The Clash of Civilizations
Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations suggests that world politics is entering a new phase. It is his hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in the New World will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. Huntington believes that the great divisions amongst humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be in the cultural form. Nation states will still remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. Huntington states: "The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future". Huntington suggests that the old groupings of the Cold War are no longer relevant (First, Second and Third Worlds). He proposes a new grouping of countries, not in terms of their political or economic systems or in terms of their level of economic development but rather in terms of their culture and civilization.Huntington defines civilizations as a "cultural entity". Villages, regions, ethnic groups, nationalities, and religious groups, all with distinct cultures at different levels of cultural diversity. A civiliz
Economic interdependence fosters peace only "when states expect that high trade levels will continue into the foreseeable future. Kemalism, which is the embrace of both concepts, is based on the assumptions that modernization is desirable and necessary, that the indigenous culture is incompatible with modernization and must be abandoned or abolished. In much of the world religion has moved to fill this gap, often in the form of movements that are labeled "fundamentalist". A general anti-Western coalition, however, seems unlikely in the immediate future. The central issue for the West is whether, quite apart from any external challenges, it is capable of stopping and reversing the internal processes of decay. Cultural communities are replacing Cold War blocs, and the fault lines between civilizations are becoming the central lines of conflict in global politics. Third, identity at any level-personal, tribal, racial, or civilization can only be defined in relation to an "other" as opposed to the "like us". Yet in politics a common enemy creates a common interest. Following Huntington identifies Western civilization and concludes that it does not represent modern civilization since the West was the West long before it was actually modern. An image of universal and uniform anarchy provides few clues for understanding the world. Huntington presumes a West at the peak of its power confronting non-Wests that increasingly have the desire, the will and the resources to shape the world in non-Western ways. However this decline, he describes, is not so simple. With respects to the fighting in the former Yugoslavia, Western publics manifested sympathy and support for the Bosnian Muslims and the horrors they suffered at the hands of the Serbs.
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Murray Weidenbaum,
Clash Civilizations,
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Gilles Kepel,
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