraq, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Bolivia, Iran. On 23 and 24 April in Athens, representatives of ten modern countries will meet, which nevertheless represent ten great civilisations that humanity has known: the Greek, the Egyptian, the Roman, the Persian, the Chinese, the Maya, the Inca, the Aztec, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley. This initiative is part of the broader objectives of creating a “positive agenda” of cooperation in international relations—especially by harnessing Greece’s capacity to project “soft power” through its great cultural heritage—as well as of elaborating and highlighting the country’s multidimensional role. It is worth noting that the participating countries, in addition to the cultural heritage they contribute, also account for approximately 40% of the planet’s population. The Forum of Ancient Civilisations adds to the international system an institution of “soft power”, based on the culture that humanity has produced and, indeed, its highest expressions. This is why the Forum’s logo is a constellation with a line connecting the stars of the ten civilisations against the background of the globe. The Greek multidimensional foreign policy promoted over the last two years by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias finds its culmination in this specific initiative, but at the same time constitutes a continuation of a series of previous initiatives: indicative examples include the Conference on Religious Pluralism in the Middle East in Athens, the Rhodes Conference on Security and Stability, the quadrilateral on cross-border cooperation in Thessaloniki, the summit of the (European) South, the trilateral meetings in the Eastern Mediterranean, and others. Today’s deadlock, the unprecedented intensity of rivalries and revisionisms, as well as the concentration and management of formidable capabilities by the main competitors, highlight the need to utilise the entirety of humanity’s cultural production, from which we may perhaps be able to select mutually acceptable solutions. The international system today needs “something else” beyond the purely economic (economistic) dimension and military security in order to emerge from the crisis. GC10 comes to offer a major service and to restore the disturbed balance caused by the deficient institutional one-sidedness of the post-war international system. The one-sidedness of economism and of security based on total military imposition tends to destroy the Οικουμένη and humanity’s presence on the planet. To overcome this crisis, we must dig deep into anything that may prove useful to us. We must create a positive agenda that will define the present problem in different terms—terms that will express a mutually acceptable political transcendence which will simultaneously also be a mutually acceptable cultural proposal. It is everyone’s wish that the participants make use of the enormous potential of the Forum for the benefit of humanity, by projecting the achievements of human civilisation in contrast to the present situation, in which the concepts of financial “expansion” and of military technology capable of destroying the planet many times over are prioritised and monopolise the agenda. The Forum of Ancient Civilisations (or, as it has already become established, GC10) is being established here in Athens in order to endure.» That’s what I thought, [back then, at 2017] the “romantic”… That it would endure, because it served the country’s and the Worlds interests, giving it a privileged forum-platform for its foreign policy.