American scholar calls on countries to find common values to solve tensions, overcome global crisis at Nishan Forum

By Global Times | Sep 29, 2023

Photo by VCG

Scholars worldwide have gathered at the Nishan Forum held in East China’s Shandong Province to explore the common values of humanity across various civilizations and among them. Jeffrey Sachs, an American scholar, who attended the forum, called on countries to find the common values to solve tensions, overcome the world’s crises, and find peace and harmony among countries around the world. 

The Ninth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations, which is themed "Common values of all humanity and a global community of shared future: Strengthening cultural exchange and mutual learning to jointly address global challenges”, kicked off on Wednesday in Qufu of Shandong, the hometown of China's great ancient thinker Confucius.

Sachs, a professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, also shared his views on the importance of seeking common values for the time. “We can have common values in the world. This is a matter of potentiality, but we do not currently have common values in the world. We have great divisions, tremendous distrust, unprecedented tensions, and very great dangers in the world,” said Sachs.

Among the reasons that Sachs concluded for the extreme tension throughout the world, he mentioned the world is changing as the north Atlantic-led world has come to an end due to China’s wonderful economic development and the progress in many other regions of the world. We have arrived at a multipolar world but we do not have a shared understanding or common values.

Our times are extraordinarily complicated, and we are not in a harmonious period. We are in a period of tremendous stress. I put a lot of responsibility for that stress on my own country, on the United States, which still has a mentality as we heard of hegemony or global preeminence or dominance in a world, in which that is neither feasible nor desirable, said Sachs.

Sachs noted that scholars worldwide came to the Nishan Forum to forge a better understanding of the world and truly workable common values and he suggested to learn from the ancient wisdom, including ancient philosophers Confucius, Aristotle and Buddha as they shared common values.

“Let us take our stand here in this assembly of nations. And let us see if we in our time can move the world to a just and lasting peace. This is what the Nisha Forum is making possible,” said Sachs.

The Nishan Forum on World Civilizations was first launched in 2010. It has been held eight times so far and is considered a platform for cultural exchange.

Read this article at globaltimes.cn and peoplesdaily.pdnews.cn.

Watch Prof. Sachs’ keynote here.