IMI: The Civilizational Compact-Introducing the Theory of the Civilizational Compact

Every generation of strategists inherits a map drawn for a world that has passed. The maps of the Cold War divided the globe into camps. The maps of the post-Cold War decade promised a single market and, with it, a single political destination. The twenty-first century has produced something different: several centres of power, several accounts of what a good society is, and a fast-growing web of commercial, technological and cultural ties that no single capital controls. The intellectual task of our time is to find a vocabulary, and then an institutional form, for cooperation among peoples who are different and intend to remain so.

In September 1998, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, addressed the United Nations General Assembly and proposed that the world answer the prospect of civilizational conflict with a deliberate practice of dialogue. The General Assembly adopted the proposal without a vote, and 2001 became the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. Italy and Mexico, the two other states of this book's founding triangle, were among the sponsors of the resolution. That historical connection provides the starting point for this book.

But dialogue, however valuable, raises a further question: how can mutual understanding among civilizations be translated into durable institutions, reciprocal commitments and practical cooperation?

This is the central question addressed in my newly published book, IMI: The Civilizational Compact.

In this work, I introduce the Theory of the Civilizational Compact, an original theoretical framework that proposes a new way of understanding cooperation among states with different civilizational inheritances and complementary economic capabilities.

The central proposition is that civilizational diversity need not remain a source of geopolitical friction. Through reciprocal commitments, institutional arrangements and interconnected networks, it can become an organizing resource for international cooperation.

The book develops this proposition theoretically and translates it into an institutional proposal: IMI, a proposed founding compact among Italy, Mexico and Iran, and IMI+, an open and expandable architecture for wider international participation.

Beyond its cooperative ambitions, IMI+ is envisioned as a potential competitor to established multilateral frameworks and regional groupings, including BRICS, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and ASEAN, offering an alternative model of transregional cooperation based on civilizational complementarity, institutional flexibility and interconnected economic networks.

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