Any resemblance to Chirac's views is entirely coincidental
What do politicians, think-tankers and anti-globalisation campaigners do when they want to stop what they see as a unilateralist, power-drunk US from leading the world into dangerous conflicts and economic expansionism? For the French, the answer is to hold a conference in that one part of the United Nations that resides on French territory - Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) - and gather a highbrow anti-war camp from around the world.
US unilateralism and globalisation 'managed in a non-democratic fashion ... threatens national democracies', said Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former UN secretary-general, speaking at a January 17-19 international forum titled 'The Shock Of Civilisations Will Not Take Place'. He told the Paris gathering that the only nod the US gave to other powers, such as China and Russia, was to appease them with economic or military aid. Mr Boutros-Ghali was addressing hundreds of politicians, diplomats, intellectuals and citizens at one of the forum's key sessions, provocatively entitled: 'The United States: Common Enemy Or Shared Ally?'
The forum, widely publicised in Paris, was organised by the Euro-Mediterranean Science, Development and Peace Association, an independent group of mainly French socialists whose agenda fits that of the country's centre-right President Jacques Chirac, who has called for dialogue rather than war to resolve conflicts.
The US was the predominant concern of conference delegates. Panellists discussed the ramifications of globalisation, which the forum noted 'bears the stamp of especially American influence'; whether the rift between Islam and the west was irreparable; and whether the US was now colonising the Arab world.
Paradoxically, the forum underscored the diplomatic fissures that have grown since September 11, 2001, and the war on Iraq, including the growing rift between Washington and Paris and the formidable task of talking through global problems before conflict takes place.
Although apparently it was not meant to look like it - not officially - one could be forgiven for thinking this was a French government or Unesco initiative.