Korea Foundation hosts the 5th Korea Foundation Forum on 27th of May at Seoul Plaza hotel. The honorable guest speaker of this month is H.E. Hasan Abu Nimah, the director of Royal Institute of Inter-Faith Studies in the Heshmite Kingdom of Jordan. He will discuss a topic that is of increasing interest in Korea "The Clash of Civilizations: Understanding Between Islam and Other Cultures". Most recently the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations (1995-2000), Mr Abu Nimah began his diplomatic career in 1965, when he was appointed third secretary to the Jordanian embassy in Kuwait. For the next 13 years, he performed a variety of diplomatic roles in Baghdad, Washington, DC and London, interspersed with periods spent as the head of the research department at the foreign ministry in Amman. Promoted to ambassador in 1978, he served as Jordan's Ambassador to the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and to the European Community, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. His association with the United Nations began in1990, when he was named Jordan's permanent representative to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Food Program and the UN Fund for Agricultural Development. During the same period, he also served as Jordan's ambassador to Italy and as the non-resident ambassador to Portugal and to San Marino. From 1993 to 1994, Mr Abu Nimah was a member of the Jordanian delegation to the peace talks between Jordan and Israel, which took place in Washington, DC. The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS), established in 1994 in Amman under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal provides a venue in the Arab world for the interdisciplinary study and rational discussion of religion and religious issues, with particular reference to Christianity in Arab and Islamic society. More recently, RIIFS has broadened its focus to include all issues pertaining to religious, cultural and civilizational diversity, regionally and globally.