"Can Asians think?"

What specifically about human rights campaigns do you have a problem with?

When human rights campaigns are pushed by human rights organizations, they do so objectively and on the basis of the merits of the case. But when human rights campaigns are pushed by national governments, they do so for national interest. This leads to double standards. One of the things I point out is that the West will contest the reversal of democracy in Myanmar, Peru and Nigeria but not in Algeria. These double standards hurt. Take Bosnia. I cannot imagine that if you had Muslim artillery shells falling on Christian populations in Europe that Europe would have been so passive in the 1990s. Which, of course, is an explosive thing to say.

The big change in the last 10 years is that as a result of modern technology, people in living rooms all over the world can see the same event. And I happened to be in Singapore, listening to BBC, just before Srebrenica was about to fall. I told my wife, "How can they allow these people to be massacred when the whole world is watching?"

There were a lot of complicated reasons why the U.S. in particular didn't want to get involved, but obviously there seems to be a general consensus that it was a terrible and obviously tragic mistake.

If we say that we have advanced human civilization to the stage where we can no longer accept any form of genocide, then it is the responsibility of the most powerful country in the world to put in place the international institutions to ensure that this will never happen again. This is the role of the U.N. Security Council. The Security Council should apologize for the fact that it failed to intervene when it has an institutional responsibility to do so.

Do you really think that if the sides were reversed -- and a Muslim leader was acting out Milosevic's role -- that the response would have been different?

I don't know. Responses are always contextual and situational, but in the Islamic world there is certainly a perception that when it comes to the loss of Islamic lives, the world doesn't care as much as it should. That's a very unfortunate perception, and it's important to remove that perception. Although, as you know, to balance that, many of my American friends say that it was the Americans who rescued the Kuwaitis and, eventually, the Bosnians. Nothing is simple.

But it's interesting that the perception is there. You made a statement after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that "Americans have begun to absorb the European paranoia about Islam, perceived as a force of darkness hovering over a virtuous Christian civilization." Have any of your ideas on that issue changed since Sept. 11?

After Sept. 11, I feel that the need for developing cross-cultural understanding has never been greater. There is more than one mental universe out there; it's not just the Western universe. There are many other mental universes out there, and you must reach out and try to understand how they look at the world. That's the only way you can build bridges between minds.

What was the Asian reaction to Sept. 11?

Apart from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, all the societies in Asia condemned it as ferociously as the United States did for the simple reason that none of us want to be victims of terrorists. Any time innocent lives are lost, there's a natural human reaction to that. But at the same time, I think the feeling is that we have to try to figure out the long-term cause of Sept. 11 and what we need to do to prevent this from happening again.

The best source for long-term stability in the world is to provide universal education. Hopefully you convince people that it is not the right thing to do to hijack planes and fly them into buildings.

How do you feel about the war on terrorism, especially now that we have troops training in the Philippines?

Frankly, it's admirable the way the United States has taken on this global leadership role. It's a tough job, and nobody can do it as well as the United States can. And they've done it relatively sensitively.

You write that the West had turned its back on the Third World. Do you think the current war on terrorism will reinvigorate its involvement or just be a military campaign?

It's too early to tell. At least among those who watch and observe global trends, there's a growing awareness that the most basic lesson of Sept. 11 is that we're all in the same boat. If you're 6 billion passengers in the same boat, then it doesn't seem tenable to have 1 billion traveling in first class cabins, in tremendous comfort and affluence, and at least 2 billion living below decks in horrible conditions receiving daily television messages from the first class cabins that say, "I lead a good life, you lead a terrible life." You can't expect that boat to be at peace. I have noticed, at least in terms of dealing with international diplomats and international organization people, that there's a growing awareness that global poverty has to be addressed more seriously. I hope that's one of the positive outcomes of Sept. 11.

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