ISTTP

With the completion of the establishment of the TASAM Institute of Islamic Countries, it is planned that activities concerning Islamic Countries will be intensified and the scope of the activities launched in October 2007 at the Congress of Education in Islamic Countries will be widened to include other problems faced by Islamic Countries through intensive analysis and research. In this context, the Think Tanks Forum of Islamic Countries was held in January 28 - 30, 2010 following the Congress of Vocational and Technical Education in Islamic Countries in 2009. One of the decisions unanimously taken during the forum discussions was the establishment of the Islamic States Think Tanks Platform (ISSTP). It is hoped that this platform will contribute to the unification of intellectual activities concerning Islamic countries.
Thanks to conjunctural changes and advances in technology, it is hard to come across a country in today's increasingly global world which is not in contact, directly or indirectly, with another country. In parallel with the global developments, Islamic countries go through momentous political, sociocultural and economical changes.
Islamic countries are facing many problems in the 21st century and their solution lies in, first and foremost, focusing on carrying out wide-ranging reforms such as encouraging tolerance and moderation, modernization, education, science and technology, developing trade, spreading good governance, improving human rights and preserving the family structure prescribed by Islam.
Success of the Islamic countries in these areas of activity depends on common defense of common interests and rights; cooperation and coordination of activities carried out to solve issues confronted by Islamic countries; active participation of Islamic countries in global political, economic and social decision-making mechanisms and increasing economic and commercial cooperation moving towards a union between Islamic countries. At the same time, making progress in preserving Islam's authentic image, cultivating dialogue with the members of other civilizations and religions, taking necessary steps to reach peaceful resolutions to disagreements and conflicts between Islamic countries, improving good governance, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms on national and international levels are very important.
Developments at every level of civilization concern civil society as much as states. In order to overcome the problems we face and offer new insights by looking at the developments from wider and different perspectives and bring forward new multidimensional offers to realize maximum gains, it has become imperative today for scientists and intellectuals, analysis and strategy experts to come together in order to compile and process current information about their countries, regions and the entire world and develop proactive, effective and realistic dialogues.
Especially, with contributions by think tank representatives working in their individual disciplines, monitoring political, sociocultural and economic developments taking place in state and civil society on global and regional scales and gathering existing knowledge and evaluating it together and developing constructive dialogue for today and the future will be possible. Otherwise, it will neither be possible to solve any potential problems nor to effectively interpret new opportunities encountered.
We believe that the Islamic States Think Tanks Platform established towards bringing together distinguished think tanks representatives from Turkey and other Islamic States will make important contributions to building a "Civilization of Peace".
Süleyman ŞENSOY
Chairman, TASAM