The clash of civilizations

¶ … Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order written by Samuel P. Huntington is actually an expansion of his 1993 article entitled the Clash of Civilizations. The main aim of article was in fact to imagine a new post-Cold War world order. The new world order that Huntington puts forward in his article, and then book, is based on the thesis according to which "The most important distinctions among peoples are [no longer] ideological, political, or economic. They are cultural" (Huntington 1993: 21). This means that after the Cold War, societies were no longer divided according to ideological differences - such as the opposition between democracy and communism, for instance - but by cultural differences which will determine new patters of cohesion. Huntington argues that the fundamental source of conflict in the post-Cold War era - to which he refers as "the new world" - will not be primarily ideological of primarily economic, but cultural. Although the actors on the world affairs' stage will remain nation states, the main source of conflict in global politics will be a clash between groups of different civilizations which he entitles "the clash of civilizations."

The most important argument he puts forth that sustains his hypothesis of the clash of civilizations is in fact, a refusal of past paradigms which aimed at explaining the political world or predicting future events. Instead, Huntington argues in favor of a new paradigm, i.e. The paradigm of the clash of civilizations. The key to understanding this new paradigm resides in clarifying both the notion of "paradigm," as well as that of "civilization." The word "paradigm" defines a set of assumptions, or a pattern that is embraced by a certain part of an intellectual community, and aims at explaining a certain aspect of reality. This paper uses the concept of 'civilization' as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species (Huntington 1993: 24).

Huntington's paradigm is centered on the idea that the world needs to be looked upon from a different perspective: "We need a map that both portrays reality and simplifies reality in a way that best serves our purposes" (Huntington 1998: 31). Secondly, Huntington argues that it is important to understand today's world from the point-of-view of culture. He dismisses the division of the world based on types of economic or political systems, and argues in favor of a division based of culture and civilization. Huntington defines "civilization" in his 1993 essay "The Clash of Civilizations" as "a cultural entity" (Huntington 1993: 22), and "the broadest level of identification" of any individual (Ibid.) Thesis: This paper strives to provide a clear analysis of Huntington's "civilization paradigm" which was formulated as a new attempt to understand the post-Cold War order, and to provide a more coherent explanation of world order than the other paradigms were able to provide. Ultimately, this paper looks at the practical application of this paradigm in the case of current world politics.

Huntington's "clash of civilizations" is based upon a very clear distinction among the "major" cultures of the world. The "central defining characteristic" of a civilization is its religion (Huntington 1998: 47), hence, "the major civilizations in human history have been closely identified with the world's great religions" (Huntington 1998: 42). In this sense, he refers to eight "major civilizations": the Sinic - common to China and the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, Vietnam and Korea, the Japanese- which he characterizes as different from the rest of Asia, the Hindu culture, the Islamic that originated in the Arabian Peninsula, and spread across North Africa, Central Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula, the Orthodox which separates Eastern from Western Europe in terms of religion, the Western civilization encompassing Europe and North America, the Latin American civilization characterized by an overwhelming Catholic majority, and an authoritarian past, and finally, the African culture that he argues is still developing across the continent.

The relationships among these eight very distinct civilizations in the twentieth century are marked by the fact that the west no longer holds an unidirectional influence on the rest of the world. Huntington argues that "multidirectional interactions among all civilization" have developed (Huntington 1998: 53) in the sense that smaller and traditionally less important cultures now exert at least a certain degree of influence over the major western civilizations. The old division and power relations among cultures were determined by a slow communication due to lack of any kind of technology. Huntington argues that because civilizations were divided in terms of geographical location, and the spread of idea took centuries, it was not until navigation and geographical discovery that a rapid expansion of ideas, religion and values was possible.

Huntington identifies two contrasting views as to the decline of the influence of the West over the rest of the world. On one hand, there are the ones who argue in favor of a monopoly on technological research, economy, military capabilities and social development of the West. However, Huntington identifies an opposite point-of-view which he himself supports i.e. that the power and influence of the West are declining. His theory of the decline of the West is based upon three major assumptions. First of all, Huntington argues that the current Western decline is a very slow process and should be regarded as such in the sense that it does not pose a threat to World powers today. In order to understand the magnitude of this decline, it is important to look towards the future because its effects are not be to felt today. His second argument is that the decline of the West is not a linear process. Furthermore, this process of decline can be reversed, speeded up and paused at a certain time depending on the actions of the state in question. In this sense, his final argument is that the power of a state is controlled, and its effects determined, by the decisions adopted by its ruling class i.e. The decline of the state is a direct consequence of bad decision-making at home.

