Former President James R. Mancham has announced that he has accepted the invitation of the recently formed Moscow-based "Intellectual Alliance of Civilizations” to become the Alliance's first international member.

Mr Mancham made this announcement on his arrival in London on Monday July 27 from a seven-day visit to Moscow.

According to Dr Tamara V. Lavrovskaia, co-founder and chairperson of the Alliance, dialogue among civilizations cannot be regarded as a dream.

"It is an absolute necessity and the only way forward for humanity,” she said.

As a matter of fact, the Alliance constitutes a "think tank” organisation working as a non- commercial partnership, recently established in the Russian capital by leading scientists, writers, media personalities, medical experts, as well as cosmonauts.

The honorary president of the Alliance is Mr Chingiz Aitamatov, certainly one of the world's best selling authors, who is the ambassador of the Republic of Kerjistan to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and to Luxembourg.

Professor Sergei Kapitza, who is one of Russia's leading contemporary scientists, is one of the co-founder of the Alliance. Kapitza became a household name in the U.S.S.R. when Sergei's father, Piotr Kapitza, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics during the Soviet era.

Dr Lavrovskaia is a doctor of economics, former professor of Moscow State’s University and senior researcher of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Of joint Russian and Canadian nationality, Dr Lavrovskaia established in 1993 the Canadian International Cultural and Educational foundation in Calgary, Alberta (Canada).

The Alliance has received the full support of the Friendship Radio Network of Russia (FRNIR) which is a 24-hour Moscow-based broadcasting organisation heard daily by an average of 60 million people, mostly in Russia and former Soviet nations.

In a round table discussion on the FRNIR on the question of dialogue, peace and harmony former President Mancham, who is an international ambassador for peace, said he felt very privileged and honoured to have been invited to join this distinguished Alliance as it is his conviction that Russia, on account of its current nuclear capacity, has a most critical role to play in the search for a more peaceful world.

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