Russian Philosophy on the Problem of War and Peace and Intercultural Dialogue

Abstract

This article analyzes the contribution of Russian philosophy to the humanistic tradition of promoting dialogical relations and peace. It highlights the peaceful significance of Leo Tolstoy’s ethics of nonviolence, Vladimir Solovyov’s concept of omniunity, and Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical philosophy. Dialogue is conceived not only as communication but also as a metaphysics of personality and meaning and as dialogical relationships at the intersubjective, social, and intercultural levels. These ideas were developed in contemporary intercultural philosophy both in Russia and Latin America. The article also analyzes the obstacles to dialogical and peaceful relations, aggravated by hegemonic geopolitics. The rise of global consciousness and anti-war movements led to the end of the Cold War in 1990 and created opportunities for a positive transformation of societies and the international system. But these opportunities were torpedoed by the neoconservative “revolution” and the U.S. policy of global hegemony in a unipolar world, triggering a new Cold War and the arms race, which threaten the future of humanity. This policy resulted in NATO’s hybrid proxy war in Ukraine, which sought to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. But countries that do not want to be dominated are striving for an alternative, multipolar world of independent sovereign states, based on relations of dialogue between equals and collaboration to solve social and global problems and peace. This alternative takes shape in BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and other associations, based on sovereign equality, a balance of interests, and consensus. The article thus highlights the role of intercultural philosophy in promoting cultural diversity and dialogical relations and in developing a vision of a free, just, and peaceful world order in the future.