Religion is identified by Huntington as a key factor in understanding world politics as he argues that religion plays a very important part in world order. His view is that religion has been used to fill the vacuum which was generated by a loss of political ideology as people "need new sources of identity, new forms of stable community, and new sets of moral precepts to provide them with a sense of meaning and purpose" (Huntington 1998: 97). From this point-of-view, religion is able to fill this vacuum, and to provide people a sense of direction as well as a moral code. This is why, Huntington argues, all the major religions of the world "experienced new surges in commitment, relevance and practice by erstwhile casual believers" (Huntington 1998: 96). The fact that politics were replaced by religious belief was the result of increased communication among societies which led to a spread of culture and consequently, and increase in the role of religion in all societies.

As far as the role of economics on culture, and specifically, on the increase of the cultural importance of a nation state, Huntington refers to three cases namely Japan, "the Four Tigers" - Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore - and China. He argues that economic development has helped these countries exert a certain influence on the world stage, and that economic success has asserted their cultural relevance: "Asian societies are decreasingly responsive to United States demands and interests and increasingly able to resist pressure from the U.S. Or other Western countries" (Huntington 1998: 104). These countries' ability to modernize and diminish the gap between Asia and the West in terms of economic development has taken place without Asian countries having to adopt western values. Also, this supports Huntington's point-of-view that while the world is becoming more modernized, and technology is spreading across the globe, the world is becoming less and less Westernized. He notes that common culture is the main component working in favor of rapid expansion in this particular area. In this sense, culture has been the element which has aided relations between the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the overseas Chinese communities in other Asian countries (Huntington 1993: 42). In his 1993 article, Huntington argued that this common cultural language will eventually overcome ideological differences, and will generate a rapprochement between mainland China and Taiwan. Moreover, he argued that the main East Asian economic bloc of the future would be centered on China (Ibid.), a prediction which is slowly turning into reality today, 15 years after the publication of his article. An antagonistic relationship between China and America will be created due to the economic development and military power that the former benefits from. Huntington's prediction in his book is that this combination could result in a major conflict which would be intensified by alignments between Islamic and Sinic civilizations (Huntington 1998: 240).

The second case of cultural reaffirmation that Huntington discusses is that of Muslim societies which have followed a different path towards the reassertion of their cultural identity. In these societies, religion has been the main factor of cultural distinctiveness and influence. Huntington argues that religion is the main factor which distinguishes Muslim societies from the others, and that the resurgence of Islam "embodies the acceptance of modernity, rejection of Western culture, and the recommitment to Islam as the guide to life in the modern world" (Huntington 1998: 110). As far as the causes behind this resurgence, Huntington talks about the failure of state economies, the large and oftentimes rather young population of these countries, as well as the authoritarian political regimes of these nation states.

In light of these arguments, Huntington predicts great clashes will occur among civilizations. However he also identifies a possible cooperation between Islamic and Sinic cultures to work against the West, i.e. The common enemy. These two opposing camps as he identifies them, are based upon a set of three characteristics that separate the West from the rest of the world. The West has been able to maintain military superiority through the nonproliferation of emerging powers. Secondly, the West has been engaged in a constant process of promotion of its political values such as democracy, freedom, and human rights, values which are not shared by all civilizations. Last but not least, Huntington refers to the restriction of non-Western immigrants into Western societies. These three factors have determined a general feeling of hostility of non-Western countries towards the West as the latter has been accused of attempting to exercise cultural hegemony. As far as the ability of the West to maintain its power and influence, Huntington argues that "The preservation of the United States and the West requires the renewal of Western identity" (Huntington 1998: 318). The ability for the West to remain a global political power, it needs to adapt to increasing power and influence of different civilizations. This is a sine-qua-non condition for the West to preserve its status because in the absence of the ability to adapt, it will decline or simply clash with other powerful civilizations. According to Huntington, this clash of the West with another civilization is "the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order" (Huntington 1998: 321).

