“The Clash of Civilizations”2006 TO TODAY

@LIKH@N

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The Hypothesis(1) World politics is entering a new phase in the wake of the end of

the Cold War

(2) The “fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic.

(3) The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be Religious Cultural identities ”.

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Conflict in Modern History

Conflict in the modern era, for Huntington, has been largely a sequence of;

(a) conflicts between princes (what we will study as the “Westphalia system”), then

(b) conflicts between nation-states (after the French revolution), then

(c) conflicts between ideologies (during the Cold War)

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Underlying Assumptions

Huntington is reproducing what we might call a ‘neo-Hegelian’ view of

history (history as unfolding through conflict)

Assumes that the end of the Cold War is a defining moment in history,

“a tipping point”

Assumes that civilizations are fairly fixed over time

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The Contemporary Era For Huntington, this means that international politics, hitherto, was in a western phase; non-western civilizations were the objects of history, the targets of western colonialism.

In the post-Cold War, they “join the West as the movers and shapers of history”.

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Civilizations and History In this view, contemporary civilizations represent the product of a long process of ‘identity formation’

Identity Crisis/will produce inevitable conflict between different civilizations

Read in this fashion, the “clash of civilizations” represents the closing of a parenthesis in world history.

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What is a Civilization?Three attributes: objective, subjective, and dynamic.

(1) Objective elements include language, history, religion, customs, institutions

(2) Subjective elements include variable levels of self-identification

(3) Civilizations are dynamic; they rise and fall, divide and merge

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What is a civilization? Largest entity with which person can identify short of humanity

Defined by common ancestry, values, language, and/or religion

Major civilizations◦ Sinic/Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Western, Slavic-Orthodox, Islam◦ Latin America and Africa candidates for civilization

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Civilizations, based on Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations".Western Hispanidad/Latin American Japanese Sinic Hindu Islamic Orthodox African Buddhist

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Why will civilizations clash?

(1) Differences between civilizations are more fundamental and enduring than ideological or political differences.

(2) Interactions between civilizations are increasing.(3) Economic modernization and social change are

separating people from longstanding identities; they weaken the nation-state as a source of identity.

(4) The rest of the world is increasingly willing to define itself in non-Western ways.

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(continued)(5) Cultural characteristics are less alterable and less easily

compromised than political and economic ones.

(6) Economic regionalism is increasing, which will increase “civilization consciousness”.

(7) Common culture, Huntington argues, may be a prerequisite for economic integration.

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The Two Levels of the Clash

At the micro level, groups clash along the “fault lines” of adjacent civilizations

At the macro level, states from different civilizations compete for political and economic power.

Conflict manifests itself in two forms: fault line conflicts and core state conflicts.

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Core state and fault line conflicts

Fault line conflicts are on a local level and occur between adjacent states belonging to different civilizations or within states that are home to populations from different civilizations.

Core state conflicts are on a global level between the major states of different civilizations. Core state conflicts can arise out of fault line conflicts when core states become involved.

These conflicts may result from a number of causes, such as: ◦ relative influence or power (military or economic), discrimination against

people from a different civilization,◦ intervention to protect kinsmen in a different civilization, or different

values and culture, particularly when one civilization attempts to impose its values on people of a different civilization.

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The “kin-country syndrome”

Groups or states becoming involved in a war with groups or states from another civilization will attempt to rally other groups or states from their own civilization behind their cause.

Examples may be, the Gulf War, the former Soviet Union in the Caucasus, and Yugoslavia.

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The West versus the Rest?

Talk of “the world community” and the “free world” is, according to Huntington, a thin veneer for the domination of global affairs by western interests.

The West sees its values as universalist (meaning that they are applicable to everyone, irrespective of civilization).

International institutions based on these values are merely tools for maintaining and promoting western values and domination.

