The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations: Can multiculturalism be globalized? Tendayi Bloom – Research Fellow – United Nations University, Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM) After nine years in operation, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) is now considered by many to be the foremost United Nations body concerned with 'intercultural dialogue'. While it has been subject to criticism since its inception, it now holds a respected position among international organizations. It is important to analyze the emergence of the UNAOC at a time of changing discourse about 'intercultural dialogue'. International interest in the development of global intercultural processes has developed particularly since the 1990s and changed course in the early 2000s. The UNAOC project was initially driven by Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain, and then also by Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey. The development of the UNAOC can be seen as stemming from an extension of multicultural understandings on a state level, framed within a context of perceived crisis or threat. To see this, it is useful to examine key documents of the UNAOC, its collaborations and its contributions to debate. This raises three types of concern: the first refers to existing critiques of state-level multiculturalism; the second relates to the differences between state-level and global processes; and the third relates to the use of the terminology of a civilizational alliance. This leads to the question of what the UNAOC project can teach about the possibility of globalizing multiculturalism. Developed in the United Nations Security Council: Interculturalism and how the practice of “Intercultural Dialogue” Valeria Bello – Research Fellow – United Nations University, Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM) In recent years, both academic debates and official meetings of the United Nations Security Council have started to address issues of interculturalism and the related concept of “Intercultural Dialogue”. Different approaches to intercultural research can lead to the development of different attitudes towards “others” or outsider cultures. Similarly, intercultural practices can take place at different political levels and, as a result, different interpretations can emerge, both in terms of the use of facts and in the pursuits of political intentions. These will depend on particular cultural backgrounds. Consequently, it is key to raise consciousness among policy-makers about the sensitive nature of discourses surrounding this topic and to examine the literature on intercultural studies in the interdisciplinary area of Intercultural Relations. In particular, the scientific debates concerning the topic of intercultural relations between different groups within a society, as well as the debates concerning intercultural issues between states in the field of International Relations are key to understand processes of “Intercultural Dialogue”. Despite differences in levels of analysis, the two sets of debates focus on negotiations about the structure of power relations among different collectives, including communities of people and communities of states. Initiatives such as the one of “Intercultural Dialogue” are crucial to contribute to the development of positive intercultural relations between different UN Member States. The analysis of the literatures intends to provide a scientific and informed foundation in order to discuss the case and the practice of “Intercultural Dialogue”, as it developed within the Security Council of the United Nations. It also aims to formulate suggestions for avoiding critical mistakes that can arise in the dynamics of intercultural relations.