The conflict between Islam and the West is discussed from the point-of-view of a historical opposition between these two religions which has been exacerbated in late twentieth century by a set of factors. The growth of the Muslim population is key to understanding the spread of Islam. First of all, this growth in population also meant an increase in the percentage of young people who are easily recruited by fundamentalist organizations. Secondly, an increase in Muslim populations also generated an increase in the already large percentage of unemployment which made many Muslims easy prey for fundamentalists. Another important factor in the conflict between Islam and the West was the renewed sense of importance that the resurgence of Islam gave Muslims who developed a sense of the relevance of Islam compared to other religions, particularly Christianity. There is also the attitude of the West which needs to be evaluated in the context of the conflict. The West has constantly attempted to universalize its values and institutions which it has preached as being the right ones. This has given rise to a wave of resentment within Muslim communities that were also forced to acknowledge their inferiority in terms of state military capabilities. The First Gulf War was a conflict of Muslim origins in which the West intervened. "Islamic fundamentalist groups denounced [the war] as a war against 'Islam and its civilization' by an alliance of 'Crusaders and Zionists' and proclaimed their backing of Iraq in the face of 'military and economic aggression against its people" (Huntington 1998: 249). This was, in fact, interpreted by Muslims as aggression against Islam, and the war turned into a matter of Christianity vs. Islam.

The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power. The problem for Islam is not the CIA or the U.S. Department of Defense. It is the West, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the universality of their culture and believe that their superior, if declining, power imposes on them the obligation to extend that culture throughout the world" (Huntington 1998: 308). The First Gulf War was the first "civilization war" (Huntington 1998: 231). Huntington argues that the Afghan War was generated by the Afghans' self-image as the only civilization that was successful in its resistance towards the West. The war also "left behind an uneasy coalition of Islamic organizations intent on promoting Islam against all non-Muslim forces" (Huntington 1998: 247). In fact, the war also produced a generation of fighters which saw the West as their main enemy, and who was more than ready to die in its attempt to 'annihilate' all that is evil in the world, i.e. The West. This argument can be discusses from the perspective of recent events in the world, more precisely the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the American-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Popular perception of Islam has been shaped by terrorist attacks, which are second only to oil in terms of the main exports of the Arab world. Kidnappings, bombings, car bombs etc. are the result of feeling threatened and a response to what terrorist groups consider the Western conspiracy against Islam (Kamrava: 214). Nevertheless, there is a deeper psychological explanation of this hostility towards the West, one which has been speculated by political elites in search for popular support for their foreign policies, i.e. using these insecurities to their advantage thus emphasizing and making them sound more dangerous and more imminent. A state's political life is determined by its political culture. In the case of the Middle East, there are four coordinates which largely apply to most Muslim countries. These four factors which shape political life are Islam, the cult of personality, nationalism, and the Palestinian issue. These intertwine and create a unique mixture which explains political culture in each Arab country. (Kamrava: 216). The negative input of political elites as far as the resentment towards the West adds to the pre-existing feeling of hatred generated by the affluence of material goods and information that the West benefits from as opposed to the Muslim world.

Reaching a conclusion as far as the diffusion and appeal of terrorism in the Middle East is a very tricky matter which requires the capacity to consider a multitude of aspects. Understanding the political and social context of this region is perhaps the key to understanding its apparent violent streak. Scarce access to education and information, very low living standards despite immense richness consisting of incredible oil resources, corrupt and malfunctioning political elites - all these have contributed to the status-quo by encouraging terrorist groups to recruit new members, and people to join. In the Muslim world, despair and religious extremism go hand in hand. To a great extent, these people's hope and ideals lie in the Koran. The major issue here is that the Koran is wrongly interpreted as to increase the appeal of terrorism which is presented as the only way to redemption; in exchange for their lives, terrorists are made to believe they are complying with the Prophet's commandments and finding their way back to pure Islam as prophesied by Muhammad himself.