PREAMBLE
History of MILLENIUM CLUB
In 1997, President Seyed Mohammad Khatami of the Islamic Republic of Iran advanced the doctrine of the Dialogue of Civilizations. Scholars around the world regarded it as a powerful antithesis to the theory of the Clash of Civilizations formulated by American political scientist Samuel Huntington in 1993.
The term itself was used by the Austrian philosopher Hans Koechler. In 1972 he proposed that UNESCO hold an international conference on dialogue between different civilizations, and in 1974 he organized the first international conference on the role of intercultural dialogue.
In 1996, Sergey Shurygin and Olga Zhorova (Afanasyeva) created the symbol of the third millennium: the Flame of the Millennium. In 2000, representatives of 18 countries signed the Memorandum on the Preservation of Human Civilization in Antarctica, where the symbol was lit at the Earth's zero point.
Later that year, the International Business Club Millennium was founded in New York on the initiative of Russia. Today the club works across several countries and develops as a platform for cooperation, initiatives and practical dialogue.
