Resisting Despair in Confrontational Times

ABOUT THE BOOK This is a book of dialogue in two voices. It is the result of a vibrant and vigorous exchange between two public intellectuals friends for many years from two different political professional and cultural backgrounds. Though we did the conversations in English our common world of culture and values is human culture. This reminds us of what Thomas Mann said not long after he arrived in New York from Nazi Germany: “Wo ich bin ist deutsche Kultur” (“Where I am is German culture”). The point remains that a person’s culture is an unfinished business as we constantly learn what it means to be human. As such every dialogue becomes also a dialogue with the human race and its historical destiny. From this viewpoint it embraces the legacy of cosmopolitism in a world that fractures humanity into nations religions and idiosyncrasies. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Ramin Jahanbegloo is a political philosopher. He is presently the Executive Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies and the Vice-Dean of the School of Law at Jindal Global University - Delhi India. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy History and Political Science and later his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Sorbonne University. In 1993 he taught at the Academy of Philosophy in Tehran. He has been a researcher at the French Institute for Iranian Studies and a fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Nicolas TENZER is a French senior civil servant and teaches at Sciences-Po Paris French National School for Public Administration (ENA) and many universities in America Europe and Asia. He has been head of department in Strategic Planning Office (reporting to the Prime Minister) investigator at the Accounting Court and adviser to the Minister of Economy and Finance. He wrote three official reports for the French government and is guest speaker at many leading international conferences on security and international issues.