ABSTRACT
In November 1998, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 53/22 naming the year 2001 as The UN Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. The United States government was unwilling even to give the appearance of international cooperation by engaging the international community in any formal or informal dialogue. The dialogue thesis which emerged in the latter half of the 1990s was seen as a direct rejection of the theory of clash, and a challenge to the end of history thesis. Many contributions to and advocates of the dialogue thesis have been particularly interested in its cultural, religious, and civilizational aspects. Former US President Jimmy Carter has long promoted dialogue among religious communities and leaders for peacemaking. Given that the dialogue thesis assumes many ideals of Habermasian deliberation it may be useful to first consider some critiques of deliberation, and to examine, those critiques, the dialogue thesis as a political framework.
