Building a Culture of Encounter

In an era of deep polarization, within and across countries, we need to find new ways to bridge national, political, ideological, religious, and other divides. GGD seeks to advance what Pope Francis calls a “culture of encounter”—sustained global dialogue that acknowledges deep differences while maintaining a focus on the global common good and how best to realize it.

During the April 2024 launch of the Georgetown Global Dialogues in Washington, DC, several sessions explored the theme of encounters across difference:

Recognizing Deep Divisions

The absence of consensus about ways forward in a divided world is a good thing. As the fate of the so-called “neoliberal consensus” demonstrates, no single paradigm can do justice to the variety of human experience. Still, emergent global challenges from climate change to artificial intelligence do require greater transnational cooperation—and every effort to engage creatively with contrasting perspectives in a spirit of mutual recognition and respect.

Nesrine Malik

"The more we don't exercise these muscles of exposure and familiarity, the harder it is for us to just coexist and try and learn, rather than judge or reject or incorporate even entirely."

Ranjit Hoskote

"How do we yet connect? What does it mean to sit down together and make sense of one another and one another's worlds? I think this translation is not just a skill but a way of being in the world."

Webinar on the Global Histories of Coexistence

Featuring Mohsin Hamid, Ranjit Hoskote, and Ece Temelkuran in conversation with Pankaj Mishra

Embracing Difficult Conversations

Polarization within and across countries has driven us into siloed conversations marked by a high degree of internal uniformity and hostility to external points of view. While we should expect interlocutors to adhere to basic values of human dignity, equality, peace, and respect for the environment, we should be willing to endure different understandings of such values and their implications. Only through sometimes difficult encounters will we be able to broaden areas of agreement and better address global challenges in practice.

Verónica Gago

"When feminists debate well-being or social reproduction, we are engaged in a debate about how to live and what do to do with collective resources. Feminist struggles question and challenge the forms of desire we are taught to feel."

Ranjit Hoskote

"The voice of neo-tribalism is stentorian and drowns out all contending voices. Its preferred language is wedded to the vocabulary of domination and the imagery of annihilation. Its performance of strength masks its awareness of the fragility and insubstantiality of the identity it champions."

"Towards a Cosmopolitanism of Repair"

In this GGD Forum essay, Ranjit Hoskote proposes a solidarity of the vulnerable—which, however modest or episodic its manifestations may seem, might provide us with some hope that we can still repair the world.

Elevating Diverse Voices

The most visible debates about the state of the world and how to improve it are anchored in the United States and Europe. More inclusive conversations about global challenges must include voices from the Global South – not just policy and business elites but intellectuals and young people. Through in-person and virtual encounters we have an unprecedented opportunity for a truly global conversation. But we must be intentional in bringing it about.

Mohsin Hamid

"We are reaching a state in a very interconnected humanity where we need to come up with other convincing narratives that allow us to begin to work together as human beings."

Ece Temelkuran

"It sounds naïve, crazy to think of friendship as a political connection. But then citizenship also was a crazy idea, ‘oh let's draw lines and then let's die for these lines.’ Friendship is less of a crazy idea. But how can we scale it up to create an international bond between people?"

Cross-linkages with other GGD goals:

Learning from the Global South: Building a culture of encounter involves listening to and learning from diverse voices within the global majority.
Advancing a Global Vision of Human Equality: Any deepening of the global dialogue around human equality will require bringing in new and often conflicting voices.
Elevating Youth Perspectives on Global Challenges: Recognizing and respecting the diverse views of young people around the world is critical for building a culture of encounter.