In the labyrinth of international community: The Alliance of Civilizations programme at the United Nations

The conceptualization of international community presents important challenges for the study of international relations. This article suggests that it is best considered as an attempt to build a universalistic framework through transnational practices that however remains challenged by particularistic dynamics, even though it is supposed to be common to all international actors. The article addresses both the complexity and the normative implications of community-building at the international level through the example of the Alliance of Civilizations, a programme of the United Nations which aims to promote intercultural understanding and thus to counter tendencies towards a 'clash of civilizations'. Among similar attempts, the late-1990s and early-2000s Dialogue among Civilizations appears both as a blueprint and as a measure of difference of outlook and development. The universalistic outlook of such efforts is challenged by the essential place of states, the singling out of tensions between the 'West' and the 'Muslim world' which points to exclusionary tendencies, and the reliance on security references to favour stakeholdership by international actors in the community-building attempt.