Zaman, Turkey
June 15 2004
EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU
[COMMENTARY]
OIC to be Determining Force in New World Order
As evidenced by the agenda topics of the 31st Islamic Countries
Foreign Ministers Conference in Istanbul, the 35-year old
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) looks at the main issues
concerning world societies across a wide spectrum.
Today, the OIC is developing to harmonize with the ever-changing
conditions of the world. When this organization’s experiences to date
are taken into consideration, some unique qualities that distinguish
it from other international institutions have emerged. Undoubtedly,
these characteristics will play a role in operations today and in the
future.
One of the greatest innovations of the 21st century in the arena of
international affairs is the establishment of international
organizations with missions of cooperation and their gradual
acceptance of important roles. In addition to the United Nations,
small scale regional integrations have been established among
countries that are dealing with common problems or have similar or
close standing in terms of geographical position as well as political
problems and development paths.
One of the reasons for this is that an imbalance in the interests and
trade among countries that are playing an effective role in world
politics and an imbalance between industrialized and developing
countries has become more apparent. As such, the idea of cooperation
among developing countries is increasingly gaining importance.
Therefore, regional groups or institutions formed by countries that
can unite around geographical proximity, complementary economies and
other qualities have turned out to be indispensable elements of
foreign relations for these countries.
Even though the OIC, established in 1969, is not very different from
other international and regional institutions and the United Nations
system in terms of structure, it has some unique qualities in terms
of basics, purpose and design. The term ‘Islamic countries’ in
general is used for countries with a Muslim majority population and,
in some other cases, for countries that describe the identity of
their people as Muslim. Islamic countries spread throughout Africa,
the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and South
America. Today’s Islamic world consists of countries that are making
efforts toward development. Islamic countries that have secured
independence have become members of the United Nations and other
international organizations and, at the same time, have formed
regional institutions such as the Arab League and the Africa Union
later. In addition, some of them have taken place in the Cold War
block and some in the Non-Aligned countries movement. In 1969, the
OIC was established to incorporate different regions of Islamic
geography with nearly 25 countries mostly populated with Muslims,
including Turkey. The bonding element in its establishment is that
member countries have a common religion and similar cultures. Its
first reason being formed on the other side, is the solution of
common problems, primarily the Jerusalem and Palestinian issue, in
solidarity.
Along with being the only international organization gathered around
the notion of a common culture and civilization, another unique
characteristic of the OIC is that the goals of the organization over
the past 35 years have varied a great deal and expanded considerably
to include all the issues emerging in the world and of interest to
member countries on the organization’s agenda. At the same time, its
membership has increased continuously to 57 as of 2004. One of the
important factors that play a role in this is that Muslim populated
countries are declaring their independence with the collapse of the
Soviet Union and other socialist states. The expansions of the
Soviets in the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Balkans and Southeastern
Europe have led to new participants in the organization either as
members or observers. Many sub-organizations, research centers,
commissions and other institutions affiliated with the OIC have been
formed due to the expansion of activity areas.
Another characteristic of the Organization is that, close up, many
Islamic countries amongst themselves and also with many Western and
Eastern countries, have developed activities around relations,
culture, research, and information for the first time through the
mediation of this organization. It has been observed that some
countries that barely had relations among themselves and some
educational, cultural and civil society organizations started
relations for the first time. In addition, scientific congresses
organized by the Islamic Research Center for History, Art and Culture
(IRCICA), established in 1980 in Istanbul, has been especially active
in the Balkans, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, some South and
Southeast Asia countries, Caucasus, Central and North Asia and the
Russian Federation. Research and publication are among the first
activities of the OIC in these countries. As for the other quality of
the Organization, it should be stated that through the work of the
IRCICA, the OIC is the only international organization that has
included art and art channels in international relations.
If it is required to evaluate the results and content of the work of
the OIC and its existence at the point it has reached today, it could
be said that the Organization has the task of establishing a common
ground for member countries to express joint determinations and
attitudes in the presence of other international organizations and to
provide a platform from which they can speak on national issues and
seek support. Initiatives to achieve membership of Bosnia-Herzegovina
in the United Nations could be given as an example on this subject.
General issues related to all members such as disarmament and
security cooperation as well as the conflicts in different regions
including Palestine, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sudan, and
Armenia-Azerbaijan are discussed by the Organization. Among the
vastly varying economic development subjects, projects with the
purpose of assisting Islamic countries that are among the less
developed countries are especially conducted. On the other side,
again through the activities of the IRCICA, the Organization follows
cultural developments in the world and studies Islamic culture and
civilization and its introduction to the world, corrects stereotypes
about Islam and Islamic countries, and increases solidarity and
cultural cooperation with minorities and all Muslim communities
around the world.
When one considers the development of this Organization as an
umbrella for Islamic countries and outline so far, one may wonder
whether or not the OIC has succeeded in reaching its targets. When
the diversity among Islamic countries in respect to one another in
terms of political system, level of economic development, national
culture policies and many others as well as both domestic and foreign
politics issues, is taken into consideration, despite all these
problems, positive results have been achieved despite all these
obstacles and collaboration has been reached. This indicates that the
Organization has formed a successful joint platform even though it
has not been echoed much. The Organization has also provided many
important benefits from the perspective of voicing individual
countries’ issues from international platforms and developing
bilateral and multilateral relations.
It should be noted, however, that the conditions in the world when
the OIC was formed and the conditions today are greatly different.
With the collapse of the socialist systems, the bi-polar world has
disappeared. In the globalization determining the new world order,
the significance of country blocks and international organizations is
increasing.
Apparently, countries and groups of countries will be represented by
international organizations gradually and international forums will
express themselves through these organizations. If the OIC gains a
new dynamic to adapt to new world conditions, adopts new concepts and
principles and benefits with the support of member countries as an
international institution representing Islamic countries, it could
undertake more active roles in the upcoming term and help Islamic
countries have louder voices in world politics, and economic and
cultural relations.
This commentary was written exclusively for Zaman by Prof. Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu, the IRCICA Director General in Istanbul and OIC Secretary
General Candidate.