This volume contains eleven essays dealing with the question of how to face the current challenges of globalization.

• The essays included in this volume were originally presented at the Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland, on the occasion of the Sixth World Congress of the International Society for Universal Dialogue (ISUD)
• Presents Keynote addresses or prize-winning papers from the Congress
• Central theme explores the need to rethink our concepts of nature, culture, and freedom in an age of increased globalization
• Topics examined range from global justice, international law, and human rights to ecoterrorism, cultural relativism, and the challenges of autonomy
• Introduced by Steven V. Hicks, past President of the ISUD, who discusses the issues of cultural conflict and crisis in the aftermath of Nietzsche's philosophy

Steven V. Hicks is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Queens College of the City University of New York. He is the author of numerous articles on Hegel, Nietzsche, and 19th-century German philosophy and literature. His books include International Law and the Possibility of a Just World Order (1999), Mythos and Logos: How to Regain the Love of Wisdom (2004), and Reading Nietzsche at the Margins (forthcoming 2007). He has served on the board of editorial consultants for the History of Philosophy Quarterly (2001–2004), and he is currently the editor of the special book series Universal Justice of Editions Rodopi. From 2003–2005 he served as president of the ISUD. An earlier version of this essay was presented as the Presidential Address at the inaugural session of the ISUD Sixth World Congress, University of Helsinki, Finland, July 15, 2005.