Arun Bala challenges Eurocentric conceptions of history by showing how Chinese, Indian, Arabic, and ancient Egyptian ideas in philosophy, mathematics, cosmology and physics played an indispensable role in making possible the birth of modern science.

This innovative book brings together Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Islamic, indigenous, and secular humanist perspectives on their individual peace agendas, offering concrete policy proposals to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Contributors address major issues, such as the nature of religious conflict, non-violent economies, indigenous rights, the principles of peace pedagogy, and the dynamics of the US-China-Russia diplomacy triangle.

The book comes at a very critical moment in the debate on civilization and responds to the lack of scholarly attention by international relations and political theorists as to how the discourse of dialogue of cultures, religions, and civilizations can contribute to the future of world order.

This book gives voice to outstanding scholars from three major Eastern civilizations-Chinese, Arabic, and Indian-who have entered into dialogue with equally distinguished scholars from the West. The themes of the book include challenges to knowledge in the late modern era; Eastern contributions to scientific knowledge; knowledge transfer across regions and civilizations; indigenous knowledge and modern education; and past and present influences from China.

De Bary constructs a magisterial overview of three thousand years of East Asian civilizations, principally in the form of dialogues among the major systems of thought that have dominated the Asian world's historical development.