Intercultural Dialogue for Peace: A Conversation Between Martin Wight’s Three Traditions and Daisaku Ikeda’s Civilization of Dialogue

This paper explores the advocacy of Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023) for intercultural dialogue as a means of fostering peace. It does so by bringing his thought into dialogue with Martin Wight (1913–1972), an English international relations theorist whose three traditions model explored two forms of dehumanization: a radical solidarist position that dehumanizes by treating all people the same, and an extreme form of pluralism that leads us to a realist position that there is no morality except for a group’s own truth. Wight’s model is especially helpful for drawing out the tensions in Ikeda’s writings between peacebuilding processes centered on solidarism and those centered on pluralism. But, at the same time, this model benefits from a sustained conversation with Ikeda because Wight’s conceptualization of a middle path was highly Eurocentric and too state-centric. Ultimately, Wight’s model gives us a new vocabulary and the context to understand Ikeda’s advocacy, but Ikeda’s approach to intercultural dialogue, deeply rooted in Buddhist humanism and prioritizing citizen diplomacy and education, went farther than Wight in theorizing and practicing how to create a healthy middle ground between the two forms of dehumanization. When viewed together, both scholars also address the broader ambivalence in the literature about why, how and when religion(s) contribute to violence and peace by emphasizing the courage and faith needed to navigate a middle path between extremes.