In an international climate that dangerously swings between black and white, Catalan International View will move from the North to the South and from the East to the West on the lookout for the shades of grey. We will be looking for the keys that will help us to better understand the planet on which we live. We shall do so from Catalunya, a European nation bordering the Mediterranean, half way between the East and the West: half way between Shanghai and Los Angeles and half way between Kinshasa and Saint Petersburg. Our goal shall be that outlined by the former Secretary General of the UN Kofi Anan when he referred to the necessity to know how to love what we are without hating what we are not.

In the views that are held in the following pages and the editions that to follow you will not, therefore, find articles or information about what is happening in Catalunya. Catalan International View will not be a means to get to know and understand Catalunya. We do, however, offer an international analysis from a Catalan perspective and sensibility. It represents our own characteristic, determined concerns which, as you will see, are also rich in their diversity.

Interpreting the world is an enormous and exaggerated pretension which is beyond our reach, and indeed beyond the reach of any individual or institution with any degree of knowledge and humility. Our objective is more achievable: to offer a new eyepiece through which to view the global, interconnected world in which we live with a new perspective.

The widespread local and global effects produced by the great political, economic and environmental questions of our day make these three the key axes around which the magazine will revolve.

The readers will not be required to struggle to identify us with one particular doctrine or a specific school of thought. Our intention to look for the shades of grey far from dogmatic truths and fundamentalisms means we seek reason and truth from all sides, so long as they are based on the common concepts of democracy, liberty and respect for human rights.

Finally we would like to say that we will value equally the answers that we may find as much as the questions that may arise from the dialogue found in Catalan International View. To paraphrase the poet Kavafis, we can say that we do not know, nor have the intention to discover, where our Ithaca is to be found, but we begin the journey which starts right now with enthusiasm, hope and determination. Thank you for accompanying us.