Many lives were shattered on Sept. 11, 2001. Many more have been torn apart since then in Afghanistan, Palestine and Israel. In fact, almost the entire "crescent of crisis" is simmering, a region that spreads from sub-Saharan Africa eastward through the Middle East and on to Central Asia and India. Home to 70 per cent of our planet's oil and 40 per cent of its natural gas, it has more than its share of tensions.

What is at stake now, however, is not just the question of Iraq and Palestine, but the very nature of the global system, the role of seemingly absolute power within that system and the inherent moral dimension that underlies it.

"Politics is about the balance of power," wrote Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, in The Dignity of Difference, "But what of those who have no power? . . . If we ignore them, history suggests that they will return in the form of anger, resentment and a burning sense of injustice." If the scales of justice are not equitably weighted, if the world's course is not charted according to a human code of conduct built on universal human values and not just material interests, we will remain floundering in a dangerous world.

International political scientist Francis Fukuyama has cautioned: "An enormous gulf has opened up in American and European perceptions about the world, and the sense of shared values is frayed." In that case, if the values of America and some of its closest allies are no longer so intimately shared, then any unstudied move by Washington away from the defence doctrine of deterrence to one of active pre-emption would seem ill-advised.

Military dominance by any one nation will fuel world disorder and the politics of chaos. These, in turn, will tempt the growth of terrorism within a culture of hate and fear, rather than foster any kind of global rapprochement.

Surely it is preferable for democratic legitimacy to flow from the will of an international community, something that is much larger than any individual nation-state.

President George W. Bush's speech at the United Nations General Assembly last month should be acknowledged as a sort of restrained determination, a step away from the threat of unilateral militarism. I congratulate the President for recognizing something that I myself have repeated like a mantra in almost every public engagement over the past decade or so, that "our commitment to human dignity is challenged by persistent poverty and raging disease."

But in recognizing this in public, and in front of representatives of nations where poverty and disease prevent them from focusing on matters of international security, the government of the United States should honour that commitment to human dignity by dignifying humanity through mutual consultation and enterprise. The United States must see itself as part of a wider world, rather than see the world as part of it.

Mr. Bush referred to the menace of "outlaw groups and regimes that accept no law of morality and have no limit to their violent ambitions," but we must not find a mirror image of such lawlessness in the actions of responsible states that uphold the great legacies of civilizations past and present. We must not allow ourselves to degenerate to the level of automatons waving this flag or that flag merely for the sake of it or, indeed, to the levels of the animals that wrought such death and destruction on Sept. 11, and who promoted hatred and suspicion of the very faith to which they claimed to adhere. There must to be a response to evil but that response must come from within a matrix that pays due regard to the imperative of consultation, a considered and human response that does not tolerate potential human victims as mere collateral damage.

The settlement of the Iraqi issue through dialogue, instead of the threat of force, an end to the suffering of the people of Iraq, and respect for Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity are of paramount importance. Efforts should be centred on trying to bring Iraq back into the international community.

We in the Arab world do not view our problems as entirely "homemade"; nor do we think it is our tensions that have been "exported to the rest of the world." The culture of violence is not made in Arabia -- the ambition and interests of others have been at play in this region for far too long and have left their mark.

It is more imperative than ever before that disputes should be peacefully resolved. In a post-Cold War, unipolar world, militant unilateralism and the accompanying race of arms is a dance of death, depleting resources available for economic and social development that could direct humanity to the safe harbour of "soft security"; that is, human dignity, and the fulfilment of human needs. Is it inconceivable that this historical part of the world could become the focus of a renewed and reinvigorated dialogue of civilizations once again?

As president of the Club of Rome, I am convinced that it is important to remain creative, innovative and persistent in our search for solutions to the looming problems confronting mankind. For example, one of our greatest challenges is poverty alleviation. Poverty now is not just about hunger and low income; it is also about the lack of information, training and expertise and, above all, opportunity and a say in one's own future. There have been examples of projects for sustainable development and poverty alleviation all over the world. If the energies placed behind military solutions today were put into solutions for poverty alleviation tomorrow, we would all be far better off.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a major contributing factor to global instability. The manner in which the Middle East region as a whole could be allowed to achieve peace will be crucial to the welfare of mankind. The pursuits of peace are noble, but the means to achieve them must be based on principles that uphold, rather than undermine, international rules and practices for conflict resolution and good governance.
Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan is moderator of the World Conference for Religions and Peace; patron and president of the Arab Thought Forum and president of the Club of Rome. He will be addressing the Pluralism, Religion & Public Policy Conference at McGill University this afternoon in Montreal.