Cross Cultural Collaboration: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This paper introduces the next section of this special issue, which examines the politics of cross-cultural collaboration to resist racism and war. In an era defined by a ‘War on Terror’ which has transformed both foreign policy and domestic community relations, social movements need to find more effective ways of bringing activists together to respond to the Islamophobia and aggressive forms of nationalism that have emerged in countries like Australia. However, as the paper shows, collaboration across cultures is a fraught and potentially dangerous process. In outlining some of the challenges of cross-cultural collaboration, the paper aims to contribute to more informed and critical practices within social movements mobilising against the ‘War on Terror’, whether internationally or at home.