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Torn countries?Some countries are torn over which civilization their country belongs to

(Russia, Mexico, Turkey). They can redefine their identity on three conditions;

(1) A supportive elite

(2) Acquiescent masses

(3) Willingness from the dominant civilization

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The Biggest Challenge to the West?

The biggest challenge to the West will come from an emerging Confucian-Islamic connection, primarily concentrated around the asserted right to develop and deploy NBC weapons (counter to the western value of non-proliferation).

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ImplicationsNation-states may not disappear, singular

civilizations will not become the norm. But;(1) Civilization-consciousness is increasing and will

become the dominant source of conflict(2) The west will need to strengthen its own

civilization to meet the challenge(3) The West will need to better understand other

civilizations and seek to define areas of potential co-existence

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Huntington’s Argument Traditional sources of state conflict moving back

◦ Territory, economic benefits, ideology

Politics of identity replacing politics of interest

Main competing groups no longer states, classes or ideologies but

civilizations

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Responces

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Relations among Civilizations Changing

No longer defined by Western influence on other civilizations

West declining◦ economic slowdown, population decline, internal decay, loss of identity

Sinic and Islamic civilizations mounting◦ Economic success of Asia◦ Demographic explosion in Islamic world

Balance of power shifting

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Why Civilizations Will Clash

Difference real and basic World smaller due to globalization Nation-state as source of identity weaker Fundamentalist religion stronger Backlash against West enhances civilization consciousness

Economic regionalism growing Western policies make worse the relations

◦ Non-proliferation, human rights, immigration, others

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It will not happen Civilization identities not only identities Nation states will not disappear Civilizations not coherent or conflict-free Differences among civilizations is real Civilization-consciousness growing Civilization conflict will be dominant global form of conflict

Major axis of relations between “West and Rest” No universal civilization possible

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Other Post-Cold War Views One Harmonious World

triumph of liberal democracy, end of major power warfare, interdependence and peace

Two Worlds: Us and Them North-South; rich-poor, Have have not

193 States – The Realist View State system dominates global relations

Sheer Chaos Kaplan’s “Coming Anarchy the world would ever get to Utopia. The new struggles were no longer neatly ideological, but

cultural and historical

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In brief, the clash of civilisations is an inevitable matter. It existed in the past, exists now and will remain until the clash ends shortly before the Hour, since it does not come except upon the worst of creation.

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ReasonsThis struggle between the Western civilisation and Islamic civilisation is manifested in many styles including:

1. Dominance over the media apparatus and directing them for the benefit of the Capitalist civilisation.

2. Dominance over the education syllabi at all its levels in order to spread the Western concepts, distort and fight some of the concepts of Islamic civilisation and forge the history of Muslims.

3. Establishing schools and universities directly supervised byWesterners.4. Setting up parties that adopt Western civilisation and call for it, and which are protected by the West and its moderate progressive friends.

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Cont….5. Sponsoring those whom they call the elite, educated and intellectuals,

focusing light upon them and promoting them, so that they become the

leaders of thought in the countries of the Islamic world.

6. Funding the educational scholarships and courses in their various

types, to choose those suitable to become their intellectual or political

agents, or agents i.e. spies.

7. Founding institutions, clubs and centres specialised in spreading

their poison, and spending generously upon them.

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Concluding Remarks Some Events Challenge it

Unclear how to distinguish civilizations

Globalization can lead to convergence and synthesis of cultures

Not all cultures aspire to imperial power

Overstates West’s decline

Exaggerates Islam’s militancy

Major conflicts within civilizations

Economic cooperation across civilizations

Lack of democratic institutions is real problem in Islamic world

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It is not a Clash of Civilization

It is Conflict of Interests: Economic, Political, Military

Conflict may be in the name of Culture

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Western universalism—that is, the view that all civilizations should adopt Western values—that infuriate Islamic fundamentalists.

The political party Hizb ut-Tahrir also reiterate Huntington's views in their published book, The Inevitability of Clash of Civilisation

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