World undergoing big transformation

Furkan Çako - Minister of Foreign Investments, Macedonia

The post-cold war world in which we live is seeking for a new order that will be based on equality, peace, justice and prosperity. As leaders of various nations and communities, we have to present a new vision for the world and fight against the sense of hopelessness and mistrust which we see spreading across the globe. 
In a world which is becoming increasingly multi-polar, every actor, small and big, has a role!

Republic of Macedonia, for its share, will continue to be a force for good in its region and continue to make positive contributions to the establishment of a better international system. In this regard, allow me to share my views especially on globalization and how we perceive it in the Balkans, particularly in Macedonia. 
As the Minister for Foreign Investments at the Government of Republic of Macedonia, as well as one the representatives of the new generation politicians, I will attempt to draw upon the positive potentials and negative drawbacks that globalization brings to our world order. 

In doing so, I will explicitly note that my inspirational emphasis lays in the Sultan Mehmet the conquerors spirit that provided the needed support to securing Franciscan monastery in Fojnica, todays Bosnia and Herzegovina, during his reign. It is this spirit that I salute, whilst calling for a constructive dialogue in the globalizing world order. 

As a politician of the modern world, I must note that Mehmet the Conquerors understanding of dialogue and tolerance is still our biggest inspirational factor, when we push for constructive approach to political challenges. 

It is this emphasis which we treat as the role-model for our understanding of the plead towards intercultural dialogue, and that is what we see in the streets of Skopje or the other cities in the Balkans when we think about how to deal with intercultural and multiethnic challenges.
We have been told and told that globalization is the main force in todays’ world order. Be it from the financial integration, politics or even social interaction, all aspects of life is pretty much viewed from the perspective of globalization. 

Unsurprisingly, we see the success of social media enterprises due to their global reach, increase in the number of asylum applications demonstrating the will of people to move on living in different places, or threats to security defined in themes such as global war on terror.  

My understanding of the term globalization on the other hand, is no different than Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as stated in the 2nd Act that “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Be it through my political practice, or intellectual ability, I always try to link the cognitive reality into the rational behavior of people. Examples such as Boko Haram, ISIL or even the rise of Islamophobia in advanced economies push us to have negative/pessimistic thinking about globalization itself. Yet, nobody would deny the fact that witnessing wars is not a new thing in human history, because wars have always been part of the human evolution throughout any dilemma that humanity has ever come across.